Hmmm, stain didnt turn out like I want...

I started putting the stain on the fish tank stand i made and it doesnt look quite right. Its all poplar with a few small walnut plywood pieces. We used the minwax cherry stain to help darken the poplar and give it a nice red tint to it. We used a prestain conditioner since its a soft wood. But it came out very splotchy with some of it staining very dark and some of it very light(even on the same board). we have tried to touch up the lighter parts but its not helping at all. Im i pretty much out of luck to fix this? I think its stained to deep to resand the entire thing.

Please help!

/I know poplar isnt isnt the greatest wood to stain, but i thought it would turn out better than this.

Poplar "stains" just fine in my experience, particularly with dyes and I've never used a preconditioner on it as I would on a softwood such as pine or fir. It is likely that the problem is with the particular stain you used. Minwax stain is an oil bourne pigment stain with a little dye added and the pigments can collect in different proportions as the grain density changes across and along the board. Since you used the pre-stain conditioner, you may be able to disolve and wipe off some of your stain with mineral spirits...give it a try on the back.

I was kind of thinking along the lines of what Jim was saying. Try the mineral spirits on a rag. Wipe it on and let it sit for a little bit and see if any of it wipes off. If that doesn't work, maybe consider trying a gel stain. Maybe that will be a little more even in the end.

Good luck.

John