Finish before glue?

[Jeremy Polk]

I am in the process of building a small table and I have a technical question. First let me tell you about the table. The plan was featured in the latest issue of Wood Magazine Basic Built Section. It calls for pocket hole joinery to assemble each of two sides. Then you glue 3 small plywood panels together to make a box, then glue the box in between the two sides, add a top and walla ... a table ( or more of a stand ).

My question is can I stain the two sides and the box before I glue them all together. I know that glue will not work well if I poly the parts, but what if I stain them, assemble, then poly? Once assemled, that stand looks like it might be hard to stain, and wipe, and keep everything even. Will the stain keep the glue from bonding the two parts? The stand is made from maple by the way.

Any thoughts?

[John Schreiber]

Finishing before assembly is much easier. For most designs, you can mask off (blue painters tape) whatever surface will be glued, then do the staining and finishing.

[Paul Ryan]

Jermey,

I am not an expert but last weekedn I did just that. I stained a mission style bed before I put it together. All the slats running up and down, and the noks and crannies. I stained everthing 1st because it was easier, and 2nd because I new there might be glue squeeze out that I wouldn't be able to get at. I used tite bond III so when dried it matched the color of the wood closely. Everything worked out great, I will do it again on the matching bed when that gets done.

[keith ouellette]

The frame and panel doors I have made all got stained before glue up. I was careful not to get stain on the areas that receive glue but also make sure all the parts to be stained get stained completely.

The extra benefit you receive from staining first is not having to stain over glue squeeze out. It sounds like you will have some in areas that are hard to clean up. A thin coat of glue wiped off on a stained piece of wood won't show up under the poly but the glue will show up very clearly if it is under the glue.

[John Thompson]

I do it on almost every project and have for years. Blue painters tape to mask off joints and any area that will take glue as mentioned is the key. I have a computer desk-hutch working right now that has over 120 board feet in it and the majority of components were stained and finish applied before asssembling.

If you have a large carcass... the slow-down is the tape-off but... you get much quicker the more you do it like anything else.

Sarge..

[John Michaels]

I like to prefinish also. I build mostly tables for fine woodworking galleries and the finish has to be perfect. Trying to sand between coats after something is glued together is tough. Getting into the corners is a major pain.

[Darius Ferlas]

I pre-finish before gluing, even if it's just one coat. I learned the hard way.

[William M Johnson]

Just for clarification: All of you guys that finish before glue up, do you stain the glue surface or mask it