Painting and staining advice needed

[myxpykalix]

I am making a picture frame for a large picture 5'x2' x4" wide sides, top bottom.

I am going to V carve the words SEMPER FIDELIS along the bottom rail. I want to paint the letters in gold and then stain the rest. I am using poplar. My hands shake so i can't handpaint. I wanted to mask a section, spray with gold paint, sand excess off, then stain the rest.

Everytime i have tried this in the past i get lousy results. Can someone give me some pointers on how to accomplish this?
What steps to do first, second, ect
What specific wood treatments, paints, stains to use? I seem to get alot of paint absorbtion on the wood surrounding the v carved letters.

What about a 50/50 mix of titebond2/water (Joes Snakeoil) over area to be vcarved, then vcarve,paint, sand snakeoil off, then stain?:confused:

[Brian Harnett]

I use water base poly to seal v carvings dries quick and seals and sands off easy I used to use shellac thats works well too.

[dmidkiff]

Jack, You might try to apply mask then shellac ( or your choice) then carve, make sure edges are stuck, then shellac then paint. Some have found that the shellac before carving helps hold the mask in place.

[cowboy1296]

Good luck with that and am looking forward to seeing the finished product. My few experiences with poplar which makes me an expert on the subject, I have not had good luck with staining poplar. But if it works for you i will be interested in knowing how you did it.

[joe]

Cowboy,

I thought Poplar was used in cabinetry all the time. Perhaps not. My only experience was watching a next door cabinet shop. Their reasoning was it could be purchased in long runs, good grain and few knots. I do know they used a sealer, pre treatment, before applying a wiping stain. I believe it was Zar.

One thing I know for sure it's not good outdoors.

[Brian Harnett]

The stain blotching that sometimes happens with poplar and softer hardwoods like basswood can be controlled by wiping the wood down with a pre treat of thinned out boiled linseed oil, it helps stop the more porous areas from sucking up too much stain. I add about 20 percent paint thinner to the oil.

[cowboy1296]

Now you tell me. My experience is limited, but as i recall taking stain poplar did not turn out so well for me, but perhaps i was doing it wrong.

[bleeth]

When 3-d cut poplar will often get pretty fuzzy. You might want to select maple instead or do a complete pass, seal it, and then do another very slightly deeper pass.

[myxpykalix]

NOW YOU TELL ME! It's all done!...lol Actually i didn't have any problem with the fuzzies. I think because on my last pass I didn't get a deep enough cut on parts of a couple letters (Times New Roman at the top of S and E) that i bumped it down a couple thousandth's and reran the toolpath to fix that and did exactly what you suggested. I had conditioned the wood first, then a coat of stain, then 2-3 coats of shellac and it seemed to look pretty good. But normally i don't get much fuzzies when i cut poplar other then strands that hang on to the edge of a cut and then 2-3 swipes with a piece of sandpaper knocks them off Thanks