mixing polyurethan with stain/color?

Julio Navarro

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Tampa
I have soft maple cabinet doors that I only want to polyurethane no stain but I want to add a slight reddish or pink tint.

I plan on spraying the poly finish.

Poly alone gives the maple a yellowish tint.

Can polyurethane be tinted?

Is lacquer better than poly? Can Lacquer be tinted? The doors are for a kitchen.
 
you can tint lacquer all you want.. as for which is better. my choice is lacquer,, some prefer poly.. i havnt tinted poly but i belive you can for the reason that it used to come in shades of color, called poly shades.. by minwax..
 
Two other choices are to spray a sanding sealer with the color you want, or spray color between coats. I prefer the sanding sealer approach because I find it gives a more even color.

But I have not tried tinting poly. I assume you can just mix color into it. One disadvantage is that the more you spray (more coats) the darker and more opaque the finish will be.

Mike
 
That makes sense Mike. I am going to try your suggestion of coloring the sealer then spray a lacquer as Larry suggested.

What stains are recommended?
 
Ditto on Mike's approach. I use SealCoat (dewaxed shellac) as a sealer/barrier. If I want to add color to a project, I'll mix TransTint Dye to it to get the desired color. For toning specific areas (shading, etc.) I mix TT with DA only and spray it, then put a light coat of SealCoat over it.
 
i also tone the sealer julio, like mike and bill said but your question was onpoly and so that was why i didnt mention that approach.. you can also put down the sealer two coat first sand flat and then put color over it and stop when you reach the shade you want.. i saw dave hawksford do that many times and once he had a major run and wiped the color off and redone it with lacquer thinnner..i was amazed that he could wash of the color and start over so easily
 
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