[Steve Neul]

I never have been able to apply a finish with a foam brush that it didn't make bubbles. I don't try anymore, I use a soft bristle paint brush when working poly by hand. It's hard to say how many coats to apply. Some people put enough on in one coat where others brush it on really thin. The objective with any film coating is to apply the finish about 3 mils thick (about the thickness of a lawn and leaf trash bag). It is equally important to allow enough drying time between coats. If the weather is cool where you are it may take many times the suggested drying time on the instructions. When you sand the finish between coats if the finish tends to gum up on the sandpaper it isn't near dry enough to recoat.

 

[Steve Neul]

Thanks for all the replies. I have thinned the poly about 50/50 before and wiped on with good results and I will do that for my final coat. My basement is a little cool right now so I am going to wait awhile before applying any more finish. So if I where to use fillers on pours woods (oak) that I wanted to stain would mixing an oil based paste filler with an oil based stain give me good results?

No you should use the grain filler first and then stain. If you mixed it with the stain it would thin it too much. Think of grain filler like thin wood putty. You apply it, let it thicken to a paste and then squeegee with a piece of plastic like a credit card or rub it into the grain in a circular motion. You should stain a piece of scrap wood to get a idea of the color. The open grain will be darker than the wood between. The grain filler should be as close to the dark grain as possible. You can alter the color of a grain filler with a universal tinting color. It's the colorant the paint companies have in their machines to color paint. Some real paint stores carry the colorant in bottles and some paint stores will sell you a few ounces at a time in empty containers out of their machines. Once the wood is grained filled and dry lightly sand the residue left on the surface so the wood will stain uniform.