Quote Originally Posted by Tgraham View Post
... Use SM clear filler on the top prior to staining this seemed to go ok, it took the water based stain ok not as well as just the wood without filler, allowed several hours for stain to dry then applied a coat of poly hmmm not impressed the poly was still tacky in places after 12 hours, put it in the morning sun which helped a lot to the point where I was able to successfully sand it...
How is it now? Did the poly completely harden? I can't remember if you mentioned which poly you're using? It occurred to me that you might want a protective "cap" between your stain and your poly, or between your filler and your stain, or both.

If I used a water based product over another water based product, I will generally put a cap of platina (a.k.a. ultra-blonde) shellac between them. It's almost as clear as a water based poly, it will stick to almost anything and almost anything will stick to it. It's also cheap and dries fast. Since I wipe or brush on everything but solid color paint, I end up using it a lot to keep water in top coats from activating the water in under coats. Although I don't tend to use oil based finishes, lots of people use platina shellac to guard against compatibility issues between products. Just a thought...