Shake or stir well your cover stain.

christophern,

Thank you. I did stir very well. I know I'm missing something.

Is it an oil primer? Could be that the room is below the optimal drying temperature. If it's tinted oil primer, well, there;s the problem. It may take a week to harden as the tint really slows the dry time.
I don't think the stripper you used is impeding, because you say you sanded it. If when you sanded it it felt like you were sanding putty, maybe there's cause for alarm. If there was stripping chemical left in the wood, or some rinsing step was skipped, there's the chance the primer cannot dry.
Casey

Thank you for your replies. I was inside my home, temp around 69 - 70 degrees. Cover Stain is an oil primer and it is tinted. When I sanded after applying the stripper it appeared as though the varnish was off and sanded well. The wood still felt "shiney" but it appeared that the gloss was removed.

I attempted to sand the primer after realizing it had not dried and it came off gooey and stuck to the sand paper. I was able to remove the majority of it. I want to try again, but really want to get it right this time.

I've used this primer many times and found that, despite being an oil primer, it dries quickly. I, too, was priming dark oak cabinets.

Just one question, did you thoroughly wash your kitchen cabinets before priming? (I assume it's the kitchen cabinets that you're painting.) Paint doesn't stick to grease.

If your cabinets are squeaky clean and free of grease then I'd wonder whether you have a bum can of paint, perhaps one lacking adequate drier.

How long have you had this primer and where did you buy it? If it's old, perhaps that could be the problem? Possibly someone else could offer some suggestions here.

As far as using a paint remover, that's really not necessary. Just make sure your cabinets are clean and just scuff sand them to rough up the finish. When I washed my cabinets, I used a Scotchbrite sponge, and the scratchy surface actually did a good job of preparing the surface and only a light sanding was needed after that.

This is not a fun job, but the end result will be well worth it.

I just noticed I was replying to a very, very old post, but figured I'd leave it in case anyone is still reading.

I had a bad experience with this zinsser oil based interior/exterior cover stain as well. I did not tint but it is tintable. I used it right after buying from depot and having it shaken for 5 min at the counter. I applied on an outside beam that was partially prepped with a wood hardener after removing dry rot, but the majority was just the previous paint that was in good shape. 2 days after painting, it's still slightly tacky. I called zinsser support and they said the only thing they could think of is if I had been applied on too hot of a day, saying it needs to be under 80F. It was topped out at just under 70 the day I painted, but the sun here does get hot in the South Bay below San Francisco, so maybe the surface was hotter?? I'll check today compared to air temp. If temperature wasn't the cause, then my experience seems similar to yours. In my case it would be a huge job to remove the product from the large outdoor beam so I'm looking for other solutions. I still need to add an epoxy pc woodie filler where I had removed and cleaned out dry rot before applying the cover stain (just used to make sure the pc woodie epoxy would stick and add an extra layer of protection against the weather to the entire beam...which I now wish I had skipped!) My current plan is to wait it out a week or 2 and hopefully dries (next week is supposed to be low 70's but the rest of this week is 80's. In the upper 80's the 2nd layer is even forming a few bubbles, so I've just been popping those to make sure it dries out beneath. It's only slightly tacky, but looking for no tackiness before I take the next step. If anyone has any tips or any idea if waiting longer will help, let me know please. Thanks! And for the next time, a better product to use than this zinsser oil based primer which was highly recommended by depot.