Did you CLEAN then first?

Besides cleaning, did you sand it? Did you stain over old stain or fresh wood? Did you wipe off the stain after 10 minutes or so?

I just did a surface clean with mild soap only before staining over the old stain. I kind of got what you two were suggesting now!!!! oops! what do I do at this point? please

What wood stain product did you use?

I think you are going to have to figure out how to remove the wood stain.

Oh, my, strip!!!!!! I used Minwaxfood finish

Lack of cleanliness - the stain is meant to be used on bare wood (raw or sanded, but BARE).

"Surface cleaning with mild soap" ... especially bad if you used any oily soap, like Murphy's, or didn't rinse thoroughly with clean water. And then scrub with a solvent to get rid of the soap residue and any oily grunge.

The cleanup for Minwax's oil-based stain is mineral spirits, so you might be able to scrub the cabinets down thoroughly with mineral spirits and steel wool and remove the sticky stain crud.

The best product for refreshing cabinets is General Finishes gel stain. If you have scrubbed with soap, and then with mineral spirits and steel wool - so the doors are dry and clean feeling, not sticky - you can wipe a refresher coat of it onto doors and frames. You can go darker or redder, not lighter.

How to Gel Stain Cabinets · More Info

very helpful, lazy_gardens. bunch thanks

It's usually best to clean with a TSP kind of product before refinishing a wood substrate and then testing the surface to find out what you're dealing with first. If you're not sure call around and ask for advice or pay a few dollars for a consultation fee, if you think you can handle it yourself, In other words don't ask for a "Free Estimate" from a professional thinking you will be told how to do it. The pros don't work that way. Many "Chem" cleaners can make a problem worse if you're not familiar with the process and to be honest at this point I would strip the surface to a clean substrate and start over. Note; Lacquer is an unstable product with a"High Flash Point" and can also be absorbed through your skin and very flammable. The fumes are intense and could leave you with damage to your lungs without the proper precautions taken. Acetone will do the same thing but without the fumes, however there are still certain precautions that you need to know before playing around with this stuff. Even strippers precautions need to be followed. Do yourself a favor and hire a professional for this kind of job as most times it will cost less than half to half of buying new cabinets as the pro already has the knowledge and the equipment to do this kind of work and save you peace of mind. I have been in the refinishing business for nearly forty years and have completed hundreds of cabinets/ furniture pieces. How many jobs has a DIY done?

Good advice, Art-Faux Designs. Thank you for all the info and the link

I have to disagree that staining over a surface that wasn't cleaned properly is the problem here. He used soap of some kind...that' better than nothing. Even if you stained directly over dirt, how would this keep the stain from drying completely? Dirt isn't going to impede proper drying. It may impede proper adhesion. That stain may peel off eventually because the surface was not prepared properly, but the stain should still dry. I'm not saying I know why the stain didn't dry properly, because I don't. I'm just saying it's not because the surface wasn't cleaned.

Exactly why I suggested using TSP first to remove wax build up and other contaminants. Then stripping the wood and bleaching it if you want a lighter color. Been doing this for forty years and even learned it as only one of many techniques from my grandfather. Quick, simple and no guessing. Throw all that garbage away that you buy from the big box stores, it's all junk

hm...paintguy, that makes sense too. will check again tomorrow, that's another week after the last. See if it dries