Sealing a stained TV Cabinet?

[Bart70]

I am part way through converting a large'ish TV cabinet into 2 enclosures and am looking for advice from others in terms of sealing from others who have walked this path prior.....

The cabinet is of particle board construction, with some solid pine in places. The particle board is laminated in some way with a woodgrain pattern laminate that has been stained - It is not like a melamine laminate - it has been stained over to get its colour. Looks like it may either be a very thin timber laminate, or a paper porous paper laminate that has taken the stain finish.

To build this enclosure I have had to add some additional pieces of timber here and there (pine) and as such these will need staining with something that closely matches the rest of the cabinet.

What I am looking for is advice on how I should go about sealing the inside of this enclosure?

Should I stain the (new) raw timber, then coat it all (including the existing stained surfaces) with an estapol?

What would be the best way to go about sealing this enclosure given it is two thirds stained already?

 

[J-A-X]

Put your extra timber in then Stain the un-stained then seal everything you can find with a waterbased polyeurethane - cabots do one - less fumes easy clean up

 

[Bart70]

Ahh...Yes!

Thanks Jax! I remember seeing a Cabot's waterbased urethane finish when I was looking for products to use on another project some time ago.

From memory it will give me the 'gloss' or 'semi-gloss' finish over the stained raw timber....which means I can just use a plain stain instead of a stain/varnish type of product - again reducing fumes.

Thanks again!

 

[J-A-X]

Stain & varnish = Shudder.
I've never achieved a streak less finish with that stuff and it goes tacky really quickly which is a pain when doing large areas!
Straight stain will suffice