The guy at Lowe's suggested I use a low nap mohair roller....boy was he wrong. After applying the first coat I hurried as fast as I could to try and undo the bubbly mess the roller made with a brush. I smoothed it out and scraped off as much excess poly as I could.
It turned out better than I expected but still the coat was too thick.
How can I fix this? Will over sanding the poly mess up anything for further coats?

I am using Minwax fast drying satin.

Please help!

They sure look good from 2' and camera shots though. :D... but that wont do , I need close inspection good looks to some degree.

More advanced techniques involve wet sanding with superfine grits and then buffing with different grits of rubbing/polishing compounds.

What kind of pads should I buy? I am unable to spray because I dont have the equipment, is there another way of doing it?

I am going to have some serious sanding to do to get back to where I was, I wonder if it would be ok to use a radom orbit sander for this first sanding?

I am not ready for anything more advanced than what you mentioned above.

As far as the finish I am trying to achieve goes..I just want a smooth and clear satin finish that will last for many years.

I then purchases some wipe on poly and a can of naptha as per suggested by another guy on the interenet.

I went ahead and hand sanded the first nasty heavy coat of poly until the finish was smooth again just to be safe. Considering I have sanded this veneer so much already I was not going to risk having an orbital make matters unrepairable.

Anyhow it was not all that bad after all, 3 coats of wipe on poly did the trick, naptha really helped with keeping the surface clean between coats...I also lightly sanded after 1 and 2.

Last but certainly not least and why I am posting here is because you are the one who recommended the final coat of a spray on...ohhh man! That did the trick!!!!!
I sprayed 3 very light coats from 12" and fairly quick sprays with the canned minwax satin poly and the finish is truly beautiful and complete!
It really set it off nicely, now the finish looks like I want it, sort of a natural satiny matte finish with just a slight texture to it.
Heck I even think that first coat with a roller actually helped because it coated everything so thickly , all I had to do was knock it down.

Well its not perfect but neither is the veneer job but I am quite happy with the results considering this is my first successful veneer job and I have never finished raw wood before.

This is about my 20th speaker project ...its about time I learned how to use veneer and polyurathane. :-) I am sick of formica!

Anyhow next time I think I'll stay away from the poly and try a natural oil finish!

Thanks for the help!

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