Painting Raster or Centerline text

[CustomWestCoast]

Need a little help or advise on painting text. I am trying to paint text carved into picture frames.
I am using 3/4 Red Oak for the wood. For stain I am using MinWax water based stain. I tried to paint the text, sand off the excess paint and then seal it with MinWax spar urethane (which I believe is water base). I let the urethan dry and then sanded off the excess. I then tried to stain the frame with the water base stain. It seems as though some of the stain stuck to the painted text.
Am I doing something wrong? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Kurtsara]

You have to use sanding sealer first and then paint the letters

[Digitalwoodshop]

If I understand your problem is after painting the letters you have a problem with the wood stain in the letters?

I have been doing similar with good results once I learned a trick....

I paint my Centerline Text with Latex paint and keep brushing it out after application, not concerned about the surface. Sometimes I pre seal the letter area with Sanding Sealer but I found a problem doing this when I went back and stained the area with Min Wax. The Sealed areas around the letters would not stain as deep as the surrounding areas. I ended up really sanding the area around the letters to get deeper than the sanding sealer had been. This sometimes erased my letters..... Bummer..... To fix later boards I would stain everything then go back and pat or bloch on stain on the areas that were lighter like applying mackup. Then letting it dry. But I no longer use Sanding Sealer, just use Laytex.

I had found that using thin spray paint that it soaked into the end grain of the cut out letters and caused blotchy looking letters. I did find that the brushed in Latex did not soak in as bad and my results were better.

SO my procedure now is.....

Cut the letters in the machine. Use BOLD and V90 in Designer but at the machine use a V60 bit for deeper letters that are smaller.

Surface Sand the top of the board to remove any stray wood splinters from the letters.

Paint with Latex painting the letters. Let dry 12 hours.

Surface sand the area exposing the painted letters.

Using a Air Hose and eye protection and a respirator blow the junk out of the letters.

Apply the stain to the whole board and just prior to the final wipe down using the air hose blow out the stain from the letters. A VERY MESSY thing to do AND not Environmentally Friendly as you are making the stain airborne. (Note to self..... Move the Wife's Car UP WIND....) A GOOD RESPIRATOR and eye protection are VERY important or you will coat your lungs with some very NASTY Sticky stuff....

Final wipe down and let dry.

Apply wipe on poly to all surfaces and with the air gun blow the poly out of the letters. Protect the Lungs.... This stuff is EXTRA STICKY.....

That's my trick..... I have been using Oak stain but tried it with Walnut with good results. You will see some difference with some stain sticking to the letters but I can live with that.

I put my Stain and Poly in disposable spray bottles and what a difference for the wipe on process. Less LOSS from drying and contamination. The Poly will eventually plug the sprayer but they are a lot cheaper than stain and poly.

Good Luck,

AL