Recently did a test print with Creality Pla-wood. The smell during the print is amazing, I’m kind of hooked. I printed something flat, was easy to sand and stain looks incredible, 100% looks like wood. It’s been 48h and no matter how much I wipe the thing it’s still tacky / leaves a little residue on my hands. Do I just need to wait longer? Is this normal? Is it OK to clearcoat before absolutely bone dry / residue free?
What about sanding more complex structures? Do I need to get a sand blaster for this? Is there a dremel brush I could use?
I think that might be your issue. Gel stain from minwax should be wiped off after 3 minutes. Anything longer can cause the issue you are experiencing. I would try to wipe/sand off the finish and start again. On a side note, we need to do that to our banister/railing in this house. The previous owner of the house apparently liked the THICK look of the gel stain.
For what it’s worth, I’m not using gel, just standard Minwax stain
Oh dang, I misread another comment you made. With regular stain the longer you leave on usually the darker it just makes it appear. But as long as you fully wiped off the excess after it should have worked out. That said I’ve only used stain on actual wood. Haven’t tried printing wood PLA yet.