Need some advice from the brain-trust...

I am working on a white oak dining room hutch that I built for a customer. My planned finish schedule was as follows:

1) Stain with Old Masters Oil based wiping stain.

2) Wait three days

3) 1 ct Zinser Seal Coat

4) 2 cts Lenmar WB Conversion Varnish

I did a test panel and didn't notice any problems but I should have inspected it closer. After doing the first coat of CV on the cabinet interior, I'm noticing very fine crazing after it dried. I haven't sprayed any more-visible parts of the hutch yet with CV, they all have just the stain and the sealcoat. I'm wondering if perhaps I did the sealcoat a bit too thick?

Anyway , looking for suggestions for how to move forward from this point. I did a test piece with a solvent pre-cat lacquer over the sealcoat and it seemed to work well... no crazing issues. Wondering what people think about going with pre-cat over the Sealcoat and if so , is a vinyl sealer necessary.

Thanks very much

Too late to say this but stay within a system. Oil base stain and water based coatings aren't a system. Old world slow drying oil stains and modern fast drying coatings usually don't mix well.

I would wait even longer for the stain to dry, as long as you possible can. Then a vinyl sealer and from the same brand topcoat.

Also watch your wet film thickness.

Yes
What Leo said

When using CV use the same brand system that is designed to work with
A vinyl sealer is what I would use

it's the shellac under the WB. i've had this exact issue. if the shellac is too thick, the WB will craze it while coalescing. others told me it was the oil-based stain under the shellac, but, with testing, and talking to a few chemists, i figured out it was the shellac. i now use seal-a-cell under the WB instead of shellac, with terrific results.

Thanks for responses.

I think it was the shellac that caused the crazing in this case since I did put it on a bit thicker than normal and have used this combination in the past without the same issue when the seal coat was thinner.

David, I appreciate the tip. How long does the Seal a Cell usually take to dry before you can do the WB on top? 3 days? What WB product do you use over it?

Thanks

i do a light coat of seal-a-cell, and let it dry, with strong direct air movement, for 24 hours or so. you can scuff it with a red or gray pad afterwards if you want, more adhesion can't hurt, but in my testing, the waterborne sticks like mad with no issues.

i'm shooting sayerlack with great results. honestly, the seal-a-cell under sayerlack "formula" has been a lifesaver for me on jobs where i want the oil pop, but also want the acrylic topcoat. the only place i find it doesn't work well is on oak due to the open grain. i haven't found a waterborne that does an acceptable job with bridging a highly open-grained wood.