Bob, I notice you plan to use pine and stain it if I understand your question. If it is yellow pine, be sure to test your stain on sample boards before committing your expensive bed wood to the process. Yellow pine just does not receive stain very well and it is hard to get it to look uniform. The darker grain is very hard and the wood between grain lines is very soft and absorbs stain like a sponge. When you try to wipe it off, it is real hard to make it uniform, and even when coated with varnish, the stain may not be satisfactory. A good exterior polyurethane like Helmsman without stain will give a nice amber color to the wood and many people prefer that to using stains on yellow pine. When you stain yellow pine, it just looks like stained yellow pine. We suggest that you have your wood supplier furnish some extra short pieces of the same wood so you can test your finish process.
If you have not seen our test,
http://www.mar-k.com/wood_finish_testing_ii.html here is a link that you might find interesting. I just checked the test boards, and the black painted boards still look great with no failure and every other coating is totally failed. This is after nearly 4 years in the weather 24/7.
Mar-Ktech
