Newbie with varnish/stain odor question

My dear husband built me the cabinet/bin I'd wanted for the kitchen.
However.... the smell of wood stain (inside the bin) will not go away.
It's been in the house and completely dry for a couple of months, and I
still can't put anything in it that will absorb the odors (like crackers,
cereal, etc.) as they then taste like the smell. (I learned the hard way.)

I've tried:

baking soda--several boxes
activated charcoal--several boxes
open vinegar containers--several tubs
paper towels soaked in vanilla

And just in case it was caused by unvarnished stain, I got some spray
shellac and re-coated the inside of the cabinet. (This helped quite a bit,
but not enough.)

Right now I've got a brand new 3 1b can of coffee coating the 'floor' of
said cabinet as someone told me that coffee grounds would remove odors in
old wood. It was probably a waste of perfectly good coffee, and I'm glad I
have a strong shop-vac.

Each of the 'deodorizers' I've used has been given a fairly long trial--at
least a couple of weeks, except for the vanilla because that didn't seem to
work *at all*.

The cabinet is not built in, so I can remove it without too much trouble if
sunlight is actually a viable suggestion, but it's awkward, so I don't want
to do that unless there is reasonable assurance that will really work.
(However, I'm ready to try anything, so I'll give even that a shot if no one
has an easier solution.)

Marilee, ready to try just about anything!

If responding by e-mail, use marilee_ann@hotmail.com

On Thu, 17 Jul 2003 13:07:04 -0500, "Marilee" <marilee@hotmail.com>
wrote:

>My dear husband built me the cabinet/bin I'd wanted for the kitchen.
>However.... the smell of wood stain (inside the bin) will not go away.

<snip>

Well, Phish designs and constructs fine furniture and woodenware.
Leave your cabinet in an unused space in your home with the doors open
and pull out the drawers if you have them. You could put it in the
sun to speed things up, but I don't advise this method-- some types of
wood can swell, split, wane, bow and/or discolor in sunlight. Most
quality finishes require patience. A finish may take a few months to
fully cure and harden, then there should be very little or no odor.
After the slow cure, apply Johnson's paste wax to all surfaces and
buff. Unless the finish was bad, the odor will go away on its own.