Painted Kitchen Cabinet Doors

Paint + Fuji

Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey

Use the viscosity cup that came with your rig. You may need to thin a bit to get to the 20-25 second drain time. This is important for proper atomization. See my write-up on HVLP sprayers in the Articles Section over on the left.

Re: Painted Kitchen Cabinet Doors

David Yoho

I've tried spraying paint with my Fuji Q3 and found I had to thin it quite a bit.

Re: Painted Kitchen Cabinet Doors

Dick Coers

No idea about the Fuji. But if you haven't painted, a couple of suggestions. Spray a coat on the plywood panel before assembly. No line will show up next winter when frame shrinks. The face joints on the door frame is always susceptible to paint cracking, I don't have a perfect solution. Break the edges of door heavier than usual. Paint won't build on a sharp edge, it has a tendency to flow away from it. Primer chose is critical, as well as preparation. Nothing shows poor sanding technique like painted panels with lots of windows and light coming in. Don't assume the plywood is sanded well. Sand it like the hardwood! Hope you have a good SW dealer for support.

Re: Painted Kitchen Cabinet Doors

Barry Irby

A young friend of mine just built a vanity with shaker style doors and painted it with Sherwin Williams products. He got into their commercial line and found some stuff with names like Kem Che. (Just kidding.) I will ask him what he used. Looked good.

I agree with Dick on Painting the panels and breaking the edges. This may also be the reason the commercial doors have a little Vee groove at the joints.

The last on I did I painted it with Kilz and then clear coated it. Used the Original Kilz Because my painter buddy told me "if it don't stink it don't work".

Re: Painted Kitchen Cabinet Doors

Jack Lane

Hi Howie,

I've sprayed lots of SW paint with a Fuji Q4. It's a trial and error process to get the paint to flow out nicely but those guns will do the job. Consider using Flotrol. It really helps the paint level. Keep in mind it will change color slightly. Also, the folks at Fuji have always been very helpful with advice when I've had trouble getting high solids finishes through the gun.

I've always preferred to spray flat and one door at a time vs in batches. Always had too much overspray in batches. I've included pics of my low-tech lazy Susan. Just built a new one so it's not covered with paint yet. Just a 1/2" in a 1" pipe with pipe flanges to attach. I usually sharpen the dowels with a pencil sharpener but didn't bother with this one. When the door/drawer front is shorter than the bed of dowels I lay a rag over the exposed dowels to keep dry and paint off the back of next door. I use a 50 door Hafele drying rack to handle the doors.

Spray the backs first! :-)the

Happy finishing!

Jack

putty sticks...

david weaver

in my formative years, long before I took up woodworking, I worked at aristokraft. At the time, thermofoil was fashionable, but customers wanted painted doors (i thought the thermofoil looked cheap and the MDF doors were ungodly heavy, but they were great sellers).

Each of us had a stick for the frames and doors once they were painted to fill gaps. in my opinion, one should've been included with the cabinets.

While we all like to think we can beat nature, or do such good work that we've factored it out, I think those non-hardening putty sticks are a lot more pragmatic in commodity goods like kitchen cabinets. Scribble them in the joint, wipe the area with a rag and go on with life.

I'd like to hear how it works out...

david weaver

I bought some tinted lacquer (not lacquer, but target WB, actually) last go around and have painted and then clear coated some things the mrs wanted painted (due to surface durability, as you say).

When I worked in a cabinet factory, we had issues with white paint yellowing a little bit over time, so touch up wasn't really a good option on anything other than small spots. That was a lesson learned trying to mix painted wood frames with RTF white doors (which stay bleach white).

My neighbor (who is a tradesman, but not a woodworker, and who takes advice and runs with it without a layer of questions) painted his cabinets with good quality paint about a decade ago, but all of the places where your hand would rub are now bare (under handles, etc).

I'd love to hear how it turns out, but even more, i'd love to see how it's stood up in terms of color and wear in 10 years.

I hate to say it, but I've generally brushed paint on with a fine brush and then light sanded it to avoid the learning curve of atomizing the paint with my equipment. If an area is too small to sand, light brush marks probably won't be seen.

Re: I'd like to hear how it works out...

Jack Lane

Hi David,

Glad you mentioned Target Coatings. It was a lot of work but one of the best paint finishes we ever did was with 2 coats of SW primer followed by 2 coats of Target's Super Clear Polyeurathane. We even did white that way. I followed a couple of those white jobs for 6 or 7 years and there was no appreciable yellowing. That was 15 years ago and I haven't kept current on their products. Not sure which of their polys is close /similar today. The owner is Jeff Weiss..great guy and super helpful.800.752.9922.

Cheers!

Jack

Re: I'd like to hear how it works out...

david weaver

they have so many finishes that I can't really follow them. I spray something a couple of times a year and just need something that works, so I use the EM6000 series finishes with a cross linker additive. The only thing I've learned with that is that the first few coats go on light and then the paint won't soften. No flood coats on large flat surfaces to speed things up.

I painted two desks that get kid traffic and they've held up well. The mrs wanted chalk paint with wax on top (based on a friends' spec). Not really my taste, so I sanded the chalk paint and then the spray finish.

It's worth it for me (if it ever matters), based on your helpful comment just to call the guy at target finishes and ask if there's anything different about the various finishes in terms of UV (aside from finishes designed for outdoor work if there are any). Having a white paint and finish combination that doesn't yellow (and can be keyed to SWs numbers since that's the paint) is very valuable.