finish for white painted cabinets

[jim mills]

I have done several white painted cabinet projects using General finishes white acrylic & their latest, pigmented poly & I must say, I have gotten less than stellar performance. Esp. in high use areas of kitchens. The finish looks good when new, but now that it's been several years, the finish simply is not durable. I would have to say that low end HD cabinets have a more durable finish. I've recently started using BIN primer as my sealer, and since I have taken the necessary precautions to spray the solvent based primer, I am thinking I might as well go all the way & start using all solvent based finishes. I am looking for guidance. Any suggestions? Thanks!

[Mel Fulks]

I am not good at painting,so anything I use has to be easy. Painted kitchen cabinets for my parents with FIXALL white gloss.I think they only make gloss.It looked good for 15 or 20 years. I brushed it and it leveled beautifully .Its old time stuff ,still good. It does yellow some ,but I prefer that to the greys commonly sold for white.

[jim mills]

Oops...should have titled thread SPRAY finish for white cabinets. I'm talkin shop built new cabinets.

[Mel Fulks]

I don't see any reason it can't be sprayed. If you limit your self to modern 'high tech' products you will get the same results you got before. It is an alkyd enamel ,but different from others I've used .Even has a different smell.

[Mel Fulks]

FIXALL dries faster than most oil paints. The product you do like is an old product ,too. It came on the market in1946 .It was not really new then as painters had been mixing the stuff before that. It is suitable as a top surface too

[jim mills]

The fixall is only available in high gloss. That's a downer. I spent the weekend reading about conversion varnishes. It seems to be the standard in the cabinet/furniture business, but man, it's a whole new ballgame.

[Leo Graywacz]

Modern finishes are the way to go. Conversion Varnish is the go to finish for a cabinet. But you need a good spray booth to use them and be safe. Next would be a precat lacquer. While not as durable they are plenty durable for a kitchen as long as you don't abuse your cabinets. This too is a spray booth finish. Fumes are noxious and dangerous if let to build up.

Next down the road and approaching the durability of the solvent base finishes are the Waterbornes. Most good finishes you can't get at a local store. You need to have access to a more commercial supplier. Most won't sell to the guy off the street. You need to be a business.

That being said you can get Target Finishes through mail order and they are pretty good. The waterbornes are soon going to be as good as a solvent. They are starting to get as tough but they still require more coats as most only have a 2 mil limit for wet spray. Most solvents are 4-6 mil wet. You get a much faster build with solvent than you do with waterborne.

[Jim Becker]

If you have a proper spray booth with appropriate ventilation and personal respiration, then you'll have a number of choices for solvent-based finishes to choose, from, albeit a number that is getting smaller and smaller due to VOC regulations. You'll want to check out what is available in your geographic area before making a decision.

As an alternative, there are water borne finishes that are far safer to spray and give great results. One example would be Target Coatings EM6500 which is a nice white water borne acrylic that has characteristics similar to solvent based lacquer. (burn-in, etc.) Other vendors have similar products.

[Mel Fulks]

When white cabinets were a big deal some years back there was a parade of white coatings. Our customers complained about all of them. I've got a friend who is something of an expert on coatings .He told me even the epoxies are not as good as they were because they took the cyanide out of them. I don't think we're going to see many improvements. Since you like the BIN consider it as finish. I know they call it a primer,but that's just marketing .Shellac and pigment has been used as paint a long time .Ive seen kitchen walls and cabinets painted with it. I always use it for closets.The good news on coatings is that the cabinets don't stay in very long before they are ripped out. Kitchen designers are marching boldly into the future!

[Alex Borshov]

What would you recommend for a novice with similar problems as the OP? I made a built-in bookcase a couple years back and painted it with some cheap white acrylic paint from Home Depot using a Harbor Freight HVLP gun in my garage. I quickly found out it's not very durable and gets scratched easily. Would the Target Coatings waterborne finish be a good start? Can I use my HVLP gun with it? Does it require special prep? How about a top clear coat?

[Jim Becker]

The Target Coatings product was designed to be sprayed and will work fine with most HVLP guns. It's about all I spray. The only reason the white (EM6500) would need to be top-coated is to alter the sheen and EM6000...same stuff in clear...is a good choice for that. My kitchen is finished with these products (in 2003) and is only now needing updated due to wear and tear.

[Alex Borshov]

Does it need to be sprayed onto bare wood? I'm wondering if the bookcase I painted earlier would need to be sanded clean. Thanks for the advice!

[John TenEyck]

The Target Coatings product was designed to be sprayed and will work fine with most HVLP guns. It's about all I spray. The only reason the white (EM6500) would need to be top-coated is to alter the sheen and EM6000...same stuff in clear...is a good choice for that. My kitchen is finished with these products (in 2003) and is only now needing updated due to wear and tear.

Wow, 10 years is not a ringing endorsement in my mind. My kitchen cabinets are now about 18 years old and are yellowing, but show no sign of wear or degradation even though I used an early generation WB poly bought at the local BORG - Carver Tripp Safe and Simple. It was great stuff but, sadly, no longer manufacturered.

John

[Mel Fulks]

Agree with John .And I think sometimes the real problem with finishes is they have a little grease and dirt on them and its too much trouble to clean them .As for things like conversion varnish, if something is of a quality really intended to last it is not a good idea to use something so difficult to remove. Just looked this up and saw cites of problems with applying it to new cabinets , with answers like "it might be easier to just make another cabinet" .

[Jim Becker]

I'm talking physical damage by kids...the finish hasn't yellowed or degraded in any other way.