Painting "sanded and ready for finish" cabinets...

[Chris Rich]

So I've got a bunch of cabinets I'm going to spray with two coats of BM primer and two coats of BM Advance. The doors and drawer fronts are smooth (i.e. sanded and ready for finish). Do I need to still scuff them up before painting?

Thanks, Chris

[scott vroom]

So I've got a bunch of cabinets I'm going to spray with two coats of BM primer and two coats of BM Advance. The doors and drawer fronts are smooth (i.e. sanded and ready for finish). Do I need to still scuff them up before painting?

Thanks, Chris

No, don't scuff up.....the primer will adhere to the sanded surface just fine.

Having said that, what specific BM primer are you planning to use under the Advance? What species of wood are you painting? Water base primer tends to raise the grain and will likely require sanding between primer coats. The only primer I see on the BM website that I'd consider is Advance Alkyd Primer since it is sandable and intended as an undercoat for Advance Alkyd Paint.

[Chris Rich]

The plan was to use BM Fresh Start 100% Acrylic Primer which from what I've been reading doesn't raise the grain too much. The wood is alder

[scott vroom]

Your project, your decision....but I would not use the acrylic latex primer on your project. It is not going to sand easily and is not recommended by the mfg for your cabinetry application. Do yourself a favor and read the TDS's for the latex and alkyd primers.

[Chris Rich]

Thanks for the advice. I will go with the alkyd primer. I was kind of basing it on an a person who wrote an article using the same stuff but after reading the TDS as you mentioned, alkyd is definitely the way to go...

[Chris Rich]

Sort of still on topic but would you recommend doing a poly over top of the two coats of Advance? I see some articles saying that I should maybe use something like General Finish Enduro Poly.... I've also heard that Advance dries plenty hard...

[Leo Graywacz]

Use an enamel for your top coat. Anything else will be to soft if you are bent on using latex.

[scott vroom]

I've finished 2 projects with Advance and top coated both with GF Enduro Clear Poly. There's no question that Advance Alkyd cures much harder than standard interior latex paint, however top coating with Enduro Poly will provide an even more durable, professional level cabinet finish.

I've also sprayed many cabinet projects with GF Enduro White Poly tinted to match BM colors. The Enduro paint sprays on much nicer than advance, but it's expensive and only comes in gallons. The 2 Advance projects were small, low cost and the customer wasn't fussy about finish but very fussy about cost.

[Chris Rich]

If I could ask one more question...

I have the primer and paint. Should I do two coats of each? I'm using an hvlp sprayer....

Thanks, Chris

[scott vroom]

That would be a minimum. You're going to get some grain raising on the 1st primer coat so sanding & a second primer coat would be desirable. The number of top coats depends on the quality/solids % of the finish. Advance sprays fairly well but I've found it needs to go on thin to prevent sagging so on my projects I sprayed 3 or 4 coats Advance to get good coverage and then topped with 2 coats of Enduro clear poly. I used a 4 stage HVLP & 1.4 mm air cap.

[Chris Rich]

thanks. makes sense to me...