Painting Kitchen Cabinets

[Bill Clifton]

Anybody have any suggestions on how to mask the interior of the cabinets. What do you use? Where do you install it? How do you secure it?

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks,

[scott vroom]

Masking paper and painter's tape.

Is this a refinishing job or new cabinets? What type/color paint and what type of cab interior? Spraying or brushing? Face frame or euro?

[Bill Clifton]

I am refinishing 30 year old cabinets. The color is a Sherwin Williams "Linen" of some type - nice. If you need the specific color let me know. Pro Classic oil base top coat. Pro Block Oil base primer. Learning to spray - using the Harbor freight purple HVlp conversion gun. Had to rebuild the air compressor to get enough (any) air. Face frame. Doing the doors in the garage. Built a small clean room in the garage. Sand on the work bench, vacuum and tack cloth the doors and into the clean room. Bring them out to sand. Repeat until done. I bought the painters pyramids. I start on the back side and flip so I can spray both sides at a time. I may put the 2nd (last) top coat on one side at a time. I can only handle 4 doors at one time. I work so I can only work in the evening - one coat per day. Doors take 3 or 4 days per set.

I mask the face frame. This is a bitch. I have tired several approaches. I am using the 18" wide brown masking paper. I am going to measure and cut the paper to size + 1 1/2" on each side. I am going to fold this to make a flange that I can then tape to the walls, bottom and top. I am using the blue masking tape which doesn't stick or stay stuck. The air from the gun moves, lifts, etc the paper and tape. The drawer slides get in the way. The rollers get in the way. The lower cabinets are large and I am going to tape several pieces together.

I am getting a real decent surface. I am struggling. I build a 2' high x 6' long cabinet for above the washer and dryer that had sliding doors. I used this to practice on. I used paper to practice on. I am struggling. Not sure if a more expensive gun would help. I think I was not getting enough paint on and getting orange peel. I think my air / paint mixture was not correct. I think my gun is not feeding consistently - maybe pressure swings, maybe the cup is too empty, etc.

If I had to do it over, I would still do my own work. That is who I am.

If you need anything let me know.

Bill Clifton

Just started my secon

[Shawn Christ]

I have that gun and get good results spraying shellac and waterborne lacquer. Haven't tried it for paint yet. It sounds like a royal pain to mask and spray those cabinets in place. If it were me I would probably spray the doors/drawer fronts and roll/brush the cabinets and face frames. Another option might be to remove to spray and reinstall the uppers as those are generally more visible than the base cabinets. Good luck!

[John TenEyck]

I also have that gun and really doubt it would spray paint very well. Mine has a 1.4 mm tip and the correct viscosity for that size orifice on a gravity feed HVLP gun is around 25 seconds through a Ford #4 cup. I don't know what the viscosity is of the Pro Classic OB product, but I'll bet it's much higher than that and probably well above 75 seconds. At best, you would have to thin the product to get it to spray well, but it would be far better to get a gun with an orifice of the correct size. An HVLP gun probably isn't even a good choice for that product unless it's a pressure feed one. The viscosity is not listed on SW's product datasheet, as far as I can see. However, they do specify the use of an airless sprayer for spraying application, with no mention of an HVLP gun so that tells me the viscosity is high.

John

[Shawn Christ]

Well there you go. If you decide to look for another sprayer check out the Critter siphon gun. It uses mason jars to store the paint. Inexpensive and great reviews. Lots of overspray though.

[Bill Clifton]

John - I appreciate the input. This is a learning experience that has to look very good. I found an article in Jan 2014 Fine Homebuilding that had an article in it on how to finish kitchen cabinets. This is where the paint selection came from. The author, a professional painter, recommends a Graco 395 or 695 with a 310 fine finish tip. These are airless guns that are beyond my range.

When I did my other research I became convinced that the purple gun would nicely handle this product. "Research" was on-line both u-tube (predominately car painters), other web sites and the sales staff at SW. The "sales staff" might be part of the problem. Since I work I don't get to the SW store until the evening shift is on. I became so frustrated with them that I ask one lady "are you a painter or a sales clerk?" She admitted that she was a sales clerk but "I know a lot about painting".

And your right about the viscosity recommendation - I didn't find any.

So sitting here this morning I am going to work harder on viscosity. I will thin the top coat and will work harder on getting the paint booth to a higher temperature. I may remove the strainer in the gun as I am straining my paint. That is about all I can do now. Again I am getting very acceptable results, but it is a struggle.

And thank you for your input. I am learning. And this being a total kitchen project I have learned about LEDs, appliances and now countertops.

[Lee Reep]

We painted kitchen cabinets about 20 years ago. The paint was Benjamin-Moore Impervo, it was about $35 a gallon back in 90s, so it was definitely expensive compared to everything else. But it came highly recommended, and it sprayed well and looked great. I did the cabinets in place, and used painters tape and a LOT of plastic to keep overspray from going everywhere. (The doors were done in the garage so I could lay them flat.) I basically tented the kitchen. I used a Wagner PowerPainter, and diluted the enamel until it was the proper viscosity. It looked great, but maybe 10 years later my wife wanted them a different color. We brushed/rolled the cabinets the second time. The doors were again sprayed flat in the garage.

Good luck! We are going to remodel, and I'm going with new cabinets. Cannot bear the thought of painting a third time!

[Jim Becker]

While spraying a slow-drying, oil-based finish can be a thankless task due to the mess, the one advantage you have is that you can actually thin the material beyond "just a little" (within reason) so you can get it through a gun. You cannot do that with water borne finishes and paints.

[John TenEyck]

Bill, definitely remove any internal filters in the gun. As long as you pre filter the paint they serve no useful purpose and will definitely limit flow through the gun. Also, you should buy a cheap plastic #4 Ford cup so that you can adjust the viscosity properly and repeatably. Spraying gets a lot easier when the viscosity is matched to the gun. I would still get a gun with a larger orifice so that you don't have to thin the paint so much. You won't need to apply as many coats and the risk of runs on vertical surfaces will be greatly reduced. Another option is to use a pressure pot with your current gun although plumbing might be a bit of a challenge.

John

[scott vroom]

Bill, an oil based alkyd would be my last choice to spray cabs with an HVLP. It's messy, a pain to clean up, slow drying, prone to runs/sagging, and isn't designed for an air sprayer (TDS indicates airless only). Are you planning to remove the cabinet backs? Have you tried spraying into closed inside corners? You're going to find that controlling buildup and runs is very difficult. And with oil, very difficult to fix.

I'm curious why you chose that paint over one of the pro grade water based poly acrylics? Some of us here spray General Finishes pigmented Enduro Poly water based polyurethane (white base). There are other similar pro WB brands. They can do decent color matching with major paint brands.

Not trying to derail your project but there are other, much better alternatives IMO.