I want a Fast white finish for shop cabinets

[Jason Winterrowd]

I want to finish my shop cabinets white to keep the area bright. I don't want to take the time for paint to dry. I was thinking I would spray BIN primer then top coat with a couple coats of clear shellac sealcoat.

Is is this a dumb idea?

[Jason Winterrowd]

I also want to keep it as cheap as possible. I do realize I just chose my two of the three (fast and cheap).

[John TenEyck]

BIN makes a great white basecoat. It dries about as fast as you can apply it - so I hope you are spraying it - and sands to powder in an hour. It would make a great white basecoat but I would not use shellac over it because it will have a yellowish cast. I would use a WB acrylic or polyacrylic. A gallon of Sealcoat shellac is about $40 for me. You can buy some WB polys for the same price, others for not much more. Anyway, the WB polyacrylic products dry very quickly and will work great over BIN white primer.

John

[Jim Becker]

I agree with John...I'd use a water borne finish as a top coat. Shellac would likely add more "color" that would look nice if you want to maintain "white" rather than "yellowish off white".

[Edwin Santos]

As good a product as BIN is, I don't think you would be happy using it as a final colorant with a clear finish over it. It's just not that product's intended purpose and if you want to keep things cheap, BIN is kind of a premium priced product. I usually reserve it to situations where I'm trying to avoid a water based primer.

What are your cabinets made from? Are we talking MDF? If so, then BIN is a good primer (although I've gotten away with 1-2-3), and if applied liberally to the edges, you can sand them fairly smooth unless the MDF is very low grade. I would then topcoat with a WB polyurethane tinted with white latex paint 60/40 mix. This will bury the primer enough. You can stop there, but if the cabinets might be seeing some abuse, then a second coat of straight WB poly would be good or, if you see some need for more cover, tint the final coat but less paint like 80/20 and you should be good.

I know you're looking for speed, but if you took the time to build your cabinets, what's an extra day going the extra mile on the finishing?

[Jason Winterrowd]

Thank you all for the advice. I really appreciate the expertise on this forum. Beginners stand a chance of of good outcomes on finishing projects because of you.

[matt romanowski]

I just built a bunch of shop and garage cabinets. I went with Benjamin Moore Advanced and their primer. I've painted the outsides of (3) 18" cabinets and (1) 36" cabinet (all 30" tall) and only used about 20% of a gallon of paint. The paint and primer weren't cheap, but they are good and easy to brush on. Plus they look really nice. They say you can get away with just the paint, but I went with a very red color and needed a tinted primer.

[Jim Becker]

Matt, I also prime under BM Advance as it provides the opportunity to not only deal with coverage, but also to get a great surface for the final paint coat(s).

[Hoang N Nguyen]

I'm still working on this project but here are some pictures of the paint I'm using. I'm finishing these pieces as I go along since I don't have the room to store an entire built-in in my shop and have room to build at the same time.

I was able to spray 2 coats of primer (sanding in between coats) and 2 coats of topcoat/paint (no sanding in between) all within 3 hours.

The paint is SW Kem Aqua plus white and primer is SW Kem Aqua white surfacer. The surfacer drys and sands to a power in 30 minutes, top coat can be re-applied in 30 minutes as well.

This is my first time using this product and I love it. I was able to get the primer for $25 a gallon and the paint for $27 a gallon. The lady at the store hooked me up with a contractors account so I was getting them cheaper. I believe they are around $45-$50 a gallon without a contractors account. Prices may vary depending on where you are as well.

BUILT-INS.jpgBUILT-INS CLOSE UP.jpg

[Jim Becker]

I'm going to have to check that finish out, Hoang...it looks great and having something locally available would be a boon. I love Target products, but shipping kills when one isn't using finish in volume.

[Hoang N Nguyen]

Jim, I've read it's very similar to Target products. It's a waterborne lacquer paint and it's very thin. I've read how people have had good success shooting it with a 3 stage HVLP. It is picky about how thick you have to lay it down when spraying though. It likes to be shot between 3-4 mil thick. Anything less and it doesn't flow out properly, anything more than 4 mils and it starts to run. I'm still learning with it but so far I'm really liking it.

I'm going to have to check that finish out, Hoang...it looks great and having something locally available would be a boon. I love Target products, but shipping kills when one isn't using finish in volume.

[Jim Becker]

Thanks for that information. Pretty much every finish needs to be "practiced with" and some have less tolerance for variations in the coating thickness. I appreciate your comments and will try to get some of this stuff to play with for whatever my next large painted project is.

[lee cox]

I bought some white semi gloss paint from Walmart for $10. It may have been a brought back can as it was in the quick sell rack. I painted cabinets and the ceiling. My small shop seems brighter now.

I used a primer on the ceiling first as it was bare wood.

[Bill McNiel]

Hoang,
Your post could not be more timely, I just accepted a commission for a significant number of built-in bookshelves (some curved) that will be painted. The SW product looks like it is the finish answer.
Thanks - Bill