[Gabe4182]

I have personally installed unfinished oak cabinets from lowes in my remodeled home. I'm not a professional but most sections are pretty tight. I've been reading for several weeks and after a trip to sherwin Williams I have began to doubt my initial decision to lacquer. I have not finished the kitchen or dining room paint nor laid the floor. So overspray isn't a large concern. I own an airless sprayer.

What I want. I like the hidden grain clean contemporary black look... And my sherwin Williams guy assured me he couldn't make black lacquer which i thought was odd and tried shoving oil based paint down my throat. Would someone advise me the best route to take to make my cabinets last and look great ?!

 

[Gabe4182]

well i wish i could see my cabinets fully painted in various ways so i could pick the way that looks best after the fact... but i cannot. Thats why im imploring you experts! MY background is diverse and not specific in any natures, if its broke i can fix it if its finish work i usually have enough skill to make it look ok. My painting skills have grown a bit and i think im pretty good at that. With that said there are some minor PAPER thin grooves on the face frames of the cabinets in places i havent tried sanding yet but its not PERFECT.

after its all said in done i want a rock solid product thats going to look great and hold up be washable etc.. and me not FLOP and have to (heaven forbid) resand everything back to bare wood and start all over.

Ive never used a grain filler is that a special product or would wood filler do the trick? Sounds like alot of extra work. but if it has to be done i would definitely do it to achieve what i want to achieve.

 

[Gabe4182]

so cabinet man you think the best thing to do is buy the powder analine dye mix it with alcohol brush it on, then spray poly over the top? that will be easy / durable finish and have a nice look also? ive never messed with any dyes or such... not that i cant its just foreign to me at the moment. I am a quick learner

 

[Gabe4182]

So alcohol die and water based poly, or grain filler and paint or lacquer. Someone suggested oil based pro enamel from s&w ... What about conversion varnish?

That would cost a lot of money to get a sample of all of those and test wood lol

 

[Gabe4182]

I never wanted to mess with oil but a feel simple were trying to push me that way. That's what interested me about the lacquer and my dad recently used his airless sprayer on clear lacquer as a finish to his stained cabinets. Is the alkaline die method gonna be a smooth finish like most poly? But I've been told the wb lacquer is a special order product and the guy says he can't assure a solid black in any of his lacquer.


So sorry if this is hard to follow I'm driving home. :/

So if I use lacquer on oak I have to grain fill it but the wb poly I do not ? Isn't that the stuff they finish floors with also?

 

[Gabe4182]

Ok so in your opinion which yields the best finish total package ! I know oak is fairly pourous and I'm not a big fan of the grain showing ... And in the future consideration of getting married and having to paint the cabinets to a womans preference opposed to just mine

Although for post makest feel rather hard to please lol but u just want to ensure I am pleased with my work and investment both time and money

 

[Gabe4182]

The cabinets I have I can pick up a few filler pieces and do some test samples

I'm on my phone no clue how that got posted upside down sorry

 

[Gabe4182]

Oh and I had planned on making an island with beadboard that will require a finish as well thanks cabinetman!

 

[Gabe4182]

Effectively ive found nowhere locally to buy aniline dye, and a place online that sales 1 gallon for 60 bucks? So, question is, would buying tinted grain filler BLACK and getting a lacquer tinted as dark as possible, would that make a good finish? I hate this i wish someone would just show me some samples of black finished wood in person and then give me the script on how to replicate it.. haha

 

[Gabe4182]

What size tip for my airless sprayer for cv? Paint schedule would be putty, sand, tack , tinted vinyl sealer, light sand , 2 coats wet wet sand between tinted, then final clear coat?

How hard is that stuff to mix as I assume it won't be catalyzed when I special order it. Do a test run on spare oak filler pieces if I have an issue I'll post then?

 

[Gabe4182]

Ok, from extensive shopping ive learned the only FINISH i can actually buy without having to order and wait 1-2 weeks is the lacquer.

That being said, I bought some aerosol cans of different things including a vinyl autobody primer, shellac, and lacquer. I liked the look of the shellac base best on some scrap oak panels.

Im thinking that i might like it even better if i filled the grain first. So can i get some help with my paint schedule? i need to write this down so when i get excited i wont mess up a step lol.

1 - Raise the grain on my current cabinets and give them a good sanding 220g?
2 - Apply Grain filler remove excess
3 - Sand 320 g
4 - Lacquer primer tinted as dark grey as they can make
5 - Sand 320 g
6 -lacquer Tint black
7 - Sand 400g
8 - 2nd Coat
9 - sand 400g
10 Last coat

Did i miss anything? or anythign need to be addressed?

Thanks all for dealing with my over analytically posting while driving on my cell phone incoherent self! But you dont know until youve actually done something once.

ALSO! my pops said he would buy a Cup HVLP gun if i needed cuz he wouldn't mind having one. Or would it be just the same to use the AIRLESS with .009 tip?

I will definitely be spraying a test go round on scrap wood ensure my spraying rust is dusted off

Thanks again!

Gabe

 

[Gabe4182]

I only used the auto primer jn the can to simulate the primered sample.

How many gAl of grain filler and primer and lacquer will I need ?

25 linear foot if cabinets

 

[Gabe4182]

Thanks Dragy id love to see those pics,

Ill check that place out JPR!

Steve What wood grain filler are you refering to, the stuff i thought i was supposed to use for grain filler was real slimy looking stuff like jello almost consistency?

 

[Gabe4182]

Man i just had the worst experience of my life, lol. I finally found a store locally called Hunter Paint and Coatings in charlotte. They carried Aniline dye but not the color i wanted... and wasnt sure as to the method that a few members suggested on here and steered me towards their waterborne Lacquer finally sold me 2 gallons of Acylic deep tint Primer and 2 gallons of waterborne lacquer..THis all took an amazing 2-3 hours at the store. I get home from my 1 hour ride and look in the box and this dude sent me tinted Waterborne Varnish.. im so confused is this stuff gonna work or did i just get hoodooed? 75 dollars a gallon, 33 for the primer.


http://www.fuhrindustrial.com/inter...r-varnish/item/380-water-clear-varnish-2.html

Will this still work? i bet they wont take it back

 

[Gabe4182]

welll im about fed up with all this researching and mystery i might just say screw it and roll with it lol.. the primer is Aqua Lock plus 100% acrylic water base with 8 oz of black dye so its grey, and the black varnish in satin, i might just spray it and live with it it doesnt HAVE to be jet black but really dark would be nice. says 34% solids if that means anything

 

[Gabe4182]

thanks all who have helped im going to just nuckle up and try it out tomorrow, only part im weirded out about i have a peice of crown molding on a 12 inch cabinet that isnt just perfectly flush and infact has a gap of 1/4-1/8 inch of a gap from that and the upper cabinet facing.

Should i caulk the giant gap and then prime and continue? or try to wood putty it akwardly?

 

[Gabe4182]

Ok well I wish i would have known how long the taping process was going totals so I coulda just ended my life early... Lol but on a positive note I've applied two coats of the tinted primer will try to finish tomorrow. Bad news is I didn't notice but apparently my hitachi pancake 6 gal compressor at 3.8 cfm isn't enough to effectively run my hvlp gun had to do a lot of waiting ... Maybe I'll rent one tomorrow to start the doors and stuff. Will post pictures if anyone wants to see the end result

 

[Gabe4182]

well ill take some pics today i couldnt last night because i was there so long my phone died =\ i think i might be paranoid about how much i have to sand and tack everything haha

i just rented a big gas air compressor see if that will help me a bit after i play with the pressure and get it flowing smooth

 

[Gabe4182]

the pic doesnt seem to capture it as well as it looks in person, im impressed with how it feels and looks pretty awesome too, this is only the first coat of the top coat other pictures had too much glare on them

 

[Gabe4182]

before i passed out from exaustion i put the second coat on all the drawers and the cases after a light scuffing from 400 grit... and got both sides of MOST of the doors coated at least once... ALl i gotta do today is scuff the doors and spray them all a second time and ill be DONE! (minus one spot that ran i need to sand and touch up.

Youre right steve i think it looks great. I sprayed in 2-3 mil coats so 6mil final coat should be good?