First Time Spraying Cabinets

[SoonerFan]

We are working on a complete redo of our home office.  As part of the redo I built a printer stand/filing cabinet and two other cabinets that will serve as the base for the desk. I made the cabinet boxes out of Baltic birch plywood.  I milled the face frames and stiles/rails out of maple.  I recently retired so I have more time these days.  Therefore, I want to start painting my projects myself.  I have a Graco X5 that I am planning to use to paint these three pieces for our office.  Now for my questions:

1.  I will paint these pieces in our shop.  We do not have a dedicated space to paint.  My plan is to cover my work table and paint the doors and drawer fronts on this table.  I will paint the cabinets on sawhorses in an open area of the shop.  What solutions have others used to protect the floors, walls, etc from overspray?  Hoping I can get something fairly easy to put up and take down and something reusable.

2.  After some research I am planning to use Sherwin Williams Wood and Waller Primer and then use Emerald Urethane Trim Paint.  I want to use Sherwin Williams to get these three pieces to be an exact match of the wall color.  I want to use latex as well.  These seem like the right primer and paint to use?  I was told I can leave this primer and paint in the spray gun between coats (about four hours) and only clean out once a day.  Cleaning the Graco daily seem reasonable to others who might have used these finishes?

3.  For the spray tip I have a Graco 214 I am planning to use.  It has the proper flow for the paint I am planning to use.  Also the 4 inch spray fan I am hoping will minimize overspray.  Would you suggest a different tip?

Any answers to these question or other advice would be appreciated.  Spraying cabinets is a new adventure for me and I am hoping for a good start.  Thanks in advance!

 

[tjbnwi]

Spray the drawer faces/doors on stickers placed on saw horses. Unless the pieces are in intimate contact with the surface rebound will ruin the surface towards the bench top.

If you can use a FF tip in the gun use it. I’m not sure what gun comes with the X5. Make sure you use the seal that comes with the FF, it’s where the magic starts to happen. I’d choose a 314FF tip. Do not thin the paint, if you think you need it a little thinner warm the can.

In your case I’d wet the floor, keeping the floor wet will keep the finish from sticking. We use a peelable coating on the booth floor. About every 6 months we peel it and apply new.

With the amount your spraying overspray should not be a concern.

Wall and Wood primer may need a X12 tip size. It’s really nice primer and sands well. If the store has Gen II primer, use it instead, it’s what we use.

Spraying as opposed to brush/roll will affect the color/tone.

Tom

 

[twistsol1]

I use an inflatable booth in my garage that contains any overspray very well and set it up and take it down as needed.
https://www.sawdustzone.org/forum/discussions/tool-talk/852141-instant-finishing-room

As far as the cleaning goes, I frequently clean my guns only when I'm done finishing a project so it may be three or four days. A quality gun will have an airtight seal at the tip. I once got called for an emergency work trip to cover for someone else and let finish water based poly sit in the gun for two weeks before I got back to it. There was dried poly on the sides of the cup which I replaced, but the rest of the gun cleaned up nicely. I wouldn't, however, recommend that.

 

[Packard]

I hung shower curtain liners from ratcheting Harbor Freight tie-down straps.  It contains about 90% or more of the overspray.  They slide away when not painting.  The curtains cost about $4.00 each.  I used 6 or 7 to close off the area.  I don’t remember what the wire clips cost.

I use Turbine Products (Spray Fine) stage 4 sprayer with a 1.8 tip.  I did not know that there were different types of Ford cups.  The cup I use takes 2 minutes to empty with Advance diluted about 10%.  I find that is sprays nicely at that dilution. 

When the local PPG store closed, and I could no longer get Breakthrough! Locally, I went to the Sherwin Williams store.  I told him that I needed “Emerald” for kitchen cabinet painting, but he sold me the version intended for walls and trim.  So, double check when you buy from S-W. 

The Advance (Benjamin Moore) lays out nicer than the Breakthrough!  But it takes an interminable amount of time to dry (16 hours) between coats.  The dark colors never get really hard like the whites and light colors.  The white seems as hard as oil based poly. 

I recently refaced my cabinets with new doors and drawer fronts.  The doors and drawer fronts were sprayed (while flat).  The cabinet face frames were brushed, and the end panels were MDF bead board (sprayed while flat).

Advance will get drips or runs fairly easily.  It took be a while to get a handle on that for the brushed face frames. 

I never did try the Emerald Urethane.  I was so angry with the S-W dealer that I never visited the store again. 

I’m guessing that the Ford cup I am using is different from the one you are using.  If I thinned the Advance to the levels you are talking about I would be shooting mainly water.

I did find that if I took a small square of plastic bag film and placed it over the tip of my gun and used a rubber band to hold it in place, that I could come back and use the gun 4 - 6 hours later without cleaning.  I never heard anyone ever recommending this, but it works for me.

All the paints are crazy expensive nowadays.

 

[SoonerFan]

All,
Thanks for the input.  Lots of good advice.  Much appreciated.  And yes [member=74278]Packard[/member] paint is crazy expensive these days.

 

[SoonerFan]

I ended up building a small paint booth (8 ft X 10 ft / 2.4 M X 3 M) in the back corner of my shop.  I used Zip Wall poles and some thick plastic sheeting for the walls to section off the area for the rest of the shop and cover the walls.  This solution did a nice job keeping dust out while I painted.  I covered the floor with Ram Board (cardboard that comes in large rolls here in the U.S.). Finally, I built a "turn table" out of scrap plywood and a cheap Lazy Susan mechanism.  This allowed me to route the drawer fronts and doors to spray the edges. 

All-in-all it worked great for what I needed.  Result is certainly better than I could have done with brushes/rollers.  I was impressed with the Graco X5 and the Sherwin Williams primer/paint.  I am going to let the doors/drawer fronts dry for another day and then will assemble everything.

 

[Crazyraceguy]

Looks good [member=28223]SoonerFan[/member] Spraying is far quicker and easier than brushing/rolling, but the up-front cost is higher to kind of balance it out for many people, especially if they are intend to only do it once.
The cost of the paint itself is indeed ridiculous, but what isn't lately?  [blink]
Automotive paint is even worse. It costs as much for materials as we would charge for the entire job, back in the day.

 

[SoonerFan]

[member=58857]Crazyraceguy[/member] the setup does take a while especially for those like me that do not have a dedicated space, need to setup temp walls, etc.  But the quality is better even for someone like me that is new to spraying cabinets.