Spraying a Finish/Paint: Before or After Cabinet Install?

[Glen Blanchard]

I am in the middle of making paint-grade cabinets for my wife's craft room. I am about finished with the upper cabinets and have a brand new Earlex 5000 HVLP waiting to be unboxed and broken in. I am trying to figure out if I should spray them outside of the house and then install or install and then spray. The following facts may or may not be pertinent:


I am a TOTAL newbie when it comes to spraying!
I plan on using an oil based primer and an oil based paint
the room is empty (no furniture, etc)
the room is upstairs and in an area of the house that is (currently) seldom used so odors are not much of an issue

Opinions?

[David Hawxhurst]

i like to finish before installing.

you should unpack the sprayer and practice spraying some scraps before attempting the cabinets. i would recommend that you get some primer and paint that your going to use on the cabinets and to play with to see if its needs thinning and how it acts with the gun (you may need a different needle/nozzle). then practice on some scraps. and finally practice then some more practice.

[Troy Turner]

If the walls are already painted, then you're going to have to mask them off, and the floor, and anything else you don't want to get overspray on. Hopefully you have a window you can put a box fan in and draw out cloud that's going to be created when you spray.

I'd say after you got it dialed in as David suggests, you spray them outside then install them. Too much work prepping would be spent...IMO.

[Mark Rakestraw]

I would definitely spray before installation and very highly prefer to spray before the backs are attached to the cabinet. It's much easier to get a nice finish on the inside that way.
mark

[Jason Roehl]

HVLP and an oil-based finish would be a disaster inside a structure that is being lived in, especially if you have no experience spraying. Oil-based mist goes everywhere, doesn't readily settle out of the air, and when it does finally settle out, it likely will not yet have dried, so it will stick. Then there are the off-gassing fumes from the overspray and the drying finish, which will persist for some time throughout the house, not just in the area you sprayed. Not to mention, your oil-based paint will yellow over time. There are many excellent choices among waterborne paints (due to VOC regulations, that's where all the R&D has been for the last 20 years or more).

But, hey, I just paint for a living...

BTW, just blowing the oil-based overspray out the window will not solve your problems, either--if you have neighbors close by, you could end up painting their cars for them...

[Jamie Buxton]

I don't know your HVLP sprayer, but I can tell you that mine (an Accuspray) doesn't like spraying inside of things. By that, I mean inside cabinets or inside drawers. The sprayer puts out so much air that most of the finish blows back in my face, and what stays inside leaves a rough finish. I build shoot cabinets without their backs, and staple the backs on after finishing. For drawers, I build them so the bottom slides in from the back, like an old-time solid-wood bottom. I spray them, and then slide the back in.

[Homer Faucett]

+1 on what Jason said. Jason steered me towards the Sherwin Williams Acrylic Enamel and ProClassic waterbased paints a few years back, and the results are great. Why deal with the messy clean-up and other problems of oil-based when quality WB finishes now rival the standard oil based paints on the market?

[Glen Blanchard]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. The panels in the doors are MDF. Would I not have a potential swelling problem if I were to use water based products?

[Tom Ewell]

There are many excellent choices among waterborne paints

I shoot mostly waterbased dyes and lacquer but occasionally need a good waterbased paint.

What would you recommend for cabinetry, I normally go with a shellac based primer then use a decent whatever as topcoat. Too often, however, the paint is seemingly dry (after weeks, months etc.) but door and drawer components will stick together and occasionally pop the finish where the stick is. It seems to happen regardless of humidity levels.

I have tried overcoating ("cured" paint) with clear WB lacquer or poly to prevent this with some success but curious if a specific product or improving techique will help.

[Prashun Patel]

I am partial to priming mdf with a shellac primer like Zinsser BIN. Speeds the build of the topcoat and sands very smooth.

[Glen Blanchard]

I was also told that it is easier (I suppose he meant for a newb) to get a nice result with oil based paints. Another reason I had planned on using oil base....but I am willing to be persuaded to reconsider!

[Mike Ruggeri]

I recently finished a similar project. I primed with shellac primer with a brush, lightly sanded them when they were dry to remove brush marks, and then sprayed with two coats of WB paint (in my case I used Benjamin Moore's Impervo thinned). Everything came out really nice for a guy with no prior spraying experience and spraying the WB with my HVLP was pretty easy (including clean up). So far, the Impervo is holding up really nice, but things have only been done for about 4 months so time will tell. I hear very good things about other WB paints and would seriously check them out before you go down the road of using oil.

Mike

[Rob Cunningham]

I would spray before installation and also suggest using a WB product. Benjamin Moore WB Impervo has worked well for me as well as Target Coatings EM6500. The EM6500 is easier to spray than the Impervo and provides a very nice finish. Prime with BIN primer for a good base coat.

[Glen Blanchard]

If one will be spraying the paint, are primers typically sprayed on or applied with a brush?

[Malcolm Wheeler]

I used their aerosol cans. I sprayed the MDF, got some fibres sticking up where I used the router, sanded briefly, and then top coated.

Worked like a charm

[Homer Faucett]

If one will be spraying the paint, are primers typically sprayed on or applied with a brush?

You can certainly spray the primer. With choosing whether to brush or spray, I typically consider how long it will take for cleanup of the gun (shellac requires alcohol for cleanup) and determine whether it will actually save me time. Sprayed finishes are going to be done in thinner coats, so they require more coats to build, and you need to allow for drying between coats, so factor that in.

WB finishes will usually dry faster than oil based. The slow cure of oil based finishes can result in some "self leveling", which is probably why you were given the recommendation to use oil based, but it can also cause runs to develop, IMHO. However, if you do even just a little practice, and really work on optimizing your gun and finish, you should be able to get just as good results with WB right out of the box. I've never used the Earlex gun, so I can't comment, but I have used the Harbor Freight hvlp conversion gun. I first used a little 2 gallon compressor with it for small items, and that got me over the fear of spraying finishes. You can really cover a lot more surface in much less time, and I feel like the finish is consistently better than what I get when I brush it on. I've always wanted to try the BM Impervo, but SW is pretty convenient to find around here.

Good luck.

[Larry Fox]

I would never spray in the house. Too much mess, too many fumes, difficult to control overspray etc.

[Todd Hoppe]

I have a different take on this. I would spray in the house if you can make it work with ventillation and dust control. If you have crown molding on the cabinets and other trim details, you can caulk them in and have one seamless finish across all the details. This is how my builder just finished our whole kitchen.

My recommentation on the finish is General Finishes Enduro. BIN works well for an undercoat, as would many other primers, and a lot of sanding between coats on edges...

[Jim Becker]

I actually prefer to finish the components prior to assembly into boxes, carefully masking off for glue lines, etc. But relative to your specific question...finish first; install second. Spraying in place can really create a mess and spraying anything oil-based is a thankless process in that respect because it dries so slowly. Any overspray is sticky for measurable time.