Covering Sanding Gouges on Laminate Cabinets?

[Tim Onder]

Hello all, I'm not very experienced in DIY so bear with me...

We are attempting to update our old, flat laminate cabinet doors by add some trim molding and painting them. The plan was sand to degloss the laminate, attach molding, prime, then paint.

To speed up the degloss step, we used a handheld belt sander. The doors felt fairly smooth, no obvious gouges, but now after painting, you can see the tracks left by the sander.

Additionally there are some indentations in the trim where we had to hammer in a couple brads that were sticking out.

It doesn't look terrible, but I'm a perfectionist so these things me. So I wanted to know if there is some relatively easy solution to make these look cleaner.

Thanks,
Tim

[shane lyall]

A belt sander is pretty hard core for what you are doing even with a fine paper. Belt sanders are used in woodworking for rapid stock removal mostly. If you have a finish sander or RO you can use some 120 grit to help smooth it out. You could also use a cabinet scraper on the next doors as well. If you have completed them an just need to patch a few you might try some painable wood filler and then paint the repair. I've used Bondo auto body filler with mixed results in a pinch. If you go with the Bondo, make sure you have GREAT ventilation or better yet take the doors down and use it outside. It's nasty stuff.

Post a pic or two and maybe someone will have a better idea. Welcome to the forum.

[Jerome Hanby]

Without stripping the paint, I don't have any suggestions. If you strip back to bare wood, I'd use a ROS and work through grits up to 220. 220 may be higher than necessary for paint, 150 may be a better number. I'm sure someone more knowledgeable post better information.

[phil harold]

skim coat with dry wall compound, then sand, then paint

good luck

[johnny means]

+1 on the ROS. I would use an 80, 100, 120 schedule anything beyond that will be unnecessary and possibly detrimental to adhesion. Prime with shellac primer, then sand with a fine sanding sponge.

[Tim Onder]

We already had painted before noticing the marks left by the sander, so I'd rather not have to strip everything and sand.

I like the drywall compound idea. Would that stick on top of the paint? Anyone else have a reason this approach wouldn't work?

Like I said, it doesn't look terrible, so I might just put the doors up and see if I can live with them as is.

[Ben Hatcher]

+1 on skim coating with joint compound, sand, and paint. Provided you're just hitting small spots with gouges, sand with 220, gently, with either a 1/4 sheet palm sander or even a block of wood wrapped in sandpaper. Go easy. Use stearate paper, too, as it will gum up less quickly. If you used 80, 100, or 120 in your belt sander, you may need to go back down and sand up through the grits to elminate all of the scratches.