finishing plywood bookcase

[Dan Seaver]

I am building some bookcases and storage cubes with 3/4 cabinet grade plywood. I intend on using a primer and then painting them with a semi gloss white finish.

Does anyone have a recommendation on how to finish these? I have a large 33 gallon compressor. Should I purchase some sort of air spray gun? If so, what gun and what paint do you recommend. As you can tell I am a newbie.

Thanks,

Dan

[Kent A Bathurst]

Am in the middle of built-in bench with drawers below, and a large set of shelves above. Painted.

For the shelves, I cut the parts, primed everything, then machined [routed] the dado/tenon joints. Then, taped off the dados + tenons, and did the finish painting - before assembly. Glue-up/assembly part done. the only thing left after final assemble is the hot-melt edging strip - apply it, trim it back, then prime and paint.

I am absolutely lousy at painting or varnishing assembled shelving units - I don't have spray equipment. In fact, nearly all the furniture I build is finished before assembly - usually save one final, thinned, wipe-on coat. In about 15 minutes, I am going to dye ~40 component parts for the base of a dining room table. Then gel stain to fill the grain. The shellac seal. Then Behlen's brush-on times 2 or 3. THEN assembly.

[Harvey Pascoe]

Spraying would be your best bet for a nice finish and you can get a cheap gun like Central Pneumatic from Harbor Freight that will do a fine job. You really should do the finish work before assembly since spraying in tight corners doesn't work to well and hand brushing would be just as bad.

For book cases, I would cut the stock to size, edge band it if you will, then prime, spray followed by cutting your dados. To avoid scratching or marring the paint, place newspaper under the work before running it over the table saw.

[mike kilgore]

Picking up sheet goods today for a very similar project. I know nothing about spraying paint- any particular gun from HF? A pic of the wife requested finish:

210092

...off to dig through the forum for more how-to paint glossy-ish stuff. Any links to my-first-spay-finish videos/threads are appreciated.

[John TenEyck]

Check out Jeff Jewitt's website for info. on spraying waterbased paint. I really like Sherwin Williams Pro Classic 100% acrylic paint, as well as their primer. Needs to be thinned quite a bit for my HVLP gun, but it sprays great once thinned properly. If you leave the back off your cabinet you can spray the assembled box quite easily. No need to spray everything flat prior to assembly.

[Vilas Schroeder]

I just bought some S-W Pro Classic for some cabinets I'm doing. How much distilled water are you adding to get good results?

[Alex Borshov]

I built this cabinet last year out of birch plywood and used Zinsser Sealcoat, followed by sanding, and the cheapest white latex paint (America's Finest semi gloss) Home Depot had. I used this gun (http://www.harborfreight.com/household-low-volume-low-pressure-spray-gun-92841.html) and an inline filter (http://www.harborfreight.com/disposable-inline-moisture-filter-68224.html) from Harbor Freight, which worked great. If you sign up for their mailer you can get a coupon for the gun fairly often. I painted after final assembly. I cut the sealcoat and paint with 1/4-1/3 water so it flowed better. I don't know if latex is the best thing to use, but that's what I got and it worked well. The only thing I wish I did is put some sort of clear coat on top of the shelves so they don't scuff. The counter top was stained and then urethaned.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b384/UkraineTrain/random/cabinet1.jpg

I see acrylic paint mentioned; is that preferable to latex? What about a clear coat? Just automotive clear? Or is there something better? I'm getting ready to build more shelves and want something durable to put on top.

[Jeff Monson]

I see acrylic paint mentioned; is that preferable to latex? What about a clear coat? Just automotive clear? Or is there something better? I'm getting ready to build more shelves and want something durable to put on top.

I'd recemmond a water based laquer for a top coat, automotive laquer is a different bird.

[John TenEyck]

To spray SW Pro Classic through my 1.7 or 1.8 mm gravity feed HVLP gun I had to thin it with 18% (by volume)water. I used tap water and did not add any Floetrol. There are some folks who will tell you that bad things will happen if you thin it that much, but I had no trouble. It sprayed beautifully, self leveled with no fisheyes, etc., and cured to a very hard film. I followed Jeff Jewitt's advise on spraying paint on his website, which also is how I chose the Pro Classic to begin with. I used SW's primer underneath, which I had to thin by the same %. It worked very well as well.

IMO, it is as hard as any normal topcoat, and I would not put one over it. WB acrylic paint is a whole different animal compared to latex wall paint. Much harder and scuff resistent, no tendency to block (stick to itself or something set on it), won't peel with a finger nail, etc.

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[George Gyulatyan]

I am currently building a base for our washer and dryer made out of plywood. I am finishting it with General Finishes Lamp Black milk paint and PolyAcrylic Gloss as a top coat. I am using shellac as sealer/primer/grain filler.

I've already sparyed the milk paint. Looks great! Nice, smooth matte finish. I'll let you know how it goes with PolyAcrylic on top. According to General Finishes' Technical Data sheets, this should work.

I am using the turbine HVLP from Rockler. It's allright for the price, and a noob such as myself. Figured I'd start with something utilitarian and not too visible to practice.