Hanging Cabinet Doors to Spray, Ideas?

[Ben Martin]

Any body have any better ideas for a hanger to hold cabinet doors with Euro Hinges while I spray them? I got this idea online using a large fishing hook.

http://festoolownersgroup.com/finishing/hanging-cabinet-doors-for-painting/?action=dlattach;attach=92898;image

There is also the Fastcap or Rockler tools...

http://www.rockler.com/how-to/wp-content/uploads/Rockler-Cabinet-Door-Hanger-Lead.jpg

http://www.fastcap.com/estore/pc/catalog/euro-door-finishing-clip-hanging-370x336.jpg

I have 10 doors to lacquer tomorrow. Was looking for some ideas! Fish hooks seems pretty easy or just putting screws in the hinge holes in the door with a piece of string would work too...

Ben

[Andrew Fleck]

The fishing hook looks like it should work. I spray mine laying flat on a board with 4 nails propping it up so I can flip them and do the other side. Do you have to spray them hanging?

[Jamie Buxton]

I spray with an HVLP. I tried hanging doors, but it didn't work very well. The sprayer puts out so much air that it blows the door around. I'd be steadying the door with one hand and spraying with the other, so I'd get finish on the steadying hand. Then, when I went to spray the other face, there'd be no place I could put the steadying hand without messing up the already-sprayed face. And, you have to let the doors hang while they're curing, so you can't use the spray area to work on anything else -- like the casework. I went back to laying the doors down flat. I spray one face, let the finish dry, then do the other face. Each door gets moved from the spray area to a drying rack, so the spray area can be used to spray the rest of the project.

[Matt Meiser]

Yeah, don't :D

I spray one side, put them in my drying rack, let it dry, then flip. With WB products the dry time is fast and I can just about spray the second side of the first one right after the first side of the last one. If you are painting that might be a different story.

The other advantage of flat is that you are less likely to get runs.

[johnny means]

I use nail boards. Spray the back, then flip the door onto the nails and spray the front. Hanging is a technique for large scale produtions where the doors are actually moved in and out of the spray area on hooks. Hanging doesn't help much when all you have is 20 doors which would fit on any old drying rack. Spraying flat is also more forgiving for less than perfect technique.

[Matt Meiser]

Spraying flat is also more forgiving for less than perfect technique.

Hey wait! What are you saying? :eek::D

[Grant Wilkinson]

I was about to +1 on Matt's advice to lay them flat until Johnny implied that my spray technique was less than stellar. :-) :-)

[Ben Martin]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

I am spraying pigmented lacquer on the cabinets doors I built for our laundry room. This will be my first go at doing doors, wanted to make sure that I had my technique correct!

As much as I got invested in the lacquer, I didn't want to screw anything up...

Ben

[Erik Christensen]

what matt said = spray them flat - despite the cheap shot from the peanut gallery about technique :D. to me it not about technique - you need a certain minimum coating thickness to have the finish flow & level - that thickness depends on the material being sprayed, the finish & ambient conditions (how long to flow before it starts to dry & setup). by spraying flat you can err on the side of a thicker coat without risk of runs. the best thing I have for finishing is a cheap lazy susan I got from the BORG years ago - i installed a base and top set of rails on it with some drywall screws evenly protruding with dulled points - it is really easy to spray from all 4 sides without dancing around and tripping over the HVLP hose - plus the sprayer is always pointed where I want it to be to minimize the impact of overspray

[Ken Fitzgerald]

You can make "nail boards". I took some scrap 1/2 " plywood, ripped it into 3" by 3" pieces and drove a small nail through the middle. I don't spray but rather brush and use them to finish doors and drawers.

[Erik Loza]

Agreed: "Flat" is easier when you are technique-challenged (like me, LOL...). I use these plastic pyramid-thingies from Lowe's...

272293

Best of luck,

Erik Loza
Minimax USA

[Jeff Monson]

I screw 2 small j-hooks into the bottom of the door, then use a heavy duty coat hanger on the hooks. Pickup the door with the hanger and spray both sides, hang on a rack with the hanger to dry. Works great, the 2 small holes are not visible (bottom side of the door on lowers, top side of the doors on uppers).

[johnny means]

HEY! I wasn't trying to imply anything about anyone's technique. Just stating that spraying flat makes the job a little easier allowing for a smoother work flow. Unfortunately, the bulk of my panels are too large to spray flat and I see plenty of errors due to the difficulty of spraying vertically. IFO, relish the ease of spraying onto a horizontal surface.

[Rick Potter]

I don't have no technique, but I do have nail boards. Pretty quick to make with ply scraps and a 16G brad gun. Don't use brads too long though, they fold too easy.

Rick Potter

[Julie Moriarty]

I recently sprayed a lot of cabinet doors with Enduro Var. I used the plastic pyramids to do the spraying then moved them to another area to dry. I found having the doors laying flat produced no drip marks. One door was for a corner unit and was glued up at 90 degrees. The vertical section had drip marks and took the dye with it. I had to remake the entire door, and that was the most complex of all the doors.

The hanging idea looks great but I'll stick with laying them flat. :)

[Matt Meiser]

I bought the new version of the painters pyramids with the screw tabs and screwed them down in a somewhat random pattern on a piece of ply. I used a nail board for a long time, but the problem with sharp nails is that if you slide that piece there's a good chance the nails are going to scratch. The pyramids are more forgiving.

[Bill Neely]

I spray flat on a nail board taped to a freestanding turntable I built. I used a cheap lazy susan bearing, three pieces of plywood (base, two pieces for the top part), some pipe and fittings. It really makes life easier and it breaks down when I'm not using it.

[Josef Brandauer]

if you are hanging them, bicycle spokes bent to your liking work well (ie, they are strong enough and have a nipple at the end that lifts off the spoke itself).

[Glenn Bird]

When I redid my cupboard doors a few years ago, I noticed small staple holes in the top edge. I repeated the process using the same holes and a few long staples (originally done by the cabinet maker) and hung the doors and sprayed both sides vertically.