Painted Cabinet Door Drying Rack

[Todd Burch]

I've been painting a lot lately, and could never find enough places to lean doors while they dry. So, I fixed the problem. I made a drying rack.

It's pretty simple in design. There are two uprights. I used 2" x 2" pine for the uprights. I was painting 8 doors, so I added 8 arms per upright. I used 1X3 pine for the arms spaced them on 5" centers vertically. There are 4 nails in each arm holding it to the upright. I didn't mess with glue. My doors are pretty skinny, so I made my uprights 12" long. With 2" for nailing, they stick out 10". (My doors are about 12" wide or so...). After I nailed on the uprights, I nailed three 18" long cross members to the backs of the uprights (top, middle and bottom). I then screwed the whole assembly through the crossmembers to an unfinished doorway with the rack resting (standing) on the floor. Plenty of rigidity for holding doors as they dry. It takes up very little space, and my investment in time and materials won't break my bank if I throw it away after the project is complete.

With this type of rack, I can only paint the 4 edges and one side at a time.

Maybe this idea will help someone else that is space-challenged.

Todd.

[Jason Roehl]

Hey, Todd, could you take the pieces of glass off those doors so that we can see them a little better?

I've been using drying racks for years (though I've never gotten around to making my own), but I often use them for prefinishing trim packages in new construction.

[Todd Burch]

Hey Jason - there ain't no stinkin' glass on them thar doors. Just smooooth paint my friend!

[Ken Frantz]

When I had my cabinet shop and was doing a lots of clear finishing on interior shelving, I took 1 X 2's and shot 1 1/4 staples through them about a foot apart and I had the space to lay the sticks with the staples on 55 gal drums about a foot apart. Then I laid my material to be sprayed on these stapled strips and sprayed one side and went back and turned the material over and sprayed the other side and the edges. Since my shop was out in the country, I did most of my spraying outside and the spray "run" sometimes 30 feet long. When using lacquer, the material would be dry to turn over after the "run" the "prick marks" from the staples were just about undectable.

When doing mica laminated doors, I built a square "post' out of 1 X 12's and used 1 X 2's for cross pieces like a tree and could lay doors and mica on all sides while the glue was drying.

The above method would work also if you would put brads into the "tree limbs" to hold the material after spraying, but you would have to do the spraying like I was talking about with the 1 X 2 strips or board to spray on and then transfer to the drying "tree"

I hope this is clearer than mud to you!!!!!

KEN