Best way to finish inside cabinets with face frames

[Matthew Sherman]

We moved earlier this year and with with my tools not set back up yet I ordered some unfinished cabinets to put in my office. I wished these came with prefinished interior plywood, but they did not and I would like to at least put one or two coat of clear on the inside. I have a HVLP sprayer, but will get some over spray on the face frames, which I intend to paint. Should I just masked the face frames or spray and then come back and do a quick sand before priming those? I was going to use water based poly. I could spray inside and frames, but if I am painting the frames is that a good idea?

[Jamie Buxton]

My HVLP does not spray inside cabinets well at all. The high volume of air blows all the finish back out of the cabinet. When I'm building casework, I spray the back separately from the rest of the cabinet, and staple it on afterwards. If your cabinets' backs are stapled in place, you could pull the staples to separate them from the rest of the cabinet. Then from the back you spray the interior, and you get no overspray on to the cabinet exterior. You spray the back, and staple it back in place.

[Kevin Jenness]

If your paint is compatible with the interior finish you could skip masking the frames. Otherwise, pull the backs off if possible, mask the frames and spray the interior. Then run 1 1/2" or 2" tape around the opening behind the frames, fill the opening with friction fit cardboard secured with tape, and paint the frames.

[Jim Becker]

I'm with Kevin...if you can get the backs off, that will make it far easier and "more pleasant" to spray the interiors. What kind of gun you have can make a difference, too...a gun with the 3M PPS system that can be held in any orientation and even inverted makes the job a lot easier to get finish into corners and reduce the chance of running and overspray. Otherwise, I'd personally bite the bullet and brush the finish.

[Matthew Sherman]

I have a Fuji Semi-Pro 2 gravity. Yea, I might be able to get the backs off.

[Mark Bolton]

How many cabinets? If its just a couple in an office just mask them and blast them with rattle can spray bombs. If they are not already installed you still have issues with can orientation but if they are not installed yet you can roll the cabs around for that. Lots of shops are masking off interiors by default. Its a pain in the butt and the blow back out of the box is a bear but it is what it is. Choke the air on your turbine back as far as you can and adjust your fluid and get the best you can. WB clear is pretty forgiving.