Painting? What's your method

[msajeep]

Hey guys,  I"ve got a job coming up where they want some built ins that are painted white.  What do you guys usually do if you have a painted project?  

I find my painted projects do not come out as nice as when I stain/finish, so I'm looking for some new methods.  .

I have a basic HVLP sprayer.  

Do you guys usually use white paint?  If so from where?  Or do you use other tinted finishes?

I've seen now that they sell pre-primed plywood, I was debating on using that although it's double the price of regular birch ply.

Just wondering for those of you guys who do painted cabinets, what do you use and what's your procedure.

Any help is appreciated.

[fredhargis]

I've done exactly 5 painted projects (ever) so I can't answer as an experienced painter. That said, they did turn out nice, even though I found it to be more work than stained/finished stuff. One was white, the others used tinted paint, and 2 used oil based enamel (my favorite, if it's possible to use it) and 2 used a 100% acrylic water borne paint. I've used Olympic paint and Sherwin Williams (the Olympic was from Lowes). All of them had some plywood in the piece, the remaining wood was either poplar or maple. The hardwood parts haven't ever presented a problem for me, the real work was in the plywood. The grain (even with a good cabinet grade ply....maple or birch in my case) just seems to be hard to conceal. Eventually I started priming it with Zinsser BIN shellac based primer, which allowed me to sand it to a very smooth surface and paint that. On one I made the door panels out of MDO, which worked very well as the MDO surface was dead smooth. These were always sprayed with an HVLP gun (the oil paint with a Wagner conversion gun, the acrylic with my Fuji turbine gun). Doubt this was much help, but for what it's worth I though I'd throw it in.

[jteneyck]

Paint is much harder than stain/clear coat.  Every little defect sticks out like a sore thumb, especially with white and light colors.  I haven't done that many paint jobs, but I've been happy when I used BIN shellac primer or SW's drywall and wood (I think) primer.  Both sand beautifully, and BIN is cheaper, so that's what I use now unless the paint says to only use their own primer.  Anyway, it's prime, sand, inspect, fill defects, and repeat until you find no more defects.  Any short cuts here only come back to haunt you. 

Nearly every paint I've used is too thick to spray with a gravity feed HVLP gun w/o substantial thinning.  ML Campbell's Aqualente is the one exception I know.  I'm talking waterborne paints because that's all I use.  I have a pressure assisted HVLP gun and it sprays WB paints beautifully w/o thinning, all the way up to 500 seconds #4 Ford cup, which includes GF's Enduro White Poly (100 sec.) and BM's Advance (500 sec.).  BM's advance takes forever to cure, but it's a dream to spray or brush, and comes in every color of their color palette, and it's relatively cheap compared to many other products.  SW's ProClassic (also 500 sec) dries and cures much quicker but only comes in a limited color palette, and only pastel. 

John

[Rob Young]

Paint is much harder than stain/clear coat.  Every little defect sticks out like a sore thumb, especially with white and light colors.  I haven't done that many paint jobs, but I've been happy when I used BIN shellac primer or SW's drywall and wood (I think) primer.  Both sand beautifully, and BIN is cheaper, so that's what I use now unless the paint says to only use their own primer.  Anyway, it's prime, sand, inspect, fill defects, and repeat until you find no more defects.  Any short cuts here only come back to haunt you. 


John

This.  One thousand times, this!  Every time I try painting something and I think I'm over doing the pre-work, I find I'm not and I could have spent another 30 minutes inspecting so I don't have to fix something between coats!

Last thing I painted was a chair I built as a practice piece.  Both to learn how chairs are built and as practice for spraying finish on a chair.  Zinsser BIN two times followed by a base color coat of General Finishes Milk Paint (a waterborne acrylic) and two top-coats of another color of the GF Milk Paint.  

Zinsser BIN sprays like a champ in my 4-stage HVLP with a 1.3mm needle/nozzle.  The GF Milk paint also sprays very well with the 1.3mm N/N but depending on the color of paint, you may need to add 5% water to bring the time down to 30 seconds through a #4 Ford cup.  I could have just swapped out to a 1.5mm N/N but I wanted to see how it flowed out with a little dilution.

Other paints I've sprayed have been Rustoleum brand outdoor acrylic latex, on Adirondack chairs.  I haven't inspected them after wintering over on the deck (mild winter though) so I don't know yet how well they did.  The Rustoleum I believe I sprayed with a 1.8mm N/N and added 2%-5% of Floetrol, possibly also a dash of water.  Again, just to get it into the right range of time through the #4 cup.

Zinsser BIN, coat #2 (fooled the phone camera's exposure too!)



Base color coat


Top coat after 2 rounds

[msajeep]

Do you guys put a finish coat on top of the paint?

[jteneyck]

Yes over milk paint, no over others. 

John

[fredhargis]

I've not used milk paint, but if I do I will top coat it. But for the others, there seems to be little or no eason to top coat with anything. the paints themselves are just as durable as anything you put over them.

[Rob Young]

Yes over milk paint, no over others. 

John

Yes, but not yet on this one as I may either change the color of mess with something like "pinstriping" (think Swedish f o l k painting).

I have used the following of milk paint (both real stuff -- which does look nice if you are careful, the the GF acrylic):
shellac, oil varnish, polyurethene (various)

I've also done just BLO and wax as a finish on real milk paint and it looks nice but of course is not as durable as a film.  But the real stuff is casein based and is quite tough all on its own.

[mikefm101]

Yes I put a single coat of water base poly on top of most painted pieces especially if shelves. I do find things stick to the paint until it cures, and sometimes when humid. It also provides some level of protection. Just one coat though, have never needed more. Minwax water base poly has been fine.

Mike