DAY 7 - Kitchen Cabinet Painting Project

Friday, June 17th, 2011
I'm not sure how much I'm going to recap tonight, as I'm really tired.  I didn't do that much more than normal today, but maybe it's finally catching up to me.

This a.m. I went to the paint store to buy some more Brushing Putty and the FPE Mineral Spirits to thin the primer for the HVLP sprayer.  I bought the EuroGallon of the BP, but I think I should have just bought 2 more quarts, in case I don't use the other one. Oh well.  If one of my local friends decides to embark on this adventure and use the FPE line, I'll give it to them. We'll see.

Hubby and I cleaned out one side of the garage so I could paint the cabinet doors and drawer fronts down there..  It will also become a spray booth to spray the doors and drawer fronts after.

Then we prepped the kitchen some more so he could start spraying 1st coat of primer.
PREP VIDEO HERE 

We decided to NOT spray the inside of the cabinets as it would take more paint. (although, since we are spraying, we are discovering we may have a LOT of primer and paint left over, as you don't use as much)

So he built his cardboard contraption things to hold inside the cabinets as he sprays vs. masking them off.  Genius!  (although professional painters probably have something like this. I think that is what he said?)

He set up his HVLP sprayer.  NOTE, his HVLP sprayer is a actually a detail automotive HVLP sprayer made for the automotive industry.  Not your typical HVLP sprayer. (I think that is what Hubby said?). He used it to spray his boat or something, he's not in the automotive industry.  Just really handy.
Oh and b/c he is using this sprayer, it needs to attach to a compressor, which he has.

Same thing you hook a nail gun to. He has everything, luckily.  So, that was in the garage while I'm getting ready to paint, and it's LOUD.

I think if you rent one from Home Depot its' a turbine sprayer or something.  I don't know, I'm just glad he's spraying and i don't have to brush on 3 more coats of everything!

Also, because you are spraying an oil primer, you need to thin it with Mineral Spirits. FPE strongly recommends using their Mineral Spirits.  Of course, more $$ for them. It was only $24 for the Eurogallon at least.

 

And luckily hubby is smart as when he was measuring out how much mineral spirits to add, he had to convert from metric I believe. I don't know, not my area to figure out the sprayer. 

So yes, this has become 50% his project as well and maybe I need change the title of this blog  ;o)

Then, he sprayed and I video taped for about 1 mintue (below) and then had to get out of there because of the fumes. The sprayer is almost like an airbrush sprayer and does a light coat.  So, he will do another coat of primer.  It took him about 45 min. or less once he started.  Oh, and he probably should have put his respirator mask on, but he forgot. next time.

The texture is that as if you, well, sprayed lightly!  Definitely not orange peel, but it looks sprayed and not smooth.  I wanted that though.  Hopefully you can see the texture from these pictures.

 
 This 3rd pic BEKOW was over the super-smooth "like glass" area/panel that the grain filler really filled.

It didn't really cover up any existing grain marks, yet. I don't know if that is a product of spraying and it being a light coat and if you brush on everything, if it might help fill in more? I don't know.  After every coat we'll see. At this point I don't care anymore as you can only see it up close in certain angles if you are REALLY looking.  I only care that I spent so much $$ on this stuff when I still could have gotten good stuff, but for less (Benjamin Moore or Cabinet Coat). We'll see when it's all done.  I hope I didn't fall into some Marketing ploy when I'm in the business  ;o)

At the end of the day I think it will look great! However, I think no matter what you do with oak cabinets, you will minimally see the grain.

I went in the garage and put the 1st coat of BP on all the doors/drawers.  Only the fronts and edges. The backs you don't really care if you see the grain, so they will only be primed and painted.

I had Hubby put together a peg board with nails to paint each cabinet on so  could get the edges and wipe the drips.  I then carefully took it off from underneath and put it on the plastic.  they will stick a little, but much less. And, remember there is sanding involved, so no need to stress that much, as you can sand it away.  If you are going to brush on the primer and paint, you might want one huge pegboard.  I don't know.  I'm just glad I'm not brushing all these coats!!!

Just make sure you have everything set up and ready to go, as like I said, this stuff gets tacky quicker than regular paint.  So, you just have to plug through it, yet put in on thick and watch for drips.

I used the rest of the 2nd Euroquart first - I had about 3/4 left.  That got me through 6 doors and 2 drawer fronts.  It took about 1.5hrs.



I took a quick lunch break then started up to finish the rest and they took me almost 3hrs.  I did 16 door fronts and 6 drawer fronts today. I had already done the 1st coat on those other 2 drawer fronts and 2 door fronts.

 




I only used about 1/4 of the Eurogallon, which makes me think I should have just gotten 2 more quarts and just brought back 1 quart if I didn't need...grrr. oh well.

This how thick I applied it and what it looks like with 1st coat just painted.

And slightly dry:

 Also, at first I tested 3 options for application.  A 1.5" 'Better' brush, a 1" 'BEST' brush, and then the foam brush.

 

 The 1" and 1.5" worked best both because of size and the quality. So, I used those 2 for the rest.

I know they say to use throw away brushes, but using better brushes give you better results.  Your choice whether to throw them away after each coat of BP, just rinse them with Mineral Spririts.  I ended up rinsing them down with the mineral spirits when I took that 1st break, versus throwing them away before I started the rest of them.  This was my 1st time working with oil paints, and it isn't that bad. The fumes are worse and it is a pain that you can't just wash away with water, but it's not horrible. Just be careful when you touch stuff as remember, you can't just wipe it away with water like latex!

Oh, and I forgot to take my wedding rings off today, but I've taken them off every other day! Ughh...So, I quickly scrubbed them in the mineral spirits so the paint wouldn't set.  Remember this is not latex paint!

Anyway...'til next time!