Companion Bath Cabinet and Frame - Build Along - Final Chapter
#8
Here's a link to Part 4.

I lightly sanded the outside of the cabinet with 180 grit by hand in prep. for finishing, making sure to relieve all the edges so the finish would build better around them. To deal with the edges of the BB plywood that make up the door panels I coated them with lightweight joint compound



and then sanded them smooth after it dried.



I filled any holes and defects in the cabinet and moldings with the same stuff. But it's surprising what you don't see until you put a coat of primer on things.





So it was the typical prime, fill, sand, repeat until you can't find anymore defects - and then look it over really good again because there probably are still some you haven't found. So after 2 coats of BIN Pigmented Shellac Primer, and 3 in some spots, the cabinet looked like this.



BIN primer sprays beautifully through my air assisted HVLP gun. It probably sprays well through a gravity feed gun, too, because the viscosity is surprisingly low at about 30 seconds #4 Ford cup for a pigmented product.

I am really glad I didn't glue in the upper shelf. It made spraying a lot easier. I wish I had left both shelves out though because it was still a challenge. I let the primer dry overnight then hand sanded everything again with 400 grit sandpaper and vacuumed it clean. The finish was General Finishes Enduro White Poly, satin sheen. I've used this before and 2 coats is sufficient. But this time some of the finish congealed around the needle/nozzle inside the gun after I let it sit for 2 or 3 hours to let the first coat dry and scuff sand, and that gave me problems with the second coat. It just didn't look perfect, so I sanded it again and sprayed a 3rd coat after completely cleaning the gun. That sprayed beautifully and the cabinet and mirror frame look store bought nice. The GF White Poly has a viscosity of around 100 seconds. It sprays great with my air assisted gun with only a 1.3 mm needle/nozzle, but it would be challenging with a gravity gun. I just want to point that out in case you think it looks good and wanted to try it. You would have to thin it some and use at least a 1.8 mm needle/nozzle.

Assembly was just a matter of sliding in the upper shelf, installing the drawer slides and fronts, and screwing the back on. The bottom molding is still not permanently attached; I'll do that during installation.









I sprayed the drawers with a coat of SealCoat shellac followed by 2 coats of EnduroVar.



That's it. Thanks for following along.

John
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#9
Thanks again for the process posts, John. I'm going to be trying my hand at spraying with an Earlex HV5500 spray station as soon as I get a spray booth set up. It's a good reminder from your post that surface prep is key.

Bob
"All that I do or say is all that I ever will be"

Billy Joe Shaver, Old Five and Dimers Like Me
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#10
John,

Very nice and very informative! Thank you for sharing!

I had a question about one note above about using light joint compound to make the plywood edges smoother. I am building drawers that I plan to paint but I'm using a lesser quality plywood than BB with a few more voids. I would also like to make the edges smoother before I paint them. I was thinking about maybe using the cheap acrylic caulk that painters use everywhere. Is joint compound a better choice?
Mats
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#11
I've never tried painters caulk on a flat surface, only in corners. I'd be concerned about it being too soft. I can't say if joint compound is better, but it is cheap and lots of folks use it.

John
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#12
John, great build-along! And great "lessons learned" type tips. This finishing part shows why painting is so much more than spraying! It's also why I hate painting. The workmanship can be nearly perfect but the primer/paint shows every little imperfection.

Thanks for sharing,

Joel
USN (Corpsman) 1968-1972
USAF Retired Aug 31, 1994
Santa Rosa County, Fl Retired Jun 1, 2012
Now just a hobbiest enjoying woodworking!
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#13
Joel H. said:


John, great build-along! And great "lessons learned" type tips. This finishing part shows why painting is so much more than spraying! It's also why I hate painting. The workmanship can be nearly perfect but the primer/paint shows every little imperfection.

Thanks for sharing,

Joel





Joel,

John's work should be relatively easy to finish. He doesn't have any imperfections to highlight!

Ken
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#14
Great work John. The spackle or joint compound is a good choice in my experiences. I've used Bondo as well but it dries very hard so sanding it back flush is more time consuming. Filling holes with caulk on a furniture piece like this is a poor choice, IMO. You can't overfill and sand caulk back flush so you either tool it perfectly or you're SOL....and latex caulk doesn't have a very long open time. Great work!


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