Altar cloth and storage cabinets – day 15
Today I am finally ready to start spraying finish on these cabinets. I pulled out the drawers and removed all of the slides.
Lower cabinet, shelves, & drawers
With a little creative balancing, I squeezed most of the parts into the right side of my shop. I set up my temporary spray booth by hanging 100′ of plastic sheeting from the floor joists above, with spring clamps.
Upper cabinet
I flipped the top rails, of my knock-down work station, and applied some painter’s tape to the bottom edge. My intent is to spray half of the drawer and then flip them and finish spraying the other side. The side that will be sitting on the tape will be the side that faces the wall. The tape will prevent the finish from sticking to the rails.
Using the rails from my workbench
Starting in the rear
My Earlex sprayer applies a nice, even coat, but I start on the back of the upper cabinet to make sure it is set up correctly. I am also wearing an old shirt, respirator, and a hat. The over-spray floats around and clings to everything. I cover up so I don’t have to feel like I am covered in hair spray…
Spraying the drawers
Lower cabinet and shelves sprayed
I went through one entire quart of polyurethane, applying the first coat.
Drawers sprayed
I had intended to finish coating the doors with a brush, outside the booth, but there was a little floor space left, and the sprayer is so much faster. I brought them in and set them up on the floor. Two minutes later, they were coated as well.
Upper cabinet sprayed
First coat on the spindles
The only parts that wouldn’t fit in the spray booth were my spindles. I actually prefer to use a foam brush on them. Trying to spray inside the spindles would have wasted a butt-load of urethane anyway. I clamped two pieces of scrap to my bench to use as supports, then just rolled the finished spindle back out of the way, to start on the next one.
Spindles done
Just one more day of spraying and everything will be done. I am still waiting on some custom pieces of crown, for the top of my storage cabinet. That should be done by this weekend, so I hope to deliver next week.
Midnight Woodworking 