# Kitchen refinish



## Rcon (Nov 19, 2009)

Just finished this one up today. Refinished in BM colour bittersweet chocolate. Definitely want more of these! Ended up taking us almost 150 man-hours to do it. Total of about 80 pieces (doors, drawer fronts). Took us 3 days on site.


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## NCPaint1 (Aug 6, 2009)

Looks awesome, great for the portfolio too. Those type of jobs have a huge impact and a great wow factor. I'm sure your name will come up the first party they have. Nice job.


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## DeanV (Apr 18, 2007)

Very Nice!

Products used?


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## Rcon (Nov 19, 2009)

DeanV said:


> Very Nice!
> 
> Products used?


This is MLC MagnaMax pigmented lacquer, satin.


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## ROOMINADAY (Mar 20, 2009)

I am booking my flight to Kelowna to volunteer for you!..as soon as I slow down... There is a huge market here for this. 

Bravo!


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## RH (Sep 7, 2010)

Now that is something to be proud of! :thumbsup:


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## RCP (Apr 18, 2007)

Awesome stuff, thanks for sharing!


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## straight_lines (Oct 17, 2007)

Rcon said:


> Just finished this one up today. Refinished in BM colour bittersweet chocolate. Definitely want more of these! Ended up taking us almost 150 man-hours to do it. Total of about 80 pieces (doors, drawer fronts). Took us 3 days on site.


So around $350? :jester:


Nice work! You still loving the graco FF?


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## RH (Sep 7, 2010)

btw you missed the bar stools :jester:


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## Rcon (Nov 19, 2009)

straight_lines said:


> So around $350? :jester:
> 
> 
> Nice work! You still loving the graco FF?


lol yeah about tree fiddy :jester:

Graco AAA kicks ass, though I just ordered up a bunch of new parts for it to "pimp it out". Getting a flat tip conversion kit for the g40 and a hopper for 2K materials. Gunna be swwwwwweeeeeeetttt!! :thumbup:


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## daArch (Mar 15, 2008)

I'm impressed !


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## Ole34 (Jan 24, 2011)

WOW !! ............nice work man !!! ................you have something i dont.......PATIENTS


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## Rcon (Nov 19, 2009)

Gibberish45 said:


> btw you missed the bar stools :jester:


I'm going to paint those with some BEHR ULTRA satin tomorrow because it's just so great :jester:


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## Rcon (Nov 19, 2009)

Ole34 said:


> WOW !! ............nice work man !!! ................you have something i dont.......PATIENTS


Patience you mean? Man i'm no doctor :jester:


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## Workaholic (Apr 17, 2007)

As always Alec very nice. :thumbsup:


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## TJ Paint (Jun 18, 2009)

black is the new white

props man.


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## TJ Paint (Jun 18, 2009)

Rcon said:


> This is MLC MagnaMax pigmented lacquer, satin.


you ever get issues with clients and the lacquer odor?

Can they make use of the kitchen during those three days you are on site or in-between those days?

Looked up the PI sheet for it and it said this:
*Old Work: Strip old finishes completely* and remove all contaminants from the surface. Make sure
surface is dry. Finish as new work. If cratering develops on old work, Fish Eye Killer may
remedy this problem, if the contamination is not too severe.

Do you strip the old finish or got a system to bypass that?


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## Rcon (Nov 19, 2009)

TJ Paint said:


> you ever get issues with clients and the lacquer odor?
> 
> Can they make use of the kitchen during those three days you are on site or in-between those days?
> 
> ...


You'll notice they say that on every PI sheet. It's not necessary at all. We don't strip the finish. But we do clean the living snot out of it with lacquer thinner, acetone, toulene and MEK because ALL cabinets are contaminated. Then we sand the crap out of the cabinets, removing about 3 dry mils of material, so it's almost a strip but not not quite. We never break into the underlying colour. 

As for process - we always mask, clean, spray and cleanup before days end. If the project is big (like this one) we do the kitchen in sections - just as long as we KNOW we can complete each section in a day. Then we remove all masking, tools etc and start fresh the next day. That's the thing about on-site refinishes - your customers still need to live in their home. Makes the project a bit more of a pain to do but the way we organize it becomes more of a selling point than a problem.

As far as odor goes - nobody likes it. Not even us. But solvent products are so far superior to any other types of finish we just won't compromise. We explain this to our clients, tell them to allow for lots of fresh air for a few days, and do our best to keep them to a minimum with high CFM fans going all day long. We also do all door finishing at our shop so only the frames get done on site, making it a little more bearable.


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## Paint and Hammer (Feb 26, 2008)

ROOMINADAY said:


> I am booking my flight to Kelowna to volunteer for you!..as soon as I slow down... There is a huge market here for this.
> 
> Bravo!



:thumbsup::thumbsup:


Can we get a two for one special Alec? Looks great....this is your niche!!


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## Rcon (Nov 19, 2009)

Paint and Hammer said:


> :thumbsup::thumbsup:
> 
> 
> Can we get a two for one special Alec? Looks great....this is your niche!!


This is definitely my niche brother :yes:


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## jack pauhl (Nov 10, 2008)

You do nice work :thumbsup:


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## ReNt A PaInTeR (Dec 28, 2008)

Rcon said:


> we do clean the living snot out of it with lacquer thinner, acetone, toulene and MEK because ALL cabinets are contaminated.


Care to explain your cleaning process ?


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## 6126 (May 9, 2010)

Nice work


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## Rcon (Nov 19, 2009)

ReNt A PaInTeR said:


> Care to explain your cleaning process ?


Wax on, wax off :jester:


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## Wolfgang (Nov 16, 2008)

Very nice!!! I like your prep description, and true about using the lacquer "in-house". I loved doing kitchens like this due to the income potential. After they pick themselves up from the floor for new custom built cabinets, the re-do prices always look better. I always felt if I could do a minimum of 6 a year, it would impact my bottom line. Best year, (cab re-do's), I had I did 15.


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## ReNt A PaInTeR (Dec 28, 2008)

Rcon said:


> Wax on, wax off :jester:


Very funny, Not the professional response I expected :thumbsup:


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## Rcon (Nov 19, 2009)

ReNt A PaInTeR said:


> Very funny, Not the professional response I expected :thumbsup:


Aww cmon :jester:

In a sense, wax on wax off is exactly what we do. 

But to go into a bit more detail, we first clean the doors with lacquer thinner and lots of fresh rags to get the majority of the junk off. Then the doors are sanded with 180 grit 3M paper to remove some of the film. Then comes the toulene. I'm not sure why toulene works better than the other solvents but it does. We fold our rags and clean each section of the doors with a fresh side, using lots of solvent. We'll easily go though a whole box with the toulene cleaning. Then we sand again with 320, and follow that with another cleaning using MEK because it evaporates fast, and will show any residual oils and grease that may be left behind. Follow this up with a quick acetone wipe, a final 320 sand and then start with the basecoats (vinyl sealer for an extra layer of protection).

The rest is just lots more sanding and topcoating with at least 2 coats of pigmented lacquer. 

Better?


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## straight_lines (Oct 17, 2007)

That is a lot of work for $350. :icon_smile:


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## ReNt A PaInTeR (Dec 28, 2008)

Rcon said:


> Aww cmon :jester:
> 
> In a sense, wax on wax off is exactly what we do.
> 
> ...


:lol:


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## Dunbar Painting (Mar 19, 2010)

super amazing, and meticulous prep work and masking... definitely in aww.

What tip size do you use for this?


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## Rcon (Nov 19, 2009)

Dunbar Painting said:


> super amazing, and meticulous prep work and masking... definitely in aww.
> 
> What tip size do you use for this?


Used a 210FF, though the next one i'll be using a flat tip instead. Really hard to get proper flow out with lacquer using a RacX, even with the air assist.


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## straight_lines (Oct 17, 2007)

I was wondering that Alec which is why I asked if you liked the graco ff knowing you were spraying lacquer. 

If Scott ever finishes his airmix review I think I will pull the trigger on one. I am just wondering how well it does with acrylic. I know it will lay down glass with solvents. I can also use it to paint machinery, and parts if residential work gets bad again.


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## Rcon (Nov 19, 2009)

straight_lines said:


> I was wondering that Alec which is why I asked if you liked the graco ff knowing you were spraying lacquer.
> 
> If Scott ever finishes his airmix review I think I will pull the trigger on one. I am just wondering how well it does with acrylic. I know it will lay down glass with solvents. I can also use it to paint machinery, and parts if residential work gets bad again.


Not familiar with airmix, but had been looking into getting a Kremlin MVX gun (actually I think there is a newer model out now but can't recall the name), but came across a very similar gun offered by Graco. It's called the G15 and has a flat tip, made for spraying lacquers and other fine finishing materials. Both the G15 and G40 (which I have) have interchangeable parts, so all I needed to do was order up a conversion kit which will turn my existing gun into a flat tip hvlp gun. Can always switch back to use the RacX if needed as well. Less costly than buying a whole new gun and i'm told the performance is as good or better than the kremlin. Should be here on friday i'll post pics


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## straight_lines (Oct 17, 2007)

Airmix is just the Kermlin package with the pump and all. You can run it off a really small compressor. 

I think its where I want to be in terms of fine finish. Only doubts I have is like I said, how well it handles heavy acrylics.


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## Rcon (Nov 19, 2009)

straight_lines said:


> Airmix is just the Kermlin package with the pump and all. You can run it off a really small compressor.
> 
> I think its where I want to be in terms of fine finish. Only doubts I have is like I said, how well it handles heavy acrylics.


Just did some quick reading on it and it seems it uses the same technology as the finishpro (hydraulic fluid with air, though it seems the airmix delivers 0.8 CFM more air than the finishpro). Would be interested to see the minimum PSI needed for the airmix pump as compared to the graco at 600 PSI. 

I don't think it's really made for heavy acrylics, but I have no doubt it could shoot any WB clear without a problem.


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## Rcon (Nov 19, 2009)

straight_lines said:


> Airmix is just the Kermlin package with the pump and all. You can run it off a really small compressor.
> 
> I think its where I want to be in terms of fine finish. Only doubts I have is like I said, how well it handles heavy acrylics.


Here's an interesting comparison of the G15 vs the Kremlin Xcite (updated version of MVX)

gun comparison

Though they made a pretty compelling video for the Xcite

Video - click on the gold gun at top right of page to view


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## Dunbar Painting (Mar 19, 2010)

How do FF tips with air assisted sprayers compare to using an HVLP set up?


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## Mantis (Aug 4, 2008)

Dunbar Painting said:


> How do FF tips with air assisted sprayers compare to using an HVLP set up?


I hvent been able to mimic the quality of HVLP with mine yet. regardless of configuration, i continually get a wee bit more orange peel with the AAA using a 210/310FF tip. at this point ive given up using my AAA for colored lacquer finishing and use it solely for the primer coats of vinyl precat sealer then switch to HVLP or pressure pot. 

Rcon, let me know how the flat tip works out for you, im at a loss with my 395 on lacquer finishing. i just cant get it to produce the quality i need.


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## Mantis (Aug 4, 2008)

beautiful cabinet finishing btw. very good work indeed :thumbup:


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