Hi folks,

Just a quick one, something to do with the missus over the holidays (exams finish this saturday) is paint two chests of drawers i have (which're since i've had them for the last few years until today, have been an off white and a pretty pink!) as well as a tool cabinet i picked up on saturday. The drawers were made by my great grandfather, so I intend to do a proper job that my mum and grandparents are happy with.

I've painted a few cars so am familiar with the sand/bog/sand/sand/sand/prime/sand/prime/sand..../colour coat/sand/colour/colour.../clear/clear/clear process using a spray gun and acrylic paints.

I'll head into a paint shop to ask them but it'd be great if i had some sort of idea before i went in.

- Acrylic paint or will i be looking for something else?
- 160 grit then some 500 should be enough to tidy the wooden surface up yeh?
- Is priming as critical?
- Can i use the spray gun, or should i be looking the brush/roller style painting?
- Clears and finishing? (obviously, dont want to still be running my hand over it a couple of days later and getting colour on me)

The 900x900x400 tool cabinet i got second hand and has a bit of surface rust at the rear i'll clean up, but this one I'm not sure either. Being metal i assume it would be nicer to spray, but is it possible to get some of that cool hammer finish paint to be sprayed? (or does it just come in a pressure pack?).

IF it comes down to spraying, i was thinking that 2L of colour (thinking tan or black) should be enough for the drawers, and 1L of black for the tool cabinet.

Appreciate any tips. (Might also be handy next year when i paint the boxes for some speakers )

- enzo

Mmmmm yeh, i think thats about it.

EDIT - see most recent post

Id spray them if you have the equipment, will give the nicest finish by far


If they were painted previously in an oil based paint you will have to stick with that and if you sand the paint back just so it is smooth and dont go back to raw timber there should be no need to prime it

cheers luke.

i did a quick google. (like i probably should have done in the first place)

and yeh, probably stick with spraying the paint. I'll ask at the shop what sort to get.

sand paper
paint
primer
thinners

...all set touch wood. (no pun intended)

also, decided on either a chocolate or beige colour for the two chests i think (have tan sort of stuff around my room so should be fine)
and will look into a charcoal hammer finish for the tool cabinet. (septone make it, supercheap keep septone products = win)

I am awesome, bow at my feet...

Kirk is good at polishing his own wood

hmm....ok....so, I'll be attempting to get energetic enough to actually do this quite soon...moving house at the end of next week

as opposed to painting now however, i intend to strip and sand them back to the wood (if i can)...and then apply a dark varnish

any tips on this or should i be right just to waltz into the hardware shop and ask them what they've got? (worth going to bunnings?)

i've never used paint stripper before but figure it'll do just that, strip the oil based/whatever stuff off the drawers, if not, im sure some 160grit will do the trick

any type of varnish do? (guess i'll have to brush it on though ....i lurv teh gravity feed)

cheers guys

also, the hammer finish on that cabinet came up wicked.

blanky, no more polishing anyones wood alright

edit: never mind

contact addikt
he does this stuff

he could give you some usefull tips


and kirk is GHEY

I'm doing a 1940's kitchen dresser at the moment.

I would actually suggest going to an actual paint store. Explain to them you've never done this type of thing. Most of these guys are very helpful.

Admittedly im not varnishing im just stripping and painting (airgun spray painting at that)
But stripping and sanding is a task of its own - particularly if you dont know the condition of the wood underneath.

if your applying a stain make sure you get a bit of practice in - Trav suggested to me when i was staining my wine racks to apply the stain with sand paper. I tried it on the last 3 that I did and they came up much better and needed far less "finishing" than the earlier ones painted with a brush. But like I say do some testing first - a brush might be better on a larger surface

cheers yeh, I'm thinking i'll be painting these too. not as pretty underneath as i thought they could turn out to me. and besides, i love the spray gun.

What type of spray gun you using?
I'm using a pressure pot style spray gun - was told this is the best type for painting furniture. Plus its supposed to be good for HVLP spraying (I need to touchup / re-coat my fence - got some transit damage)

My dresser has required a new floor in one section and I've had to inlay a new piece in the side to get the levels right as its had borer in it at some stage which have made a mess. I'm also adding a thin strip of aluminum or something as the sliding doors were just rolling on the wood and this has damaged the wood severely (its gone the whole way through in some sections). Thankfully having a brother who was a fine furniture maker (he used to fit out top end home theatres (danny's boss was one of their clients) and even the odd jet or two) has helped as he has been able to show me how to do a few things I would other wise have struggled with (and I believe is where the previous owner gave up).

I'm actually really enjoying it. Its taking a fair while - mind you I've been cutting out brickwalls inside the house as well at the same time - which is pretty full on for someone with my lack of skills. (Yay for 9" grinders , masonry discs and sledge hammers!). Hopefully the end product is good and other people can appreciate the work that's gone into it.

It depends on how the old paint sands back to what strategy you should use .

should find out properly in the next two days. been busy with uni and moving house.

the idea is to get the missus to sand it back and you paint it

Pfft - the minister of war and finance doesn't have the patience to sand it all and prepare it properly. I'll let her do the painting - im not much cop at painting any way cause of my shakes.

In other news - got my new floor in it yesterday. I even bought a crosscut saw and a tenon saw (sick of borrowing and returning dads all the time) - thats an expensive exercise! Though I did go by the buy once buy right motto - so hopefully I wont be replacing them in a hurry