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practical question: best way to spraypaint metal cabs?
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Posted by
flyleft (
My Page) on
Fri, Sep 14, 12 at 1:38
| Hi folks,
I can do tiny grout-line mosaics, install tile so that you can slide a dime across a floor, refinish wood, veneer plywood, etc. with the best of them, but I'm such a mess with spray paint that I almost always end up with unevenness, slight drips, and general cruddiness.
What are the magic tips to spray painting? I have two file cabinets that I'm putting in my almost finished study (for which I reengineered and reveneered two simple midcentury pieces from the Habitat ReStore, and we'll be using a mahogany bookcase from there too : )) (I will also be installing a piece of 3form with ginkgo leaves in it from a salvage as a kind of half-room-divider--that's going to be my treat when everything else is done--so there are a few bits left before I take pics).
I want to take these file cabinets from black to a light color. Should I put on some sort of primer for metal? I don't scuff them, do I? Any and all guidances, advice, etc. most welcome. I'm so close to being done! |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: practical question: best way to spraypaint metal cabs?
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| Clean well with TSP. Use a metal primer, gray, easy to find at hardware store. Then paint your bright color. I think metal is easier to spray paint. The trick to oops is one long spray and overlapping a bit. Try to keep your pressure on the can even and spray the distance rec. Not doing so is why a lot of spray results end up with shiny and dull areas. No wind helps too, so inside the garage or closed space. Let it dry and second coat. You can use many different spray paints, but there is a new Kryon X2 out with great reviews. Again, easy to find in the spray paint section. |
RE: practical question: best way to spraypaint metal cabs?
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| They have special trigger top that you snap on to the spray paint can. YOu clean it after each use and it is re-used. I have used mine for several years. It makes it very easy to get a fluid and smooth movement . It also saves your finger. I second the primer. Also follow the directions about the time to re-coat etc Also make sure and not get too close to the item being sprayed. Make sure and use appropriate clothing and a breathing mask that contains good filters. Eye protection, long sleeves. Please make sure and do this. I preach this and many times folks say" oh I am painting outside", Ha...that has nothing to do with it. If you can smell the paint you are breathing the particles. If you see a fine mist on your clothing you are breathing it too. My .02 :) |
RE: practical question: best way to spraypaint metal cabs?
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| Thank you both! Great tips. I'll find that primer and also find that special trigger top. I am concerned about losing control because of my carpal tunnel, so the trigger will really help. I see one called CanGun1 that is made in the USA that has the longest squeeze part so I can use all my fingers, not just my first two (the carpal tunnel ones), and seems to get good reviews, so I'll pick up one at Ace today. I also appreciate your advice to wear a mask. I'll try to paint inside with protection up to prevent overspray. And technicolor -- did you mean Rustoleum X2? I can find that, but not the Krylon x2...? |
RE: practical question: best way to spraypaint metal cabs?
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| Fly, I recently bought a flat file cabinet on CL that my daughter wanted to use as a coffee table. It was also black, and she wanted it white. I can't tell you how many coats of spray paint I used (over primer) and it never looked even. I finally bought a quart of paint from Sherwin Williams in the same color as the Krylon paint I had been using - Dover White. (SW owns Krylon, and it was a match) I applied it with a foam roller, and while not as smooth as the spray finish, it looks good. |
RE: practical question: best way to spraypaint metal cabs?
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| Hmmm--that's much more up my usual alley, terri -- thanks. Glad to hear it worked out after all that effort! (I spent a lot of time refinishing vintage vertical grain mahogany and having it be blotchy, only to read after *weeks* that old mahogany doesn't like to be refinished! I ordered some v.g. mahogany veneer and all is now well : )) I wonder if I'll end up rolling the paint on... |
RE: practical question: best way to spraypaint metal cabs?
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| Ooops, yes, meant Rustoleum. I spray painted a 40's kitchen cabinet and it turned out great. The only thing is it now looks like a file cabinet to me because of the color used. Rolling would give you a softer result. And easier. I would use a smaller good foam one. Be sure to remember the primer. |
RE: practical question: best way to spraypaint metal cabs?
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| Spray paint requires thin coats...better more thin than trying to cover in the first one or two. If you watch auto body sprayers, they will do a stroke evenly in one direction, spraying slightly past the item, stop spraying, then start spraying again for the return stroke before they hit the item and do it again at the far side of the object. This avoids issues of too much paint at the edges. Also, much harder is to keep the spray can evenly distanced from the object as your natural tendency is to spray in an arc which will give more paint in the middle than it will at the edges. If you want a really nice paint job, take it to an auto body shop. Good shops have painters who will do an excellent job for you. |
RE: practical question: best way to spraypaint metal cabs?
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| Thanks, Annie. When we had our refrigerator painted from white to black (it's 1999 vintage Maytag and still running *fine*), we had an electrostatic paint job done *in our garage*. We paid more for it, but there was no reason to get a new fridge and with the replacement gaskets and such, looks like it was 'born' that way : ) These being just salvage-bought file cabinets I am tending not to want to take them to a place that will charge me more than I paid for them... Which brings me to my now-question: is it o.k. to *roll* on the *primer* too? They're clean now, but I'm balking at spraying on the primer--a foam roller would be so much easier... Yes? |
RE: practical question: best way to spraypaint metal cabs?
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| Yes! Roll the primer on also. You may want to do 2 coats of primer then lightly sand it before the final coats of paint. |
RE: practical question: best way to spraypaint metal cabs?
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| I'll do it! I'm going to trade in my spray paint at Ace tomorrow morning. Get a good roll-on metal primer and dig around for a gloss paint I have already and get to work. The two coats/sanding thing sounds good. Thank you so much. |
RE: practical question: best way to spraypaint metal cabs?
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| Foam rollers rule!! Thank you all so much for your help. I used Rustoleum oil-base clean metal primer, two coats, and I've put one coat on of a paint that I thought I would like more, but I'll do a slightly different color for the final coat. Could *not* have been easier. I never would have thought of it if not for g'web. THANK YOU!!! |
RE: practical question: best way to spraypaint metal cabs?
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| I sure wish I had known about using a foam roller and that paint before too !! I got the Rustoleum oil base paint and we used it to paint our pool coping. We used green scrubbies to remove the white chalk on the aluminum. We then painted the semi-gloss using a good sash brush. It was so easy. The paint just flows on and with the sash brush I didn't need to tape along the concrete !! WOW....so we all learned something fly !! Thanks for reporting back...no more spray for this gal either. c |
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