Fresh start oil primer and Ben Moore Satin Impervo (waterborne)

You're right, oil based will yellow and besides are almost unavailable today. I painted our cabinets about a year ago. Found some useful advise and followed it with good results. Here is sort of my recall:

If you are adding/changing hardware, fill holes or drill for new before anything else.
Remove doors, drawers, hinges etc.
Degrease - I used Dirtex. Be sure to get corners well.
Sand lightly to degloss - I used 120 grit.
Clean with a tack cloth to remove ALL dust
Prime - I used an oil based stain blocking one, Kills brand,I believe.
Paint carefully with a high quality brush. Do doors and drawers flat. I used Cabinet Coat brand paint which is latex. Applied two coats. It may take awhile to learn how to apply the paint so as to prevent runs since modern latex paints "skin" rapidly preventing touch-up. I recommend doing an inside cabinet first while you get the hang of it so your outside will look its best. Good luck.

Here is a link to our photos.

Here is a link that might be useful: Kitchen, Before and After

Some tips to help you achieve maximum beauty.

Be sure to caulk any gaps on drawers, doors, stiles, rails, etc., and tool the caulk to a smooth finish. (caulking is always done after primer dries). Allow 4 hours for caulk to skin over.

Paint the stiles and rails first. This will give you time to become comfortable with the paint and brush. Since the stiles and rails are less visible parts, it's the ideal place to practice.

It's of lesser importance overall, but...

What type of wood are your Cabs?
* If coarser-grained Oak, you'll always see the graining "pits".
* This is fine obviously, but consider if you want a SMOOTH look...it's PURE personal preference!!
* Grain-pitting can be minimized SOME by 2 or 3 prime-coats that are LIGHTLY sanded after last coat.
* If TOTAL smoothness is desired....wellll...you've got some work to do!
* Grain-fillers; or FPE's Brushing-Putty or Swedish-Putty will give mirror-results if sanded smoothly.

Again, I only mentioned this because some people are disappointed when their Cabs aren't "smooth" after painting!

Faron

Thank you all for the helpful information. At the risk of sounding Very stupid I need to know if the Fresh Start Alkyd is the Fresh Start oil base primer you refer to. I'm guessing that if it is, I don't need to worry about yellowing since it is only the base coat? Thanks again for your patience.

Yes, for all practical purposes, you can equate "Alkyd" with "Oil-base".

Actually your question is a relevant one, because many people get confused on it...
Correct-
Your base coat can be Oil/Alkyd. Yellowing is irrelevant for basecoats/primecoats, since it's obviously painted over.

Faron

Im doing the same to my bath cabinets. I put 1 coat S/W Oil primer/stain killer/sealer. Thats the only thing I done so far. I did sand with my orbit sander and cleaned it before the primer. Is one coat enough primer? Should I put on a clear coat of somekind? The closest Ace is 40 miles, So S/W is my 1st choice unless B/M will be worth the drive. Im planning on rolling the fronts with a 4" flockfoam roller. The paint is semi gloss.

Obrion-
You did the right prep and used a good primer!

Forget the "Clearcoat" temptation/fallacy...
>>> If you put on a clear-coat of some type too soon, you're trapping paint from curing properly, even though it may "feel" dry. This can lead to paint problems underneath.

Complete "Cure--THRU"....CAN....take a month.
A week is possible IF your home is very dry, with good air-exchange.
>>> This is a key point that many people/painters never seem to realize.....

As I mentioned previously, you can apply more primer IF....IF...you want to slightly fill in any graining.
If you do this, give the prime-coat(s) a day to harden enough to sand slightly with 220-paper.

When you're at your SW store, pick up some of XIM's Latex X-tender for your paint. This is a very good "relaxer" for the paints' binder resin, giving you more working-time before it starts to "set". Leveling is therefore enhanced as well.

>>> Use good technique AND equipment too!!

Faron

So what do I need to let cure for at least a week? The primer? the cabinets before re-installing them?