Preventing Overspray on Cabinet Doors

Tips and suggestions for handling an overspray problem. October 26, 2005

Question
I'm having trouble with overspray on the backsides of my doors. When I spray, I start with the backside of the door, then I do the front side and the edges. When I do the edges, I get the problem of the overspray on the underside of the door, making it unsmooth. Now I spray the backside first and I do the edges at this time. Then I change over to the front and spray straight down and don't do edges. This solves my backside problem, but I get overspray on the edges of the door, which makes them unsmooth. How do you spray your cabinet doors so that you get no overspray on any side or edge?

Forum Responses
(Finishing Forum)
The finish may be bouncing off of what you are sitting the door on.



Don't worry about the backs of the doors. If it really bothers you, hit 'em with some 2000 grit to knock down/off the overspray. Also, to get less overspray, situate a fan to blow over your final/money coat toward your exhaust fan to minimize blow-back.


The spray is bouncing back from what the door is sitting on. Make a stand shaped like a cross-section of an I-beam and spray the edges at a 45 degree angle.


First things first. Cut some scrap MDF or ply approximately 5"W x 12"L. Screw a 3" drywall screw into each corner, set about 1" in. Figure on making 3 to 4 sets depending on your volume of doors/drawers. Now, look at and separate your doors by sizes/pairs. I am figuring that you must have at least some cabinets that are the same size. Now take a set of the screw boards that you fabricated and place on a level surface. Neatly stack your same size sets of doors on the screw boards (with the faces down).

Spray all four edges of stacked doors twice, keeping your gun parallel to the edges. Let the stack flash for 5 minutes, then spray the back surface of each door as you work down, and unload the stack. When the backs are flashed and dry, restack face up. Spray the edges once and then spray faces as you unload. You can also make screw boards of longer lengths. At work, I use the small screw boards for edge work and then transfer the doors onto 12' long boards to do face and back work. That works even better, as you can set the doors up side by side, spray all backs at once, flip 'em all at once, 2 coat the fronts and let them dry undisturbed.



Rub some cardboard over the overspray. It smoothes it out well and doesn't scratch the lacquer if it's dried for awhile.


I put my doors on a gallon can and spray them . This is high enough to prevent overspray on the backs. Not fancy, but it works!