Supporting Doors for Spray Finishing
More tips on how to sit, stand, rack or stack cabinet doors while spraying them. April 21, 2007
Question
How does everyone set up to finish interior doors? What is the best way to support the door during finishing, to turn the door, and to store the door for drying? Any helpful hints would be appreciated.
Forum Responses
(Finishing Forum)
From contributor R:
Check out Pivot Pro. A much less costly way is to lie on horses, do one side at a time - time consuming and awkward. Or stand them up in the shape of a "W" with nailers at tops of each door and spray away. Floor must be clean! Sherwin-Williams sells a metal device to pound into the tops of the doors to create the 'W' between all the doors. Use caution if the doors are solid... must be fastened securely to support the truss-like alignment.
From contributor J:
It works pretty well to hang them - that way you can do both sides at once. Let it hang until it is touchable, then carefully lean it against something so just the very top corner is touching the wall.
From contributor M:
Use 2.5 inch screws in the top and bottom and screw into the rails, not the end grain on the stiles. Then set them out on sawhorses resting on the screws. This allows the door to be flipped while the finish is still wet.
From contributor P:
Do as contributor R with the W. We will spray 50 - 70 doors (with paint) double coat in a matter of hours. You can cruise down the row and do fronts and backs at same time!
From contributor F:
Two sawhorses on castors and a vertical slat screwed to the sawhorses which is then screwed to the ends of the door. The door is positioned on its side standing up suspended between the slats. Spray one side, swing it around and do the other. When the doors are done, remove the slats and go back to putting cabinets on them to be sprayed. We once did 35 for a church in this fashion.
From contributor A:
Rosin paper on the floor. 1x3 stringers with 2 screws into each door to prevent movement, a little retarder in the lacquer, and you're set.
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From contributor I:
Here's a link to a Knowledge Base article that I submitted a while back. I hope it helps.
Finishing Rack for Wood Doors
From the original questioner:
These are all great ideas. Thank you very much for you posts.
From contributor Z:
We screw 2' 2x4's to the top and bottom of each door. While spraying, we set a 2' x 8' piece of plywood on two horses, then rest the door on that piece of plywood. After spraying one side, we grab the door by the 2x4's and flip it to spray the other side. Here is the cool part - once we finish spraying, we can stack the doors right on top of each other (lining up the 2x4's). So we don't need a ton of room for storing our drying doors. We save the 2x4's from job to job since they are all pre-drilled for the 3" screws. We never have to worry about runs, since the doors are always flat. The only down side to this method is that it is always a 2-man operation. We keep the 2x4's on the door through staining and two coats of Magnamax.
