painting oak cabinits ???

[crown]

 haveing lot of trouble trying to stain oak so thinking i might paint them any advice ? any pictures of painted cabinits ?
goining nuts dont known what to do ? thanks john

[JackConrad]

John,
   Are you trying to stain unfinished oak or refinishing oak?  If it is unfinished oak, what kind of problems are having?  Jack

[crown]

hi jack i am using some of the oak doors from the monico they are all down to bare wood and sanded with 100 & 150 the proublum
is i want a darker color and the stain does not sink in i have never worked with oak before its hard wood my house is all ceder doors
windows kit cab. ect all that we staind came out great i am at a lose as to what to do was thinking maybe sand with 50 or 60 to
get stain to take then fine sand and re stain dont known help john

[luvrbus]

John, I've been to the Monaco factory many times they spray the sealer, stain and finish all in one application. 
The only way I have had success refinishing their cabinets is using lye and water to strip with and it is a PITA to do and you need to careful it will lift the grain on plywood.


good luck

[Dreamscape]

The courser the sandpaper the darker the color. Just make sure all of the old finish is off.

Have Fun!

Paul

[crown]

hi luvrbus all the old finish is gone the way the way its been done in costa rica is to use glass to scrape done to bare
wood it like you used a plane work great maybe i sanded to fine thanks paul

[Just Dallas]

Removed

[luvrbus]

John, the sealer is never gone it is embedded in the grain and no amount of sanding will remove it you have to lift it.  


good luck

[Phil H / Chicago]

John...others are correct....if the previous finish was sprayed on it will take a great deal of sanding to remove it so as not to affect the new finish. And even more so in the open grain of oak. With proper sanding you can remove the old finish from the flat/smooth surface but it is really hard to remove from the open grain.

If your final sanding is with 100grit paper then that should not be to slick to take stain. The 150 paper will cause some problems if you want a dark finish. If you try to sand with anything more course than 100 grit you will start seeing all the sanding marks.

Depending on how dark you want the finish to be you may have to do it in a two step process and be very gentle as you wipe the stain off. You can also use some of the darker glaze finish to achieve more depth in color. One thing we use to do when I had my own shop was to actually put some of the stain in the sealer and that would tint the finish when you spray/brush the finish on.

Also you could consider letting the stain settle in the can and pour off some of it before you stir up the can. All of the "mud" will settle in the bottom of the can.

If you do want to see what painted oak looks like maybe go to some of the kitchen cabinet websites and you will be able to view some painted door samples. Personally I don't think you will be as happy as stained...but each to his own.

Thanks,
Phil

[cody]

Your dealing with the sealer and cliffords advice is the only way to get the sealer out is to use lye and soak the wood, I've had very little luck in redoing Monico cabinets because of the method they use, they warm the doors and then spray and heat treat the wood to create a very hard deep finish, the stain doesn't sink in very deep but the sealer does. Time wise is far easier to pitch the doors and drawer fronts and build new ones, you can strip the cabinet fronts with a sharp scraper, just be careful on the pull, you want to have the scraper sharp then set the blade at an angle to so your slicing instead of dragging the blade over the surface, the hard part is preventing a run off where the blade takes a dive sideways, that'll gouge it. One thing in your favor is Monico used standard sizes for their doors and drawer fronts, what is working against you is it's a plastic coating on many of them that is durable but deeply embedded.