Are you saying there's NO finish on the cabinets now? No poly or "varnish".
Cause the only way to "plug" the grain is to sand down to the BARE wood.
And if you don't know what a "tack rag" is, you'd better find out real
quick.
What a terrible thing to do to a very pretty wood. But, as my daddy used to
say, there's no accounting for taste!



"wendi" wrote in message
news:FASwc.56624$mm1.46135@fed1read06...
Hi Roger,

How is approach #2 easier? Isn't brushing on liquid sandpaper easier than
sanding mechanically?

As for getting the surface super clean, how can you get them dust free
with
all that sanding going on? What do you use to clean the surface before
the
primer goes on? I was planning to use mineral spirit to give them a final
wipe and prime them immediately before any dust could get on. Do the same
between every coat of paint. BTW, how many coats of paint did you put?
Since the primer is white, would I be able to get away with just one coat
of
white paint on top of two coats of primer. I planned to put a brown glaze
over the white paint and water-based polyurethene as the varnish. I've
seen
this poly-acrylic, super hard top coat at the hardware store. I don't
know
if I should go for that. What did you use as the varnish (or the
protective
top finish)?

I don't like the open grain of oak. I'm hoping the primer can fill those
"holes". Would putting more coats of primer do the trick? Why do people
always put two coats of primer anyways? The more the better?

(2) (easier) In order not to breach the clearcoat over our stained oak,
we
just cleaned the varnish over the stain with 409 or fantastic, then
lightly

I see. Basically, you tried to preserve the existing varnish as much as
possible. I don't know what the existing varnish of my cabinets are. I
used to think they're polyurethene (the cabinets are 17yrs old). Then,
one
day I had a wet towel left hanging over identical cabinets overnight and
the
top varnish just came off exposing bare stained wood. I also did a test
using denated alocohol on a spot for 20min, and the finish turned really
dull. I'm thinking that liquid sanding, hand sanding or cleaning with 409
would just easily remove the finish, thus exposing the stain. If exposing
the stain is the problem, I might as well go with a strong chemical
stripper
like Jasco (which claims to remove 6 coats of paint/stain), then I don't
have to deal with sanding. I'm trying to avoid sanding because I'd also
like to paint the inside of the cabinet which are unstained raw oak and
MDF.
I don't want the dust to get on the inside.

thx,
-wen


"Roger" wrote in message
news:dLRwc.16229$Sw.2906@attbi_s51...
Two Approaches:
(1) Once you use liquid sandpaper, and the surface is completely dry,
you
should use one, or perhaps two coats of stain blocker primer, such as
alcohol or acrylic based Zinzer or Bullseye. Regular primers will not
seal
the stain in, if the cabinet clear finish is breached anywhere, and it
may
bleed through to the white topcoat over time.
(2) (easier) In order not to breach the clearcoat over our stained oak,
we
just cleaned the varnish over the stain with 409 or fantastic, then
lightly
sanded for better adherence of the primer. The key thing is to get the
surface super clean, grease free, and slightly rough. That was several
years
ago, and the new finish paint looks great. We used Zinzer as a primer
and
undercoat.


I'm planning to repaint my oak cabinets white. They're stained with
an
amber-tint now. I'm planning to use a liquid sander to rough up the
top
coat, and then use a enamel primer. My question is how many coats of
primer
do I need?