I have a cabinet made of varnished plywood. I am adding oak molding and
then painting it all.

Do I need to use a primer? If so, what kind?
Do I have to sand the varnished plywood first?

Thanks

"jack" wrote in message
...

I have a cabinet made of varnished plywood. I am adding oak molding and
then painting it all.

Do I need to use a primer? If so, what kind?
Do I have to sand the varnished plywood first?

You will need to wash the varnished plywood thoroughly
as well as sand it to make a "tooth" so that the paint will
adhere.

The unstated problem here is how the varnish will react
to the paint. If you are lucky there may be no reaction
i.e. the varnish will serve as a primer. If they are chemically
incompatible you will need to remove the varnish.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

In article , "jack" wrote:
I have a cabinet made of varnished plywood. I am adding oak molding and
then painting it all.

If you're going to paint it anyway, why bother with the expense of oak
molding? Pine, MDF, or plastic would work just fine.

Do I need to use a primer? If so, what kind?

Depends. Do you want the paint to stick?

I'd use an oil-based primer.

Do I have to sand the varnished plywood first?

It would sure help. Go to a real paint store (not the paint department at Home
Depot or Lowe's), tell them what you want to do, and ask them for
recommendations.

(Doug Miller) wrote in news:Chmkk.6898$cn7.3456
@flpi145.ffdc.sbc.com:

Go to a real paint store (not the paint department at Home
Depot or Lowe's), tell them what you want to do, and ask them for
recommendations.

Go to a paint store and ask them? Than's your advice? Why did you even
respond to his post if that's the best you can do. Either put up or shut
up.

Welcome to the killfile.

On 7/31/2008 9:34 AM jack spake thus:

I have a cabinet made of varnished plywood. I am adding oak molding and
then painting it all.

Do I need to use a primer? If so, what kind?
Do I have to sand the varnished plywood first?

A little hard to advise on what little information you've given us, but
here goes.

The problem you need to solve is the age-old one of "how do I get paint
to stick to this surface?" A couple of aspects of that problem: 1)
problems with adhesion when painting over any glossy surface (either
varnish or paint), and 2) the opposite, the fact that paint sticks
better to roughened surfaces (which you seem to sense in your question
about sandpaper).

Is the varnish glossy, or satin or dull? If glossy, then you definitely
need to prepare the surface before painting, either by physically
scuffing with sandpaper, or chemically with a deglossing agent. Which
you use depends on information we don't have, such as how large the
cabinet is, what kind of trim it has, etc.

If the surface is not glossy, you can probably apply primer directly
over it.

But in any case, yes, you should use primer. My preference is a good
oil-based one, which will stick better than a water-based (latex or
acrylic) primer.


--
"Wikipedia ... it reminds me ... of dogs barking idiotically through
endless nights. It is so bad that a sort of grandeur creeps into it.
It drags itself out of the dark abyss of pish, and crawls insanely up
the topmost pinnacle of posh. It is rumble and bumble. It is flap and
doodle. It is balder and dash."

- With apologies to H. L. Mencken

On Jul 31, 12:34*pm, "jack" wrote:
I have a cabinet made of varnished plywood. *I am adding oak molding and
then painting it all.

Do I need to use a primer? *If so, what kind?
Do I have to sand the varnished plywood first?

If you want to do it the right way (meaning that you actually want the
paint to stick) I'd sand AND use a primer. If your intent is to use
oil based products check the existing varnish to see if it's oil based
(it probably is if it's a factory coating). If what's already on
there is water based, then use water based primer and paint.

Mark wrote:
(Doug Miller) wrote in news:Chmkk.6898$cn7.3456
@flpi145.ffdc.sbc.com:

Go to a real paint store (not the paint department at Home
Depot or Lowe's), tell them what you want to do, and ask them for
recommendations.

Go to a paint store and ask them? Than's your advice? Why did you
even respond to his post if that's the best you can do. Either put
up or shut up.

Welcome to the killfile.

plonk would have sufficed.

--
--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

In article , Mark wrote:
(Doug Miller) wrote in news:Chmkk.6898$cn7.3456
:

Go to a real paint store (not the paint department at Home
Depot or Lowe's), tell them what you want to do, and ask them for
recommendations.

Go to a paint store and ask them? Than's your advice? Why did you even
respond to his post if that's the best you can do. Either put up or shut
up.

Missed this part, didja? "I'd use an oil-based primer."

Next time, try reading *all* of the post before you respond. Idjit.

Doug Miller wrote:

It would sure help. Go to a real paint store (not the paint department at Home
Depot or Lowe's), tell them what you want to do, and ask them for
recommendations.

The borgs can be great. I recently asked one of their paint guys about
the difference between the three versions of Kilz they stocked.

His reply?
"Doesn't matter. All primers are nothing but elmers glue anyway. They
all use that stuff and put it in different cans."

He claimed to have been a professional painter for fifteen years before
he went to work for Lowes.

I immediately left and went to a real paint store.

Woodie wrote in news:Pjpkk.223665$TT4.179746@attbi_s22:

Doug Miller wrote:

It would sure help. Go to a real paint store (not the paint
department at Home Depot or Lowe's), tell them what you want to do,
and ask them for recommendations.

The borgs can be great. I recently asked one of their paint guys about
the difference between the three versions of Kilz they stocked.

His reply?
"Doesn't matter. All primers are nothing but elmers glue anyway. They
all use that stuff and put it in different cans."

He claimed to have been a professional painter for fifteen years
before he went to work for Lowes.

I immediately left and went to a real paint store.


Why? What kind of glue is it? :-)