Cabinet Painting Equipment – A Complete Guide
Painting cabinets can revitalize a kitchen by providing a beautiful finish to your cabinets, whether they are outdated cabinets or just in need of new color. Whether you’re a contractor, manufacturer, or home owner, having the right equipment to paint your cabinets will be critical to ensuring you get great results from your cabinet painting project Will review the most common and popular equipment options for cabinet painting so you can best decide which may be right for your work.
To help make choosing cabinet painting equipment easier we will break the choices down to whether you will be spraying in the field/onsite or in a shop.
Cabinet Painting in the Field/ Onsite
For painting cabinets where you need to be portable most of the time because you work in a variety of locations and do not have the option to bring cabinets back for painting, the two most popular choices for cabinet painting equipment include HVLP turbine sprayers and airless sprayers with a few specific changes that allow for better cabinet spraying.
Option 1 for the field HVLP Turbine Unit
An HVLP turbine is ideal because it will have better transfer efficiency (less paint overspray) than an airless sprayer. When working on site, overspray can create a lot of headaches if it gets all over a home. A turbine sprayer will also offer finer control of your spray pattern compared to the other common popular field painting equipment option, an airless sprayer. Finally, an HVLP Turbine will also give you a bit more precise control of the amount of material you apply at a given time, which can be important when spraying cabinets as you do not want to create runs or similar issues. When it comes to selecting a turbine you want to try to pick a hvlp turbine sprayer with as many stages as you can. More on selecting an hvlp turbine here. We also like the Graco seriesas they offer the ability to spray in a variety of angles making them ideal for working upside down and similar situations. The 9.5 Pro complete unit is particularly useful if it is within your budget as it offers a 2 quart pressure cup which provides even greater control of spraying compared to the standard siphon feed which comes in other sprayers like the Graco Pro Contractor or Titan Capspray series sprayers.
Option 2 for the field Airless Sprayer with Fine Finish Low Pressure Airless Tips
An airless paint sprayer can be a great equipment option for cabinet painting equipment, especially an electric airless because it is often a tool that you as a paint contractor or home owner may own. The main challenges with an airless sprayer compared to an HVLP turbine sprayer will be having as fine of control of your spraying and the potential for more overspray. Both of these issues can be reduced by using fine finish low pressure airless tips. Fine finish airless tips tend to break a coating up more effectively than a standard airless tip, providing a finish result similar to an HVLP turbine, additionally they will allow the material to be atomized at a lower pressure, which will help reduce overspray. In general, a Graco 395 or Titan Impact 440 would be the smallest airless recommended for cabinet work as they will be able to support a larger tip (which is important if you will be considering spraying cabinets with paint rather than a stain or top coat).
Cabinet Painting Equipment for a Shop or Dedicated Area
If you will not need to be able to be mobile for your painting, there are five total options you may consider for your cabinet painting equipment needs. The first two options are the turbine unit and airless sprayer as already discussed, these will be best if you need to be able to be mobile at times or do not have a sufficient sized air compressor. The final three options are an air assist airless spray rig, a single spray gun, and a paint pressure pot outfit these options will require an air compressor. Will cover those options further.
Spray gun or Spray Gun and Paint Pressure Pot Outfit
A spray gun and paint pressure pot outfit are great options because you can often purchase them with multiple fluid nozzles in a single package. This will provide you greater versatility of material you can spray. Additionally, compared to an HVLP turbine, a spray gun is a bit more affordable (if you already have an air compressor). For a standard spray gun, a spray gun like the Trophy Series with 3 fluid tips can be a great choice as it will allow you to spray a variety of materials and can even use a conventional air cap (which will let you spray thick, heavy material).
A step above a standard gravity spray gun is a paint pressure pot outfit. The nice thing about the paint pressure pot outfits is that it will allow you to control air and fluid pressure at the pressure pot. This tends to give you maximum control of how your spraying.
Air Assist Airless Sprayer
Compared to airless spraying, air assist airless sprayers tend to give a finer breakup and even less overspray. They are ideal for wood finish work but require a compressor to run (so do paint spray guns). Air assist airless sprayers can spray a lot in a short time, like an airless sprayer, but usually with slightly better finish results. To better help you choose between a paint pressure pot, airless, or air assist airless you can review the video below which shows each option in use.
Final Thoughts on choosing equipment for painting cabinets
Ultimately choosing the best equipment for painting cabinets is critical to help you achieve great consistent results. For those who want to upgrade their kitchen, yet short with cash, check SDL lender. By understanding the options available, the requirements of each, and the potential pros and cons of each you can better decided which equipment is best for your painting needs.