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Painting/Finishing Plywood

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Lucky S.O.B.:

OK, so I am stripping down my old Dynamo cabinet and removing the old laminate. Under the laminate is plywood, and I was wondering what most of you do to finish this?

If I paint it you will be able to see the wood grain, and refinishing with laminate will be difficult where the wood overlaps.

What does everyone else do?


DrewKaree:

It sounds as if you are saying you don't want to laminate the cabinet, but you WOULD like to paint it.  Your only problem with it is that you don't want the grain to be evident when finished painting.  Is this a correct assessment?

You can eliminate the grain with a quick skim coat of thinned drywall compound.  You shouldn't need a lot, so buy the second smallest size container and a wide taper's knife.  Just put it on and draw your knife across it - you'll know it's thin enough when you see parts with no compound on it that approximate the general area of the growth rings (the grain you are speaking of).  If you don't even want to worry about that stuff, just get a bigger sized container of compound, again, thin it so it's easier to work, and put a touch thicker skim coat on.  Let it dry EXACTLY according to the directions. 

When it's dry, take a sander to it and sand it smooth, then paint.  If your sandpaper clogs excessively, you didn't let it dry long enough.  Patience.  Let it dry a bit longer, then sand.

If you want other options besides painting it, after removing the laminate, you could relaminate it.  Doing any other finish may require even MORE effort than the skim coat, and the skim coat is going to require more effort.

paigeoliver:

Also there is nothing WRONG with seeing the woodgrain. You can see the woodgrain on Williams cabinets.

javeryh:

I'm also curious about this too - are there any other ways?  My cabinet is made out of cabinet grade birch plywood.  I don't think I want to stain it because it will clash with the decor in my TV room.  I want to paint it a solid color (with a black top) and I don't want to see the grain.  I also want to seal it somehow so if I spill a drink on it I can wipe it down with no problem...  anyone got any other ideas?  Thanks!

SteveJ34:

I'm no woodworking/finish expert but would not a coat or two of primer followed by the a coat or two of the finishing color eliminate the wood grain underneath?

Or is it more of the "surface texture" that is trying to be eliminated rather than the "grain" that is in the wood?



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