Cabinet Painting Techniques for an Inexpensive Mini Cabinet?

[Boingo]

I am working on a mini cabinet, using plywood.  I wanted to use laminate on the cabinet for a nice smooth and easy to clean finish without the wood grain showing through, but a trip to the local building centre showed that laminate is too expensive for what I had meant to be a quick and cheap project.  That means I will probably have to use paint.

Could anyone suggest what the best technique is for getting a nice smooth finish on a painted cabinet without the wood grain showing through, and is there any particular paint best suited to the job?

[severdhed]

good luck with that...it has been my experience that when you paint plywood, it ends up looking like painted plywood. 

i don't know if it would work based on the size of your cabinet, but you may be able to cover it with adhesive vinyl...if the cabinet is small enough, you may be able to get a roll wide enough so that you wouldnt have to piece it for the sides....that could give it a nice look.

[Blanka]

For painting they make MDF. If you're not very far with the plywood, then ditch it and get MDF.
Otherwise get over the price bump, and get that HPL.

[leapinlew]

lots of sanding and work. What I did was coated the plywood with drywall mud, sanding, mud, sand, primer, sand, primer, sand and paint.

[javeryh]

lots of sanding and work. What I did was coated the plywood with drywall mud, sanding, mud, sand, primer, sand, primer, sand and paint.

This.

[Boingo]

Sounds expensive and time consuming enough to make $75.00 laminate contact cement and renting a trimmer look good again.

Is it really all that hard to paint plywood?

One of the real arcade machines I have is a Williams Robotron, sadly, converted to Street Fighter 2, and that cabinet is painted plywood.

The project is meant to be as cheap s possible.  The cabinet is not going to contain a real arcade motherboard and monitor, nor a computer with MAME running.  I am actually planning on filling it with one of those Plug and Play games and an old Commodore 64 monitor. 

A MAME machine is in the plans, and so is a properly wired JAMMA machine, but this one is intended as a cheapie practice run before I start work on either of those.

[mrclean]

Sounds expensive and time consuming enough to make $75.00 laminate contact cement and renting a trimmer look good again.

Is it really all that hard to paint plywood?

One of the real arcade machines I have is a Williams Robotron, sadly, converted to Street Fighter 2, and that cabinet is painted plywood.

I painted a williams robotron 2084 which was converted to bubble bobble.. which I kept it a bubble bobble. I used "Paint Thinner", & "Paint, rolled 5 coats" you can convert It back to Robotron if you wanted to.

you might want to check out this website TONS of restoration pics of Robotron 2084:
http://www.2coinsperplay.com/Games/Robotron%20Restore/ROBOTRON%20RESTORE%201.html

Part 2: http://www.2coinsperplay.com/Games/Robotron%20Restore/ROBOTRON%20RESTORE%202.html

Bottom of this page explains more in detail.. http://www.adamsarcade.com/restoration.html

[Boingo]

Any suggestions for what kind of paint to use?

[drventure]

Another thread here mentioned "spray bondo" you can pick up at pep boys or other auto places.

I haven't tried it (yet) but from what was said, sounds like it works pretty good.

[IG-88]

Go with the mud. A little work but very cheap. As far as the laminate tho, how much could it be? Just do the exposed surfaces.

[Boingo]

How about suggested types of paint?

Melamine?  Acrylic?  Enamel?  Anything?

[javeryh]

Several coats of a good primer followed by 2 semi-gloss latex top coats should be fine if you don't want to use the mud.  Zinsser BIN primer works great.  As long as you sand in between and use some high quality foam rollers it will come out nice.   

[IG-88]

So what, prey-tell, is the matter with using mud? Also that BIN primer isn't exactly cheap. The focus of his discussion remember.

[javeryh]

So what, prey-tell, is the matter with using mud? Also that BIN primer isn't exactly cheap. The focus of his discussion remember.

I just got a gallon of the stuff for $20 at Home Depot and the pints were like $10 (which is probably enough to cover a mini cab).  That seems cheap to me but I don't know what his budget is.  I've often found that when you go cheap on materials the end product reflects it.  If this is something that will be in the house long-term then a few extra dollars up front isn't that big of a deal, IMO.

Also, there's nothing wrong with using the mud but it didn't get a favorable response... 

[mrclean]

How about suggested types of paint?

Melamine?  Acrylic?  Enamel?  Anything?

I used Benjamin Moore "low lustre Metal & Wood Enamel"
Black C163 80 (Image shows white, variety of colors)

Product Description
A highly versatile alkyd based coating, IronClad Alkyd Low Lustre Metal & Wood Enamel seals and protects both exterior and interior metal and wood surfaces from rusting and moisture. IronClad Alkyd Low Lustre Metal & Wood Enamel offers superior rust inhibition and protection along with the convenience of a primer and topcoat system in a single package. 
   
Features
For exterior or interior use 
Self priming
Extremely durable
 

http://www.benjaminmoore.com/bmpsweb/portals/bmps.portal?_nfpb=true&_windowLabel=contentrenderer_1_3&contentrenderer_1_3_actionOverride=%2Fbm%2Fcms%2FContentRenderer%2FrenderContent&contentrenderer_1_3cnp=public_site%2Farticles%2Fproduct_articles%2Fpa_ext_metal_coatings_premium&contentrenderer_1_3np=productcatalog%2Fproduct_pages%2Fpaint%2Fprd_c163&_pageLabel=fh_findproducts#features

you can probably get away with rolling two separate coats, but I rolled 5 coats. I think it came out great. All you need is a roller & trey, the paint, you should also have a palm sander / belt sander to smooth out the surface before applying.