Tried pre-finishing panels before assembly and it backfired hard

I figured I'd save time by spraying lacquer on all my cabinet door panels before putting them together. Thought it would be slick - no brush marks, no overspray on the frames. But the panels shrank just a tiny bit after a week in the shop, and now I've got bare wood showing along the edges on 12 doors. Waste of about 6 hours and $40 in lacquer. Anyone else run into this with seasonal wood movement? Any fix besides starting over?

2 comments

2 Comments

cora_perez4d ago

My buddy Mike tried that with oak panels. Ended up scraping all 16 of his doors down and sanding them flat.

parkernelson4d ago

Dang man that's rough. Reminds me of when I tried to speed up a refinishing job on an old dresser by using that spray-on stripper instead of just sanding. Worked great at first but I missed a few spots and the new paint peeled off like a sunburn like two weeks later. Had to strip the whole thing again and it took twice as long. Sometimes shortcuts just end up making more work lol.