Bird cage cabinet - finally DONE

[FuzzWuzz16]

Nice job, Bas!

Sylvester and Tweetie seem to be happy.
I too was inquisitive about the combination of cat and bird until I looked closely at the picture and saw the fire extinguisher close at hand. Bet that chills things down when Sylvester gets a bit out of hand....
Jim

[Bas]

Originally Posted by jeff...

Ok dude that's just a little twisted - birds on top of the kitty crapper - I thought they were like arch enemies?

Originally Posted by cpowell

Cats and birds is a little weird in a circle of life kinda way I guess.

Originally Posted by FuzzWuzz16

Nice job, Bas!
Sylvester and Tweetie seem to be happy. I too was inquisitive about the combination of cat and bird until I looked closely at the picture and saw the fire extinguisher close at hand. Bet that chills things down when Sylvester gets a bit out of hand....

I have some weird pets. The cats are fascinated by the words, but I doubt they'd actually eat them. It's more - oohhhh, it moves, toy! On the other hand, the cats walk all over the dogs. One of them goes downstairs in the morning, and sticks his snoot in the dog food bowl, while the dog is eating! We're talking a big 50lb Dalmatian vs. a tiny 7lb Persian.

Whatever. As long as they get along, I'm good with it.

Thanks for all the compliments.

[Dutchman]

That is a very nice job! Well done!

[LeftyTom]

Spiffy and functional, Bas. What more could you ask for?

[Will Goodwin]

Great work Bas ... I remember the thread from the planning stages. Looks like everything turned out well.

As far as cutting all your mistakes to the same length...I can attest to that. What the instructor in my class said was, "As long as it isn't something you are building for someone else, who cares if your 27 inch design is 26 1/2 inches after you get done? As long as all the corresponding sides match, you are good to go." So if you got the design from somewhere else, now it is a modified design .

[woodArtz]

Wow Bas, that's very nice. You've definitely moved up from the shop cabinets. So, what's the next challenge? Great job man!!!!

[DavidF]

Great job Bas! looks really nice. You moved right along the path to inner knowledge. Just remember that what ever you learn you will ALWAYS make the same mistake twice - what ever they say to the contrary!!

[Travis Porter]

The cabinet looks good. I know what you mean about plywood and joint quality. Pipe clampls and bar clamps put a lot more pressure on (ie close up bad joints) a lot better than the K body clamps. DAMIKT.

I would like to hear more about spraying paint. You have got to elaborate. How much thinning, how many coats, what went good, what went bad.

[TV]

Very nicely finished! I am glad other's take more than a couple weekends to finish a project.
tv

[Bas]

Originally Posted by Travis Porter

I would like to hear more about spraying paint. You have got to elaborate. How much thinning, how many coats, what went good, what went bad.

(Disclaimer: This was my first spraying project. I had pretty unreasonable expectations: Put finish into cup, spray at random, and super smooth factory finish without blemishes comes out.)

I used the Earlex HVLP spray gun that has gotten some really good reviews. For this project, I used the 2mm needle. There is a larger needle (2.5mm) available that might do better with latex paint, I'm not sure.

The paint I used was Sherwin Williams Pro Classic, which is a 100% acrylic paint. I don't quite understand all the subtle differences between latex, enamel and acrylic, but suffice to say not all water-based paints are created equal. The Pro Classic is an excellent paint, and it should be for the price. Whether it's excellent for spraying I don't know, this one came up on the various fora as a good choice for furniture.

I tested the viscosity of the paint using the measuring cup that comes with the Earlex. Fill it with the paint/ finish and time how long it takes to empty via the tiny hole at the bottom. For paint, you're supposed to have it in the 30-60 second range. To accomplish that, I ended up thinning the paint quite a bit. I used (roughly) 10 parts paint, 6 parts floetrol and 3 parts water. This mix sprayed fairly well, but didn't do much in terms of coverage. Things would have gone a lot faster if I had rolled/ brushed the first coat, then used the sprayer to get a nice finish. Also, with this much dilution, the gloss paint came out completely flat. That wasn't an issue since I topcoated it with poly, but it's something to consider.

I found out you can't spray very light coats, it has to be "wet". My success rate was 50%, i.e. half the panels I sprayed (vertically) would come out OK, the other half was too dry (making for a rough surface) or too wet (runs). So I ended up spraying everything horizontal, by turning the cabinet. Of course, that added lots of time, since I had to wait at least an hour before I could turn the cabinet.

I tried using floetrol alone (no water), and also tried only diluting 10-20%. Using only floetrol didn't help anything, and since water is cheaper, the choice was obvious. Diluting only 10%-20% gives much better paint coverage, but the quality of the finish was awful. We're beyond orange peel here, we're talking pine apple skin. To get things to smooth out, you'd have to really lay it on thick, which means runs become an issue again.

I ended up using one coat of primer (brushed) and two coats of paint (three on the doors). The doors needed the extra coat because I had cleverly brought them inside in a safe place in the workshop. Well, that week a container with adhesive remover decided to fail (after 6 years!) and some goop dripped onto the doors. Hence the extra coat. I also put on two to three coats of polycrylic (two on the inside, three on the outside/ doors).

Spraying polycrylic is much easier than spraying paint, I know HVLP guns aren't good with latex but I was hoping this one would be an exception. A different paint or needle might improve the results. If I feel adventurous, I'll try spraying an oil-based paint. That should work a lot better, since you can thin it without really affecting the paint characteristics. But the overspray will be a lot of fun. But I think I'll give tinted lacquers a try first.

[erasmussen]

Very good job

But its all flat and square

[sawduster]

Wow Nice toilet I don't see the magazine rack though

Seriously , that is really nice man

One of these days I'm gonna learn to do something like that
.....oh wait , I don't have cats or birds ( not inside anyway ! )

Great job bro

[mcb1180]

I agree with Chuck, this is amazing.