Are you in the business of painting cabinets and are wondering how to level up your performance to give your customers the factory-like finish that they want? Well, one of the tools that’s helped me do just that is the PSDR from The PaintLine. The PSDR is a cabinet spraying & drying system that helps cut your cabinet painting time in half and helps increase your profits. Back in the day, I used to make my own version of this with PVC pipes and clothes hangers, but it didn’t look professional to move around from jobsite to jobsite, and it wasn’t always reliable. With some heavier doors, the clothes hangers would break, leading to damaged doors.

This system is designed for you to spray cabinet doors hanging up/vertically. With the spinner and dowels, you’re able to rotate the cabinet door to spray the entire cabinet door in one go. Compared to spraying down/horizontally, the time you’ll save is astronomical. No more waiting for one side to dry before you can flip and spray the other side. You’re able to quickly spray your cabinet door & transfer to the drying system, wait a short amount of time for them to dry, spray your second coat, and you’re done! You’ll be amazed at how much space it saves to dry your entire project in one small area too!

In this blog post, I’ll be talking in-depth on the PSDR and the system I use to spray my cabinet doors. If you’re interested in learning more, then you should check out the Paint Life Academy’s library of online courses. Our most recent course focuses on the PSDR, where you’ll receive a series of videos on how to set-up and use this spraying & drying system. This course will be available to you for free upon purchase of a PSDR system, or you can purchase it directly here. For more information on spraying cabinets, my cabinet course is the most concentrated, comprehensive source of all of my knowledge on painting cabinets, acquired after over 20+ years of doing cabinet jobs for many satisfied customers. These courses are also available in Spanish.   

Now, I know a lot of people are hesitant to spray cabinet doors vertically, especially since there’s a lot less risk of paint running or sagging when spraying horizontally. Spraying quicker to try and avoid that is imperative, and meaning that you can’t take your time or spray on a thicker coat of paint, like you would horizontally. There is a bit of a learning curve as you’ll have to experiment with different tip sizes and the right amount of product to apply. This can be more difficult, but isn’t impossible, with an airless sprayer. An HVLP sprayer is going to make this transition a lot easier, and I’ll get into that in a moment.

The PSDR features a spinner that allows 360° movement of the cabinet doors. On the spinner, there are holes for dowels for you to grab and spin while you spray. From the spinner, there are several different hanger options for your cabinet doors based on the size of your project. These are incredibly durable and will not bend or break. Similarly, Paintline also offers multiple options for hooks to attach to the hanger. I prefer to use the cup hook method for the most stability, which means drilling holes into the top or bottom of the cabinet door - whichever side won’t be seen. You’ll be able to quickly fill these once you’re done with the spraying process, but if you would prefer not to drill into the doors, there are different options, all of which are detailed in the PSDR course.

Most of the time I’m using the PSDR, I’m setting up the spraying system inside of my portable jobsite spray booth so that I can filter out and keep the overspray to a minimum. This is a system that’s great to set up long-term in a workshop, or move around from job to job with your PSDR. A big bonus of the PSDR is how professional and portable the system is. It comes in three canvas bags, allowing for that easy transport. At the end of the day, this is going to look a lot more professional to your customers than a DIY PVC pipe situation. That’s part of what you’re paying for when you get the PSDR - you’re leveling up your image.

Inside of the spray booth, I like to make sure the PSDR is towards the back of the booth. I’ll always stand so that my overspray will be traveling towards the ventilation system. The closer the PSDR is to the front of the booth, the more likely a chance of overspray and dust traveling outside onto the floor. While it’s always my preference to have the PSDR set up in the spray booth, you can set it up anywhere you need to. PaintLine’s products are very compatible!

When you’re getting ready to spray, set up the drying system somewhere close, but not close enough that your drying doors could get overspray on them. I have a multi-bay garage, where in the smaller bay I have my spray booth and PSDR set up, and in the main 2-car garage section, I’ll set up my drying rack. It’s easy to carry the wet and dry doors back and forth.

Now, should you be spraying your cabinet doors with an airless sprayer or an HVLP sprayer? While it’s ultimately personal preference, and I’ve gone back and forth over the years, HVLP is the best option to give you a factory-like finish on your projects. HVLP stands for high volume, low pressure, and these sprayers have a higher transfer rate of product, less overspray than an airless, and with sprayers like my favorite, the Apollo Precision 6, you can dial in your fan width as wide or as narrow as you need without switching tips, like with an airless sprayer.

I’ve come to love utilizing Apollo’s products when spraying cabinet doors. The Apollo Precision 6 is a six-stage turbine sprayer that allows you to spray without thinning your paints. This includes heavy grain-filling primers - there’s no need to thin! With this sprayer, you have a lot more control over minimizing runs due to the ability to dial in the fan pattern. But runs are still nothing to worry about, especially when you’re using a paint that dries quickly, like 2K polyurethanes. Some products, like the ones that I use, dry in as soon as 45 minutes. Runs will mechanically sand out quickly, allowing you to reshoot that coat within the hour. Once, I sprayed a set of cabinets, set them on the drying rack, and came to all of them dripping & running onto the floor. I was able to save them all with a quick sand and another coat.

With the Apollo Precision 6, I’m going to be using a BHS (high solids) cap, because I’m always spraying with water-based products. This is the cap I would recommend for that, and I am typically using a 1.5 needle & nozzle set. This is the set up I use for doing all my cabinets and furniture - I never change it. There’s a lot of combinations that you can use, but this is what I use when spraying 2K water-based polys.

2K polyurethanes are becoming more & more popular as the premier choice to spray cabinets with. My favorite is Renner 851, which can be used straight out of the can as a 1K product, or a catalyst/hardener can be added to make a 2K poly that will add scratch, water, and chemical resistance to your paint. The catalyzation process does add a pot life to the product, meaning that you have to use and clean up your system within that time frame or it will harden up and ruin your sprayer. Renner 851 is also a self-seal product that acts a sealant on bare wood, which is a great benefit of the product, meaning that you don’t add another primer onto your cabinet door before spraying. It’s a water-based product, and is my go to paint for cabinets, furniture, and occasionally trim. Check it out at waterbasedfinish.com.

Products like Renner 851 and other polyurethanes are also expensive products, which is why HVLP spraying is the best way to apply them, as there’s a higher transfer rate of product. You’re losing less to overspray compared to an airless sprayer, meaning that the product is going farther.  An airless sprayer has an astronomical amount of material waste, especially when you’re hitting the sides and edges of your doors - you’re getting tons of fallout. With an airless sprayer, you’re literally wasting money! An HVLP sprayer isn’t creating as high amounts of atomized paint; I’ve been spraying in my garage for years, and there’s barely been any overspray floating outside of the booth in that time.

When it comes to the actual method of spraying, I start by hitting two passes on the bottom, then the two sides, the top, and finally the two faces of the cabinet door. Once I’m satisfied that the door has been sufficiently coated, I’ll carefully carry it out to the drying system, hang it up, and carry back in the next door. By this point, all of the cabinet doors will have been prepped, sanded, and I’ll have attached the cup hooks. This way, once I’m at this point I can quickly spray all the doors, wait an hour for them to dry, and then do the second coat.

It’s important to me, before I start spraying, to make sure I have all of my tools and resources nearby, which is why I like the spray gun holders on the PSDR system. I use this, like the name suggests, to hang my spray gun up when I’m transferring doors, but these are also useful to keep my 3x4 sander, respirator, and a microfiber cloth nearby. The Ekasand 3x4 sander is the best sander for cabinet refinishing. I use this during the prep phase of doing a cabinet job, but I keep it on hand just in case I need to sand anything out quickly, like runs in between coats. This is why a microfiber cloth is also necessary - hit the cabinet with this before spraying to make sure all the dust and debris has been knocked off and your surface is smooth. And as far as a respirator goes, it’s necessary PPE when doing any spraying!

On the project in this video, on the first cabinet door I sprayed, the coat came out a little bit too heavy and started to hang on the corners, but I was able to adjust it. There are always bumps in the road with every project, but these systems and tools that I use make it easier to deal with situations that arise. With the PSDR & the Apollo Precision 6, you’ll be one step closer to spraying perfect cabinet doors, improving your quality of work, making more money and improving your professionalism on the jobsite.