Building Craftsman Style Medicine Cabinets

Nice video, and very nice builds. Beautiful craftsmanship.

-- Roger from KY. Work/Play/Travel Safe. Keep your dust collector fed. [email protected]

Great, informative video, Marty!

Looks like you did a fine job on those cabinets, and you’ll get to enjoy them every day. One question I’ve had, that you answered in your video, is how to get a smooth finish with paint on poplar. I’ve primed it, then sanded it smooth, painted a first coat, sanded it smooth, etc—and never have really got a good finish.

A 1# cut of shellac as a seal coat seems to be the way to go. Also, I see that you didn’t use primer, so I assume that the shellac serves that purpose. The question I have then, is how well the paint bonds to the shellac. And in your high humidity bathroom, I guess we’re all going to find out!

-- Dean -- "Don't give up the ship -- fight her 'till she sinks!" Capt James Lawrence USN

Great, informative video, Marty!

Looks like you did a fine job on those cabinets, and you ll get to enjoy them every day. One question I ve had, that you answered in your video, is how to get a smooth finish with paint on poplar. I ve primed it, then sanded it smooth, painted a first coat, sanded it smooth, etc—and never have really got a good finish.

A 1# cut of shellac as a seal coat seems to be the way to go. Also, I see that you didn t use primer, so I assume that the shellac serves that purpose. The question I have then, is how well the paint bonds to the shellac. And in your high humidity bathroom, I guess we re all going to find out!

- Mean_Dean

Shellac is the original primer. It sticks to anything and anything sticks to it. So there are absolutely no issues with the paint adhering to the shellac.

And my bathroom is not a sauna so I’m about as worried about the cabinet paint as I would be worried about the paint coming off the walls.

I’ve never had issues getting a smooth paint job with poplar, but I’ve always used shellac as the primer. Shellac won’t raise the grain, so the needed sanding between coats is minimal. I use a HVLP sprayer with high quality paint.

The only reason shellac isn’t used more widely as a primer is that it’s not water based and it’s expensive.