Thanks to all of the offers and tips provided. We've been working on this all week. I'll provide some pictures tonight of the final results. (Lessons learned will be posted below.)
Monday- SIL wanted to get all paint from Lowes, so we got the Valspar Cabinet and Furniture enamel and Zinnser 123 Primer. We took down the cabinet doors, removed all the hardware, and used TSP to degrease them. Once dry, I started a light sanding of the doors. That's when I discovered the previous owners had used wall latex as the sanding resulted in small rubber balls instead of expected sawdust. Ugh!
Then onto sanding on the cabinet carcasses and faces.
Tuesday- I started spraying the primer onto the (27) cabinet doors and 4 drawers. Prime one side, and set aside to dry. Next up start hanging plastic to prevent the overspray from getting onto floors, appliances, painted chimney, and countertops. Daughter and grandson step in to help making a tent around the kitchen island, 2 hrs later, ready to spray primer on the island and built-in display case. 20 minutes later, spraying completed. Flip cabinet doors and spray other side. Set aside to dry again.
Wednesday- Start spraying doors with 1st coat of enamel (on the backs of the doors). This finish requires 2 coats, 4 hours to dry to the touch, 8-12 hours between coats. With the heavy rains, these are set aside until the next day before I touch again. With the overspray concern, we decide to use paint rollers on the cabinet frames, so the remainder of the day is spent priming the upper and lower cabinets. Apply second coat of primer to island and display case with paint rollers.
Thursday- flip cabinet doors to get 1st coat on show side, set aside to dry until Friday. Use rollers to put the 1st coat of enamel on the island, display case, and cabinet upper & lower. Discover that glass doors from display case were put aside and have not been primed yet. Doh!
Mask off glass and prime one side
Friday- Flip display case doors and prime other side. Apply enamel to one show side of display doors once primer is dry. Repeat of Thursday with second coat. Spray enamel onto back side of display case doors at the end of the day
Saturday- plan to spray enamel to the show side of display case doors, install hinges to doors, and mount to cabinets
Lessons learned:
- Hose from Earlex 5500 will come unattached at the worst possible time.
- Hose is too short, have to keep moving the unit around
- you will step on the hose, no matter the length or where you place the turbine
- Earlex 5500 has intake on the bottom, but if you have plastic on the floor, unit will try to suck plastic into the bottom, so have to create makeshift riser to keep airflow moving
- Trying to keep a consistent motion over the length of the cabinet door is challenging, depending on how you have the spraying station setup for maneuverability
- lighting is critical to seeing what you have sprayed, shadows are frustrating
- overspray goes everywhere
Other thoughts:
- The Valspar enamel and Zinnser primer covered well and leveled after spraying, very pleased with the results
- I was not prepared for how tiring i would be after using the sprayer
- You will find the best process/motions for spraying on the last piece to spray
- the Valspar enamel says not to thin for spraying, I was pushing the Earlex 5500. I used the 2.0 needle with this product and also with the primer, which I thinned with water.