Old guy at a woodworking show told me to skip pre-finishing my cabinet boxes. I should have listened.

I was building a set of kitchen cabinets for a house in Nashville last fall. An older cabinetmaker at a local woodworking expo told me not to bother pre-finishing the insides of my boxes before assembly. He said it just creates more problems with glue adhesion and dust nibs. I ignored him because I wanted that perfect look, and spent an extra 20 hours dealing with glue squeeze out messing up the finish and sanding between every step. Has anyone else regretted that extra step, or does pre-finishing actually work for you?

3 comments

3 Comments

miles_burns15d ago

That one guy at the show, @morgan.rose, nailed it about the glue squeeze out. I did the same thing on a set of bathroom vanities last year and it was a nightmare. The finish looked great until I clamped everything together and the glue bled through in ugly yellow patches. I spent a whole Saturday trying to scrape and touch it up before I just lived with the mess. Nobody checks inside your cabinets anyway, not even your mother. Pre-finishing is pure vanity and the old timers know better. I will never do it again.

the_claire15d ago

morgan.rose said "nobody's gonna be crawling around inside your cabinets with a magnifying glass anyway" and that's exactly it - but think about humidity too. Pre-finishing seals the wood so it can't breathe, and in a Nashville kitchen with all that steam and heat, unsealed boxes actually adjust better and won't warp on you later.

morgan.rose15d ago

And on top of all that, the dust nibs are just the start of the headache lol. I tried pre-finishing once and ended up having to re-sand half the panels because a stray piece of fuzz landed in my finish while I was brushing it on. Then when I finally got everything assembled, the glue squeeze out left these weird shiny spots that were impossible to fix without taking the whole thing apart. Honestly I think that old guy was right, the time you save on sanding and fussing with the finish way outweighs the "perfect" look you're going for, especially since nobody's gonna be crawling around inside your cabinets with a magnifying glass anyway.