Salvaging a Poor Matte/Satin Poly Cabinet Finish

[idratherplaytennis]

Hey everyone- I have a question that I'm afraid I know the right answer to, but I just wanted to see if anyone had any tips or alternative ideas.

A little background- myself and a worker just finished up a cabinet job on one of my family's rental units. The cabinets are 30-40 years old or older and have already been refinished a few times. We wound up sanding them down to bare wood, leaving what little of the veneers were left on the cabinet doors, and used a cherry gel stain to help blend all of the blotchy colors together. I wound up getting really busy with jobs elsewhere after the sanding process and my family decided to let the worker do the poly (he's done poly on cabinets for us before, but they were light colored cabinets and a different poly). We opted for a Matte oil based finish (he had done a water based semi-gloss before) which would end up closer to a satin finish, blending and hiding a lot of the flaws from years of tenant abuse. The stain and everything on the face frames turned out great (it's close to between Satin and Semi-gloss). It was when we hung the doors to do the outside faces, that came to be an issue. Our worker swore that it would all come out okay, we wouldn't need to buy any extra rollers (even though I specifically mentioned its a small price to pay over cleaning out the roller each day with paint thinner), and that there was no need to back brush the cabinets, however I'm realizing I made a grave mistake in trusting this job to him, unsupervised.

I was just over to prepare to do the floor and tile some of the wet areas around the sink, stove and dishwasher when I realized there are massive amounts of ripples in the doors which have a strong semi-gloss appearance. Suffice it to say, I'm no longer on the floor job and frustrated beyond doubt because I have a feeling I will need to re-sand all of the faces of the cabinet doors to break through that layer (or multiple layers, we did 3...) of poly to smooth it all out, and bring its luster way back down. What would be the easiest way to do this without burning through the gel stained layer? I really wanted to avoid taking all the 32 doors down and removing all of the 3/8 inset hinges, but they're brand new hinges, and the only way I can think to do this, is to use my Festool ETS EC 150/3 with a high grit sand paper on a lower speed (not sure the speed OR the grit I should use), and just be careful to sand down the door faces until they appear mostly flat.

I believe the problem came up because the roller was being used multiple days, without being properly cleaned out after it was cleaned with the paint thinner, causing a slightly more runny coat of the poly, each time, or a much heavier coat to be applied than should have. The guy at the store who recommended it, said it should be done in VERY thin coats, and it should be drying extremely fast. I don't believe this is what happened as it took a whole day between coats to dry before the next could be applied.

The real peeve here is that we went through a gallon of the finish between the face frames, cabinet sides and doors and this stuff in the gallon costs close to $90 a piece- more of which I really, really DO NOT want to buy again. All I have is the majority of a quart. I briefly considered using 0000 Steel Wool to break down the small flakes I felt, but I feel that won't do much more than give it a slight polish and make the ripples even more pronounced. Does anyone have some advise that would save me several extra days of work or is the best thing to do, just take down all the doors, remove the hinges, and sand the faces down just enough to break through the bad poly, then reapply the poly making sure to use a new, very short napped roller and then back-brush with a good oil-brush? If that's the route I need to go, is anyone able to recommend the speed to run the sander at and what grit(s) to use?

I do realize it is "just" a rental, and it is one of the first and few we bother with stained cabinets on, but it is mostly getting aimed at a higher end rent, and it's personal OCDness of wanting it to look right that is a nuisance factor. Tenants may not care about the ripples or glossiness of the cabinets, but that's just not how I grew up to do things- they should always be done right, and not to minimal standards..

Any tips or advice are greatly appreciated. Hoping I can remedy this in as little time as possible assuming it is within my families time constraints on the job.

I will add, they're Ash faceframes, I believe and they WERE sanded down between each coat, lightly, by hand. Maybe that just means it was the final coat that is to blame, however I'm not sure. Most of our units are paint-grade items, and I'm just getting into this kind of finishing.

[wdwerker]

Matte and satin finished have a flattening agent added. It will settle out. You must stir it up from the bottom throughly and if I leave it sitting more than an hour or so I stir it again. Fresh roller is a good idea, solvent isn't cheap, labor isn't cheap, fresh roller is affordable.

Make him sand to prep for the new coat. Learning the hard way usually requires some pain to make the lesson sink in !

[idratherplaytennis]

7 hours ago, Mike. said:

A picture is worth a thousand words.  

how many coats of poly did he use?. Typically you need at least two.  If it were me I'd lightly hand sand one of the doors with 320, put down another coat of poly and see how it looks.    if it looks acceptable proceed with the rest of the doors.  

I was a bit a frustrated and didn't take one. We did 3 coats, sanding lightly by hand between coats. I believe the remedy currently is to lightly, and very carefully sand the faces down and reapply with a well stirred, not-shaken coat and see if that would dull the under-laying coats of poly. I will try to get a picture tomorrow. For now, imagine the way wax builds up as it has flowed down a candle over several different lightings. That goopy build up is similar in appearance to the poly, only not as thick as the wax actually gets.

5 hours ago, wdwerker said:

Matte and satin finished have a flattening agent added. It will settle out. You must stir it up from the bottom throughly and if I leave it sitting more than an hour or so I stir it again. Fresh roller is a good idea, solvent isn't cheap, labor isn't cheap, fresh roller is affordable.

Make him sand to prep for the new coat. Learning the hard way usually requires some pain to make the lesson sink in !

I wasn't aware of the flattening agents they add... however now that it is mentioned, I do seem to remember reading something about the top coat being the one that matters. Not sure if that's the case or not, however I do think that this could have definitely been part of the issue as some areas (not on the door faces, but the face frames and false fronts appear far closer to a matte or satin.