Tried pre-finishing panels before assembly and it backfired hard

I figured I'd save time by spraying lacquer on all my cabinet door panels before putting them together. Thought it would be slick - no brush marks, no overspray on the frames. But the panels shrank just a tiny bit after a week in the shop, and now I've got bare wood showing along the edges on 12 doors. Waste of about 6 hours and $40 in lacquer. Anyone else run into this with seasonal wood movement? Any fix besides starting over?

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cora_perez1mo ago

My buddy Mike tried that with oak panels. Ended up scraping all 16 of his doors down and sanding them flat.

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parkernelson1mo ago

Dang man that's rough. Reminds me of when I tried to speed up a refinishing job on an old dresser by using that spray-on stripper instead of just sanding. Worked great at first but I missed a few spots and the new paint peeled off like a sunburn like two weeks later. Had to strip the whole thing again and it took twice as long. Sometimes shortcuts just end up making more work lol.

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