GRAIN Filler for Cabinets.... Aqua Coat Wood Grain Filler

this is part one of a two-part series of how to get a glassy smooth finish on oak cabinets part two will be the finished process how we go about finishing the cabinets after applying aqua coat so stay tuned for this video this Kristi Idaho painter in this paint life TV and today I'm going to talk about how to get a glassy smooth finish on wood oak grain cabinets one of the products I use to achieve that glassy smooth finish is aqua Co and this is a product I've been using for quite a few years it used to be clear so you would apply it on your surface and you really couldn't see where you went and where you needed to sand very well now this has got a couple coats on it now you can see it's white and it has this white pigment in it so it's very easy to see where you've applied it and what you need to sand it does bond a lot better than it used to and it has more solids in it so you don't have to apply as many coats as you used to in the past it comes in pints it comes in quarts and it also comes in gallons right here here's a gallon of it average sized kitchen cabinets is probably gonna use about a quart so this is what you'd use for average size set of kitchen cabinets you can apply it on painted surfaces so if you make the mistake of applying or painting your cabinets before applying aqua Co and they look really grainy you can put your aqua coat right over the top of the painted surface the painted surface just needs to be cured so these are lacquered cabinets right here we're gonna sand them first then clean them and then apply our aqua coat and I'm going to talk about the tools that we use to apply it right now so onto the tools that I use for applying the aqua coat I like us an assortment of squeegees and I've got a set right here these I purchased from a local hardware store they're nice flexible I do like plastic or rubber squeegees versus metal because metal is more likely to scratch our gouge or surface I got them with handles got them with handles and then I also have some odd shaped ones and these are kind of to use to remove decals or window tinting on windows I got them from a local window tinner very simple in the past I used to use an old credit card to apply it with works very well because they're flexible they're small and they Bend really easily I like to have a size that I can scoop out my aqua coat with a squeegee that will reach in and scoop it out so I like one that fits inside like a quart container if I'm using a cord this one will fit right in there you'll do you'll want to do some sanding you're gonna need some glasses right here safety glasses I use a rag like a microfiber towel to apply it and hard to get areas I've got a sander right here I really like using their surf prep sander because it has these type of sponges that attach hook-and-loop right to the sander and it contours to routed edges or recessed panel doors very easily it makes the sanding really fast and efficient you're gonna use 320 sandpaper to sand in between coats of aqua coat because you're typically gonna apply at least two coats sometimes three one coat typically is not enough I start off with either a 180 or a 150 grit to sand my doors to begin with to start with so I'll sand them first clean them off really well and then apply the second coat I do when I start applying the aqua coat I do like to wear rubber gloves so I got Raven gloves here just something that's throwaway disposable easy to use and it's not gonna cost a lot they're the tools that I use and now we're gonna move on to applying the product we're going to show you how we go about doing that the first step in applying your aqua coat is to sand your finish so we want to get that thing a nice profile so it bonds really well I've got two right here that need to be sanded for their final coats this will be a third coat this will be two coats but here's my door right here that's just got a lacquered finish on it I have a 180 grit sandpaper right here and I'm gonna just sand this thing get it nice and ready I don't have to overly sand just a really light fast sand it's got a lights and on that I'm gonna wipe this thing down get it ready to apply my aqua code now so I'm gonna just begin applying some on the inside the tools and accessories you typically see in all of our videos you can typically find those tools down in the video description in our videos down below the stuff goes a long ways you don't need to take a whole lot off or out of the container I'm gonna begin just applying it on my surface and I'm gonna stay away this is a raised panel door so I'm going to stay away from the edges I'm not gonna be caulking the the raised panels on this sometimes we'll caulk the doors the cost of panels and where we live you can get away with doing that because the climate is very dry and so you can get away with caulking your panels so I'm just going to work it around close to the edges and then that's gonna be my first coat right there that's down the center panel and you can see there where it's filled the grain so that's one coat I can look at it right here the outside it's filled really good but we'll go along the outside set this down here so it is it looked pretty good but now that I'm scraping some on I can see it's spilling quite a bit of grain in there so just keep applying that doesn't take a whole lot it's doesn't have a strong odor it is water base cleans up very nice and easy so I can get the edges that looks pretty good so you can see now this door is getting pretty close to being finished I can rub my routed edges with aqua coat on a rag so I got a microfiber cloth if I'm really particular and I want to fill grain on the edges I can just rub it on those edges and then any hard to get areas if I'm trying to get into a corner I can use a rag or I can just use my finger so these little end grain cuts right here they're probably they'll show you that and then I've got some routed edges right on here that it's built up so I'm wiping that down just like that the products and is really really easy and we're gonna show you the sanding process so this one is just about ready to go let's wipe this down all my hedges are just about hit they've got one more edge right here I'm gonna set this thing aside and this takes about 45 minutes to dry and then we can sand it and then we'll move on to our second coat so got two right here two coats on this one one coat on this one I'm gonna sand both of them and then we'll apply our final coat so I'm gonna apply a third coat on this because this is a shelf that I want really really glassy glassy smooth I'm gonna apply just two coats on the cabinet's onto the sanding of our aqua coat that's already dry I've got this shelf right here I'm gonna apply a different pad on here this is a very superfine pad it's around a 320 grit you want to sand with a 320 grit in between coats once again this sander is really really convenient for getting down in those raised panel the profiles of the raised panel you can see how it just conforms to whatever surface it's on it's really really nice convenient and fast [Music] so now I've got my shell sanded I've got my door sanded you can see the door what it looks like here it's you can see all the grain is nice and filled definitely could take one more coat put one more coat on this this is got two coats on it so I'm gonna apply a third coat on this shelf one more coat on there and then I'll sand that and be ready for my top coat on with our final coat of aqua coat I'm just gonna dust off my surface now if you don't dust it off you can get contaminants mixed in with your aqua coat and you know it could not be nice and smooth application kind of gets in there and it gets a little bit grainy so I'm gonna wipe that down it's good idea to have yo two rags with you and I'll apply my final coat getting into summer like really hard areas say if I would have this panel right here cocked because sometimes we do caulk our panels if I needed to get in corners sometimes I'll just use something just like my finger just to rub it down in there but you don't want to leave a whole lot behind it does sand you'll fairly easily but the more you leave behind the more you're gonna have to sand you're really just after filling mixed beings or your grain so I'm gonna apply my final coat got my whole assortment of trowels here here's my hot cocoa well will do with the large one here first eye here we go I'm going to apply it so I can apply take it out I can apply it on with a small trowel and then spread it with a large crowd to make the process a little bit faster this is looking really good and it feels now absolutely glassy smooth now this is gonna look absolutely beautiful when done sometimes I like just going u'll across the grain instead of with the grain it seems like it has a tendency to fill a little bit better so we got like our routed edges here you can just rub it with my rag it's looking really nice so that one looks really good wipe off the excess on my edges here I'm gonna do this door show you one last door final coat on this door let's get all work you know from inside out so I'm gonna work on my top panel here this does stuff doesn't have a strong odor at all so you don't need to wear a respirator it's gonna barely smell it down inside the the raised portion it looks looks like it's fairly filled but I can use you know that to get in there I can use your little trowel like this to get down in there just go look around search around it's kind of interesting where you can find little trials like this this was this one right here came from the guys that did the window tinting on my vehicle they were doing it I said hey can I have one of those and they gave one to me same with this one here once again you can apply it down in there with a rag too I can just but you just don't use too much because you don't want to get it where you don't want it like I don't want it down in the edges of my raised panel where it bridges that gap so it's looking pretty good I'll work on my outside edges now this door right here the end result when we eventually paint this it would have looked really really grainy now it's gonna have a real nice factory finish it's getting pretty close to being done you know you can know some people are gonna say well why don't you just use your coating and sprayed multiple coats on and build it up having up that fills it from our previous experience in the past you got to spray on a lot of material and in order to eventually get that glassy smooth finish what you can't 100% get it without applying like an aqua coder or a grain filler it's really difficult you can if you keep spraying a ton of product on there but it's ISKCON the end results gonna cost you more money your product spraying it on there's gonna cost more than the aqua coat that you're applying so this stores ready set aside it'll be 45 minutes and then it'll be ready to sand same with the table top here set this aside sand it once I sand it I'm gonna my final sand will be a 320 and then it's ready to coat so once I'm done the application process in the final sand process I'm gonna begin the painting process it's very simple easy to do these things are gonna be glassy smooth when I'm done hope you've enjoyed this video if you've got any questions or comments leave them in the questions or comments section below we loved hearing what you had to say if you've ever used aqua code before let us know what you're experiencing with share it down below if you've got any tips or tricks we love to hear from you hit that little notification bell it's free is easy to do that little hourglass thing down there all it does is it allows you to be notified every time paint live TV comes out with a new video and if you like our videos subscribe to our Channel it doesn't cost you a dime give us a thumbs up if you've enjoyed the video we would appreciate it very much and like we always say hopefully we'll see you on our next video [Music]