Making the switch to vertical finishing

Switching your cabinetry business to vertical finishing could be the best decision you ever make. As a third-generation cabinet maker that was taught to spray flat, I speak from experience.

After seventeen years of frustrating and costly slowdowns in the spray booth I made the move to vertical spraying and it completely removed the bottleneck from our finishing process.

If you’re skeptical about making the change to vertical finishing I get it – I was at first. We were all taught to spray flat, and because we’re all creatures of habit, changing from the familiar to something new can be difficult. I can assure you that the results are well worth it. Fortunately, the learning curve involved in switching from flat to vertical is small, and most shops are already spraying certain surfaces vertically.

The current school of thought in the industry is that by spraying cabinet doors flat a finisher can lay on very heavy coats without having to worry about sags. While it’s true that you can lay on heavy coats spraying flat, coating a surface too heavily brings its own problems.

The real goal is to spray the proper amount needed to fully coat the door – no more and no less. Spraying vertically keeps me more mindful of how I apply the lacquer, and because I’m not overcoating the doors, I use significantly less product than back when I sprayed flat.

Another advantage to spraying vertically is less debris falling into wet paint. Any finisher understands the frustration of examining doors that you thought were completed only to find that dust from the ceiling, insects, sweat droplets or other debris had stuck to the finish. With a vertical workflow the doors are hanging while they dry, leaving far less surface area exposed to falling debris.

In addition to falling debris, another problem caused by racking panels flat is that it’s not unusual to flip a piece over only to find that it’s stuck to the rack. In both cases, debris stuck to the paint or doors stuck to the drying rack, the only solution is to rework the panels. These common and costly issues are solved by finishing vertically.

Having doors hang at eye level is another advantage to spraying vertically. During the priming process it’s much easier to spot any imperfections when the doors are hanging as opposed to laying flat. Any dents or cracks in the joints are more easily identified and can be dealt with on the line before the topcoat is applied.

With proper setup, superior material handling is a huge advantage that a vertical finishing workflow offers. When finishing flat, a door is sprayed then put on a rack. Another door is picked up for spraying and the process repeats. Each time this happens the finisher must put down his or her spray gun. Using this method, a door will be handled an average of ten to twelve times.

Let’s compare that to using the vertical finishing method. After the door is initially hung it’s only handled twice – once to remove it for sanding and then once more to re-hang. Any scuff sanding needed is done while the door hangs. Because I usually have someone in the booth with me to move parts, I can continuously spray without ever having to put my spray gun down. Additionally, because the doors are hanging it’s possible to spray the front, back, and all the edges in the same amount of time that it takes to spray the front of a door and rack it.

An advantage to spraying vertical that’s been a big benefit to me is reduced back and neck strain. When spraying flat, the door must be placed on a platform low enough that the finisher can view all the details. That results in the finisher bending over to spray and then straightening up to rack the panel – over and over all day. Spraying vertically the finisher stays in an upright position practically all day with far less back and neck strain.

For me, the biggest advantage to the vertical finishing workflow is recovered time with family and friends. I’m sure this will hit home with finishers and shop owners alike. With the flat finishing method of spraying one side of a door and racking it to dry, we often find ourselves working late, coming in early, or working through the weekend to get those extra coats on the doors so they can go onto cabinets the following week. After switching to vertical finishing, I no longer had to work nights and weekends.

As far as specific equipment needed for a vertical finishing workflow, proper lighting in the booth is essential. Most booth lighting is overhead and doesn’t properly illuminate the doors when hanging. Mounting lights on the side walls of your booth provides excellent cross-lighting and is my preferred lighting setup. Other lighting setups can also work providing the doors are properly lit.

One of the most important equipment considerations are in the area of material handling. The key to spraying vertically is having an efficient way to hang the doors and move the parts into the booth for spraying and back out for drying.

Of course, I’m going to recommend our PivotLine® and PivotPoint systems. We designed the systems from the ground up for this purpose and they outperform any other finishing system on the market.

PivotLine is a comprehensive system that can be adapted to any shop and booth size. You can see detailed information about the system here.

PivotPoint is a scaled-down starter version of the system that also works well for on-site kitchen remodels. Read more about it here.

Both systems provide excellent material handling for vertical finishing. Even though the systems were designed for cabinetry, we have customers that are using them in vertical powder coating applications and can be adapted to complement your existing powder coating techniques.

If you’re ready to double or even triple your production throughput and take back your nights and weekends, make the move to vertical finishing.