Furniture, Wood and Cabinetry Finishing - Refinishing pine cabinets

We have recently purchased a house that has pine cabinets in the kitchen as well as 3 bathrooms. They all need to be refinished due to 10 years of knicks, dings, gouges & water marks. They appear to have had a type of oil finish on them (not a shiny varnish of any sort). In order to start from scratch what is the best method of proceeding? Do I need to remove the past oil (or whatever it was that was used to proctect the wood) if so, with what? Or will plain old "tons of sanding" do the trick? There are miles of cabinets! I don't plan on staining them, I am thinking of just using a water based varathane once I have them down to bare wood. Using this, will they still turn orange over time?

One last question...what is better for sanding a palm sander or an orbital sander? will an orbital sander damage the wood as it goes in a circular pattern?

Recommendations from all appreciated!

The oil should probably be removed before coating with latex. Sanding may remove most of it, washing the wood with a thinner rag will probably remove the rest [be sure to switch to clean rags as needed]

Shellac is the coating that turns wood orange. oil base varnish/poly will give a yellow/amber tint. Latex poly/varnish should stay clear.

Either sander should be fine. The little fine swirls left by an orbital sander are easy to remove with hand sanding [which you should do prior to finishing anyway]

Thanks Marksr...I will continue with my sanding...aghhh.

How fine of sand paper should I use before I apply my finish?

Bring a cabinet door into your local paint shop(NOT lowes or HD). It's hard to know with out seeing it.

How fine of sand paper should I use before I apply my finish?



180 - 220 grit is good for final sanding. ALWAYS SAND THE SAME DIRECTION AS THE GRAIN otherwise sanding scratchs may show. You will likely need atleast 2 coats, sand lightly with 220 between coats.