I'm interested to know if anyone has had SW CV paint crack at the face/door frame joints after being installed. The cracks are hairline thin. A very annoying problem.

This is not a paint problem but an assembly problem. What are your assembly techniques for putting face frames and doors together.

I'll take a gander. Face frames are assembled with pocket screws and no glue.

Doors are assembled, clamped and then pinned in the rear and the clamps removed immediately.

I KNOW I don't have an assembly problem and I do glue/clamp, etc. but I find it hard to believe that one can do a painted finish with ANY brand of pigmented CV or lacquer and not have some cracking at the joints. I know several who say that but I would have to see it to believe it. Wood moves. Finishes crack at joints.

Almost all conversion varnish products will eventually produce a hairline crack at the joint because of wood movement.

That being said, it should take about 2 years before that happens unless the house is horribly conditioned letting the hot humid air in the summer and the cold dry air in the winter.

A good solid glued up joint should resist cracking for quite some time. Eventually it will succumb.

His problem seems immediate. He says right after install. That's probably happening because or racking the cabinet or not exactly tight joinery.

The S-W pigmented conversion varnish is going to be a real problem for them down the road. Spray some something somewhat flexible and see how it cracks. I've done this with many brands and this is the worst, being very brittle.
Use 2 part polyurethane and do the same test...night and day.

out of curiosity , anybody believe that time of year makes any difference on whether a CV cracks or not ? it would make perfect sense that a door sprayed in January , during low humidity , would have problems during the following summer when the humidity is higher ..

as a side-note.....a project ( new build ) I was involved with this past winter had the painted kitchen cabs come from a cab-shop . the painted passage doors were made by a wood-worker buddy of mine and finished by myself , as were several other cabinet groups within the house . the kitchen cab doors showed big problems within a couple weeks of install ..... and took about 6 weeks to get new doors . any ideas on this type of failure ?

everything that came thru my booth displayed no problems that Im aware of .....I'll get another look at them soon , but Im pretty sure all is well .

The problem is not in the paint but the moisture in the air. If one can keep the humidity in the shop around 45 percent and all the woodwork is glued and nailed then that keeps it at a minimum but it's still possible.