Plastic type finnish on M.D.F.

Hi everyone, i,m your new Pommie woodworker,I hope I don,t bore you to much with my questions. I,ve been out of woodworking for a few years,due to an accident & due to the same accident i,ve forgot most of what I learnt ** which was not a lot to start with} Now i,m hooked again. The first question is, I want to make a kitchen but I live in Thailand & can,t seem to get white partical board for the carcasses, any idea what finnish I can use on M.D.F.
Second I will be useing M.D.F for the doors, & I want to spray a plastic type finnish,any idea,s on that. You will have to treat me has a novice, & go through every stage. Thanks
PS. this is the first decent website for woodworkers i.ve been on,& even though I think it,s great,the wife can,t get me off.

Do you supply magnifying glasses with your posts?:D

My kitchen has MDF doors that have a simple clear satin lacquer finish. They've been installed for eight years and show no sign of wear. The great advantage is that if they do get damaged they are simple to repair as another coat of lacquer will melt into previous coats.

Two part finishes are more durable but much harder to repair. As I said, mine have been there for eight years and I have a pair of highly destructive ten year olds (i.e. twins) so I think that lacquer is plenty good enough for a domestic kitchen.

If you select your finish carefully you should be able to colour or stain it. I don't like the effect personally, except when I stain it black, but others do. [shrug] There's no accounting for some peoples taste. :D

One effect I do like, but haven't had the chance to play with enough to master... yet ;) ...is to seal the MDF with a coat of lacquer then mix up some wood stain, wipe it on with a rag and then wipe off the excess with another crumpled rag. The overall idea is to create "woodgrainy" patterns. Once the base effect is down, a couple of coats of clear finish et voila!

It still ain't the same as real wood but I reckon with a bit of practice (OK, OK... a lot of practice!) one could come pretty damned close!

You been readin the ubeaut bible Skew?

They have one? :o

Most of my reading, woodwork wise, is from old textbooks. '50s and earlier. Got a couple that include the final HSC woodwork exams from '45-'55 and they're a goldmine of info. ;) There's several chapters dedicated to matching timbers and staining bland timbers (eg. poplar) to look like something completely different. And more expensive.

Bit hard trying to work out what they mean by some old product & chemical names though, as they tend to use "common" names from then rather than what we know 'em as now.

Don't read many mags or new books; it seems to me they only tell you what to use and where. I prefer to know the why... which is something that doesn't seem to be deemed important nowadays. [shrug]

You'll find Neils book is a little different to most how-to-text's, rather than tell you why it encourages you to find out why!
The Polishers Hand Book is well worth the money IMHO

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Originally Posted by DPB

Do you supply magnifying glasses with your posts?:D

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Sorry DPB I did not realise you were so old that your eye sight is failing, is this big enough or do you still want a magnifiglass

can yer go bigger?

No need to be nasty, he did write it with a smiley, and yes a lot of the members here are older and dont need to be patronised about it.

Thanks every one for your replies, however sarcastic they were. I still haven,t got what I aked for, but I will keep trying. Sorry Mark I just don,t like plain M.D.F. even with a satin finnish,but thanks anyway. Let you know how I get on. Even though I have no taste, someone else out there is, maybe as tasteless as me.

If you can get furniture lacquer there use if for your carcass work.
And probably your doors too.

Otherwise give the mdf a coat of automotive primer sealer followed by a white auto lacquer.

If you want a plastic look you should go with an automotive acyrlic paint and cut then polish it, all exposed edges will need to be sealed as most acyrlic paints will soak in and not give you a solid finish like the face of the MDF.
There are many methods of sealing the "end grain" many use a hi-fill primer several coats sanding between coats, I would use a resin product like polyester(fibre glass resin)or epoxy resin(much dearer) it only takes one coat of this stuff, you still need to fill the endgrain with a automotive type filler afterwards for a ultra smooth finish.
When working with the MDF try your hardest not to scratch the face as its factory finish is good enough for a mirror shine...
And no its not tatseless to use MDF in this manner, some of the latest trends in kitchens is the automotive painted MDF!

Sorry if you though my post was being sarcastic, I just rather maintain the friendly atmosphere here.

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Originally Posted by sprog1

Sorry Mark I just don,t like plain M.D.F. even with a satin finnish,but thanks anyway.

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I don't follow what you want. You say "plastic finish". From that I assumed you wanted a clear finish. Sorry, but I'm confused as to what you want. Do you want a colour? If so automotive lacquers will work fine.

There are two part finishes, as I said, but even though they will wear better over the long term they are harder to repair if damaged.

Sprog

If you simply want white particle board, which I am guessing is Melamine, the you can get the applique in most hardware shops (in Oz that is). You just iron it on. Effectively becomes a veneer. You have a wide choice of these iron on 'veneers'.

Is this what you're after?

Why bother in Thailand, I'm sure they have all sorts of exotic tropical timbers and cheap too. I'm also sure they can lacquer the timbers to have that "dipped glass look", if that's what you want. I know they do a lot of chipboard out of rubber wood that is exported to europe-maybe you could try them and I'm sure they have some melamine coated as Thais are quite good with plastic fabrication as well.

Thanks Bob, Harry, Mark automotive finnish sounds just like the finnish i,m after
Bodgy I know what you are saying, but I have not seen any white iron on veneers that wide over here, only the edgeing strips. Guess I will have to spray it.
I think the Aussie sense of humor is great

AL2 Haven,t tried rubber wood veneer chipboard yet, or anything else for that matter, I have not started yet. I am just getting my tools together & trying to get has much infomation together before I start. Up to now, the only sheets of chipboard I have seen, are either plain, or veneered with paper & they look terrible.