Painting ordinary MDF?

[singlecoil]

Over the years I've experimented with various primers but what I've found so far is that if it has water in it (as they all do now) then it's going to raise some of the fibres on the faces (not the cut edges, they just soak it up like a very spongy sponge). The usual advice is to sand between coats but although it improves matters slightly it's not an efficient use of one's time (IMO).

Anyone had any luck with any makes of paint that claim to get around this problem?

[nuyorican]

I’ve used acrylic or shellac based primers with success.

[nuyorican]

Just to add though, I think you’re always going to have to sand it a bit between coats. It’s MDF. It’s what it is.

[marksx]

I used Zinnser 123 after looking into this a while back. Expensive but very good.

Edit - link to the vid:

https://youtu.be/O7_JhgkD-og?si=sH9SyfZEHwFS1PtW

[Marcellus]

Start off with decent MDF……… we use Finsa Hidrofugo and Hidrofugo plus and the finish quality is much much better than any others.

We sand with 240 grit and use a water based undercoat from Morrells (twice sanded twice primed)

When we’ve top coated anything, we’ve sanded with 400grit and done two coats.

At the end of the day, it’s MDF it needs sanding and priming… if you’ve not got the time to do it pay someone who has (we sand/prime it at 25metres per minute, close coupled sander to paint machine, cure for 20/30 mins then repeat)

[Hanslow]

This should give you some ideas https://www.instructables.com/What-Is-the-BEST-Way...

The last bit I did I just painted a few times, with only light sanding between. It was the waiting for it to dry that was the most painful.