Painting MDF Wardrobe Doors?

[seaco]

Hi all

I am soon going to be making some new doors for my wardrobes I want to make them in 12mm MDF with 6mm stiles around similar to shaker anyway my question is I want to paint them satin white I have the gear to spray them but I'm unsure as to what paint to use, would a primer and normal satin oil based paint be tough enough, if not what do you suggest?

As you may or may not know I did make my own kithen and used a fair amount of MDF I contacted a local kitchen maker near me and he supplied a paint to me he uses but all I know is that it was cellulose based and is excellent but he's gone now and I have no idea what it was... DOH!

 

[Niki]

.Hi Lee

I'm using this paint for MDF
http://www.efarby.pl/product_info.php/c ... cts_id/150

What is written in Polish:
High-quality enamel for ornamental painting wood surface, steel, concrete etc.
For indoor and outdoor use.
Waterproof, UV and other weather factors.

I think that the key word is "Enamel paint".
I painted the bathroom and toilets cabinet doors 2 years ago (without any primer) and they are still "snow white".

niki

 

[George_N]

How about water based paints? Prime, undercoat, topcoat and finish with a water-based floor varnish in either gloss or matt depending on the effect you want. That should give a really tough finish. That is my plan for my kitchen cabinet doors which will be frame and panel in MDF. I don't know yet how these paints spray. I have a cheap spray gun that came bundled with my compressor and I will be trying it sometime soon as the carcass building has now started. I presume these paints like MDF primer and undercoat need a fair bit of thinning to get them to spray properly. I've never tried spraying so it will be a bit of an adventure. Improvised spray booth will probably be the garden gazebo lined with polythene sheet to minimise the mess (and I'm sure I will make a mess). Any tips on spraying would be welcome.

 

[soapy]

I've used water based eggshell on a few mdf projects and it holds up pretty well. It does finger mark (kids) but you can wash it easily and it doesn't yellow like oil based paints. I've applied it using a normal compressor and spraygun as well as one of the B&Q cheapy HVLP setups. It sprays fine through the high pressure gun when thinned at 10% as recommended on the tin, but to get it to run through the viscosity cup of the HVLP kit it has to be really thin.
Regards Soapy

 

[seaco]

Thankyou for the replies it looks as though waterbased may be the way to go, Soapy how many coats did it take to cover and did you use a primer, also did you seal the edges in any way?... I have one of the B&Q HVLP guns but found it really messy, seemed to get everywhere as the droplets seemed bigger than a standard gun so settled and marked instead on turning to a dust, I don't have enough room to make a booth so I will probably stick with my car spray kit!...

Good luck George if you have a go soon please let me know how it went!

Hi Niki do you know if you can get this paint in the UK, also when are going to come up with some more inventions?... you should work for MI5... :wink:

 

[Niki]

Hi Seaco

I think that you cannot get it in UK, it's a local production for the local market.
That's the reason that I said that the key word is Enamel paint.

For the time being I don't have something new except "Diarrhea in the head" (many ideas but all of them are $#!t).

Regards
niki

 

[Colin C]

Hi seaco

I have one of the Earlex systems and have just sprayed two mdf units that I have made and got a good finish on them.
I will post some pic's of them and it was finished in eggshell too :wink: .

It does have to be really thin to go through the gun

 

[seaco]

Hi Colin

It will be interesting to see the results what paint did you use?

Lee

 

[soapy]

Lee
From memory I think 4 or 5 coats, sounds a lot of work but if you rig up a polythene tent you can use a fan heater between coats and get it painted in a day. I treat the edges with white emulsion with around 25% pva added, let it dry and rub down. It might need a couple of coats to get a smooth finish before spraying.

 

[seaco]

Thanks for the info Soapy...