Thread: good stains for MDF?

Hi Blue Penguin,

The thing with MDF is that it will suck up the paint and you'll find the first couple of coats may not even look like they have been painted on the MDF.

The mdf needs a sealer coat on it first and then the paint you have will work well.

My personal choice for a sealer coat would be shellac, but I think that might be outside of your area of expertise and timeline at present, which is fine.

I think, from memory, you should be able to get an MDF sealer from Bunnies.

Others may have better suggestions for sealing MDF.

cheers
Wendy

Try watered down PVA glue to seal before staining, A friend ( industrial designer) uses this method on a lot of model making before painting. not sure if it will work with stains though.

If you want brown sort of presentation.

I'd look at one of the "tinted varnish" products like estipol for instance.
It would be much better if you gave it a couple of coats of sanding sealer first wattly make a sanding sealer for their estipol products that works well and is suitable for brush application.

I'd give 1 coat of thinned (like 10% at least) sanding sealer, double coat the edge grain.
sand it well.... it'll need it.
Give it another just the same.
sand again
then give it a couple of coats of tinted top coat.
Actualy staining the timber(I used the word lightly) in this situation is a guarantee for frustration.

If you wanted a solid colour you could use any of the turps based paving paints as the top coat....just forget that it is suposed to be a paving paint.
think of it as a cheap laquer.

cheers