what's up I'm Jonathan and welcome to Maker Tales where I'm sharing my maker
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well I'm about to make a whole bunch of MDF builds and I looked up online will
how is the best way is to seal this because I just want to spend as little
time as possible doing as few coats as I can and I couldn't get a consensus
everybody kept telling me to do this or do that so I thought I would go ahead
and find this out for us so what I've got in front of me is we have no sanding
and lightly sanded we have control which is just going to be paint and paint
we're gonna have a 50/50 of tite bond two with water we're gonna have MDF sealer
just a cheap one to see how it fares and then we're gonna have 50/50 cheap PVA so
along with that were also going to be doing edges here down here because
there's a big difference between the surfaces and the edges and I want to see
what's going to be the best middle ground to be able to deal with both of
these at the same time so let's go find that out now that we know the plan let's
recap as I apply the first coat the top row is unsanded and the bottom row is
lightly sanded with 320 grit sandpaper before every coat unsurprisingly one
coat does not do much on the control what was interesting is that the cheap
MDF sealer dried by far the fastest shortly followed by the paint after a
quick sand of the bottom row let's apply the second coat this time around they
all get a layer of paint something I found quite interesting is that at this
point you can already see the textures developing in the top row the cheap MDF
sealer is the smoothest one and the titebond 2 mixture is the roughest one once
this coat dried I really thought that the plain paint control was starting to
really look the part onto the third coat I was really looking to make this my
final coat as once again I'm looking for the least amount of work for a
reasonable finish from here on it's a little hard to show on camera as it's
all white but I've done my best by underexposing the white the control the
one with just paint was no longer looking as white as the others once
dried it was clear that the just paint control needed a few more layers to be
as white as all the rest one of the concerns I saw online of using PVA or
titebond 2 was that it would leave the paint feeling spongy gluey or rubbery to
test this I've done a scratch test before adding any protective sealer or
coat on top once all the scratch tests were done I was surprised the titebond 2
felt like it was the strongest being able to keep a hold of even just a
little bit of paint compared to the rest the control and the cheap MDF sealer
felt identical and the PVA was close to identical too but on closer inspection
it looks like it does clump up a little bit like a rubbery effect but while
scratching it feels just the same as the others now taking a look at the edges
honestly they all performed almost identical here I would say if I had to
pick a winner it would be the MDF sealer sanded between each layer that gave a
very nice smooth result on the edges closely followed by the tight bond now
if all you're looking to do is paint MDF and not apply any protective coating or
clear coat on top the winner in my eyes is the cheap MDF sealer it applies the
easiest and by a hair is the whitest after only two coats of white paint
closely followed by the tight bond - I would say that if you're looking for a
smooth finish while using the titebond 2 you would have to sand between each
layer as it is extremely textured if you don't as my plans involve using MDF as a
high wearing surface I'm going to be using a water-based poly acrylic sealer
I do wonder if the first sealer for the MDF will affect how this top coat is
going to be applied on the final results and just to clear up this poly acrylic
is pretty much the UK equivalent of Minwax polyacrylic on the first coat it
does look like the control of absorbed a lot more if I had to put a number on it
out say close to three times the amount as the other tests the one that I felt
absorbed the least was the PVA closely followed by the titebond 2 on the first
coat when it came to the second coat of poly acrylic once again I thought that
the control absorbed a lot than all the others however all the
sealers felt relatively the same this time round after applying the final and
third coat of poly acrylic the final results are here by far the control
which is just paint is the one that needs the most work I would say you
would need to add at least two more layers of paint to get it to the same
relative whiteness as the others and maybe a layer more of poly acrylic
together to the same sturdiness having said that it's one of the smoothest
finishes on the sanded row coming in at a close second is the MDF sanded sealer
it seems to me that a cheap MDF sealer is the way to go it dried fast was the
least amount of coats of paint to be the brightest and took on the top coat of
poly acrylic very easily from the second coat onwards and in a pinch I would
reach for the PVA if I'm looking for a smooth finish and the tight bond if I'm
looking for a textured finish and with those results that answers all the
questions I had about finishing MDF a big thanks to my patreon if you enjoyed
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getting up to next keep making and let the quest continue