9/30/2014 How to paint MDF to a mirror finish worklog - shoryuken http://forums.shoryuken.com/discussion/67501/how-to-paint-mdf-to-a-mirror-finish-worklog 1/28 Search Shoryuken Forums SIGN IN REGISTER FORUMS CATEGORIES DISCUSSIONS ACTIVITY BEST OF... Index Discussion Groups Tech Talk HOW TO PAINT MDF TO A MIRROR FINISH WORKLOG in Tech Talk Hi guys. I've decided to make a proper extensive tutorial on how to paint MDF to get that perfect mirror finish since my original worklog thread got so much interest and questions about how to paint. This will be a very complete guide and I hope to help all of you out there who struggle to get a great paintjob with spray paint and MDF. It will be done as a worklog and I'll post more as I go. Today was just the first day of work. I'm just painting a small piece of MDF. I'm doing it this way for a couple reasons. First, some people just starting to paint can simply follow along with me as I go, and second it takes a long time to work, take pictures, edit and upload pictures, and finally post the information here so I'd much rather do it in parts. So without further delay let's begin. This is a picture of my case that I built and have a worklog for on this forum. This is what it will look like at the end. The piece of MDF that I'm going to paint. It's just a scrap piece I had lying around. It's going to be the best looking useless piece of wood ever! Digital717 Wannabe Viper Player Joined: 6 years ago Posts: 986 ✭ 5 years ago
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9/30/2014 How to paint MDF to a mirror finish worklog - shoryuken
A quick question, how do you attach the sandpaper to your sanding block? Do you just glue it on?
Oh no. I just kind of wrap it around the top and just hold it with my hand. Works fine that way.
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Wow, this painting tutorial (thus far) is amazing! Please continue...
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My case is being made out of pine. Is the filler primer as important when working with pine or will a normal grey primer do the
job?
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heh, finally this will give me a chance to work with mdf.
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UNW4NT3D, post: 3064067 wrote:
My case is being made out of pine. Is the filler primer as important when working with pine or will a normal grey primer
do the job?
Probably not as important, but I'd probably get it regardless just to be safe.
Fantastic stuff! thanks man :tup: You should add a link to your worklog thread
Thanks man. I was going to add a link but I don't want questions to keep popping up in that thread. I want to keep them all in
here.
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Nice Job! :tup:
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So i have the first coat of lacquer painted on how long should i wait till i wetsand
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blklightning21, post: 3064072 wrote:
So i have the first coat of lacquer painted on how long should i wait till i wetsand
It depends on your environment. Is it cold and humid where you are or hot and dry? In a mostly hot and dry place 2 days
probably. If it's colder and humid maybe 3-4 days. You're in Cali right? I'd say wait 3 days to be safe.
It depends on your environment. Is it cold and humid where you are or hot and dry? In a mostly hot and dry place 2
days probably. If it's colder and humid maybe 3-4 days. You're in Cali right? I'd say wait 3 days to be safe.
Wow really so how long should this whole project take
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UNW4NT3D, post: 3064077 wrote:
Ok so I went to Halfords today and got 220, 400, 600 and 1200 grit papers. I asked for grey filler primer too.... he went
off looking for it brought me back a can and said that was the stuff... I didn't realise until I got home that he'd given me
beige. Will beige be ok or should I take it back and change it for grey?
Shouldn't matter too much. Gray would be better but black should cover up that beige totally I would think. Also try to find
something higher than 1200. That will definitely give you a really great finish, but if you can get some 1600 or 2000 also it will be
a little better.
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blklightning21, post: 3064079 wrote:
Wow really so how long should this whole project take
Just depends on how much time you have. This is a little piece so it won't take all that long. I will sand the primer and put on the
first coat of color tomorrow. That has to cure for a couple days, then I will sand it and put on the clear, wait a couple days, sand
that and then buff it out. I'm only doing one coat of everything because this is just a tutorial project, but on my case I did 2 coats
of color so that adds another few days. All in all it can take a week if you have nothing to do all day or up to a few weeks. The
sanding is very very tedious. I probably sanded my case for a total of about 10 hours at least.
so how exactly do you wetsand. Do you soak the sandpaper or do you just dip it in the water. and should it just be water or a
water soap mixture
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Canto, post: 3064083 wrote:
Woahhhhh!!! 3 days before you can sand the first coat of paint? Yeah.. kinda makes sense... I usually don't even sand
between color coats only wait till the last coat for it to dry properly.. BUT my piesces have never looked as beautiful as
yours!!! I can't wait for the updates! I will so follow your guide from now on if it becomes mirror!!! Woo!!!
GW so far and can't wait for more!
Oh it will be mirror like don't worry! It should actually come out even better than the case I have pictured in the first post because
I didn't do that one as well as I could have. It's not difficult to get a mirror finish, it just takes a lot of work, time, and patience.
blklightning21 wrote:
so how exactly do you wetsand. Do you soak the sandpaper or do you just dip it in the water. and should it just be water
or a water soap mixture
There are a couple ways to do it. The way I do it is to dip the sanding block and paper together into a bucket of water mixed with
just a tiny amount of dish soap to keep everything lubricated. I just dip it quickly, but that is enough to saturate the paper
because the MDF block I use also soaks up water. I make sure that it's dripping a little bit and let it drip onto the surface. When
you sand you want the area you are sanding to be totally wet. This doesn't take a huge amount of water though. I will get into it
more with pictures on my next update.
BTW I updated the original post with the paint brand in case anyone was wondering about that.
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Digital717, post: 3064085 wrote:
Oh it will be mirror like don't worry! It should actually come out even better than the case I have pictured in the first post
because I didn't do that one as well as I could have. It's not difficult to get a mirror finish, it just takes a lot of work, time,
and patience.
There are a couple ways to do it. The way I do it is to dip the sanding block and paper together into a bucket of water
mixed with just a tiny amount of dish soap to keep everything lubricated. I just dip it quickly, but that is enough to
saturate the paper because the MDF block I use also soaks up water. I make sure that it's dripping a little bit and let it
drip onto the surface. When you sand you want the area you are sanding to be totally wet. This doesn't take a huge
amount of water though. I will get into it more with pictures on my next update.
BTW I updated the original post with the paint brand in case anyone was wondering about that.
I see i will try the dish soap and wat grit sandpaper should i be using to wetsand
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Wow @*that gloss in the first pic. How durable/delicate is the final clear coat once everything is done? I'm just painting my case
and wonder if a slightly 'rough' (as in not high gloss) surface might be more resistant to scratching. At the moment I imagine that
such a glossy surface is really sensitive. After all I'll be using my stick and am worried to scratch it.
For car paint there is a 2 component clear coat that should be pretty scratch resistant. Will lacquer (resin based paint as
opposed to acrylic enamel) as you use it be just as fine?
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blklightning21, post: 3064086 wrote:
I see i will try the dish soap and wat grit sandpaper should i be using to wetsand
It just depends on what stage you are on right now. If you have any more coats of anything to go on just use 400. Only the very
last coat get's finer paper. On the last coat you sand with everything. First 400, then 600, 1000, 1500, 2000, etc, moving up
progressively. This sounds worse than it is, although it's definitely very time consuming. The good thing is that every time you
move to finer paper it gets easier and easier because the finer paper is not used to get it flat, it's just to remove the scratches left
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blklightning21, post: 3064091 wrote:
Heres a pic of my first coat
This is what the case looks like all around pretty much. my question is is this how it is supposed to look or is this the
result of maybe the sandpaper not being wet enough or too much sanding or the grit being too low (320).
Thanks for your help
Hmm. It seems as though your first coat doesn't look like it really coated everything completely. It shouldn't look like yours when
it's done. It should all be a uniform gray color. It shouldn't have marks and uneven coloration, and it should feel very flat to the
touch with no noticeable texture.
320 is too low though. Get some 400. And is your sandpaper designed to be used wet? Some aren't. The other thing is that
maybe you just sanded way too much without wiping off the surface and/or using a fresh piece of sandpaper. When you
wetsand the residue will foam up and the paper will start catching and kind of tugging on the surface. As soon as that happens
you have to stop, wipe off the surface, and get a new piece of sandpaper. If you keep sanding after that point it will do nothing
but start stripping off paint quickly and leaving marks. And it definitely needs to be totally wet on the surface that you are
sanding. There shouldn't be any dry spots at all. You should also use very light pressure. You don't really need to press on it,
just let it glide over the work piece. I'm going to sand my project tomorrow a day early since I'm off of work so you can wait until
then and see how it should look.
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Great tutorial. Good work.
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So i was wondering if i put a heater around the paint would it make it so i do not to have to wait so long before i wetsand again
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But yeah the hotter it is the faster it will cure.
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Digital717, post: 3064095 wrote:
Must have patience grasshopper.
But yeah the hotter it is the faster it will cure.
Haha i know i just want to finish so i can start using it i have been out of commision for like a week and im startin to feel it :rofl:
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Bump for update. Will update again later today.
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blklightning21, post: 3064096 wrote:
Haha i know i just want to finish so i can start using it i have been out of commision for like a week and im startin to feel
it :rofl:
I know what you mean. It's hard to go slowly when you want to use it right away.