Best Brush?

[Elill]

I am going to try something new.......building a large built in bookcase out of MDF and paint it.......shudder

So never used MDF before.....joy

Anyhow, enough complaining - finish as follows:

- Durobond primer/sealer
- Durobond flexi-cover
- Durobond ultraseal

So, I've never done anything like this before, I've only ever used hardwoods and with hard shellac finishes etc and I'll be blowed if I am going to use my mohair mops with it.

Can someone please suggest a type of brush? I'd like specifics, brand, type etc and where to buy if possible

Also, if anyone can provide some tips on applying the finish that'd be appreciated

[TomH]

No experience with that type of finish, but I've recently bought a Purdy brush and it was great. Think I paid $45 from a 3D dulux trade centre. I usually buy the most expensive brushes I can find, as my experience with the bunnings mid price range is not great.

Also bought a rota coata premium brush at the same time for a similar price - was much thicker, holds the paint better but I found it got clogged up and I prefered the purdy.

Hope this helps,

Tom

[Elill]

Thats great, thanks. I'll give Rolon a call.

[acmegridley]

Look for split bristles in the brush like a y shape on the ends these are the best also look for a solid bristle holder most used vulc.rubber to hold the bristles in place at the butt end of the brush.But you cant go past buying a Purdy,most tradies use them ,a bit dearer but as with most things you get what you pay for.:2tsup:

[Elill]

Purdy it is - I'm not spending 400 bucks on paint to use some crap from Bunnings.

Do I need a smaller brush for doing edging work? or is that just a way to sell more stuff?

The guys who painted our house used 4" brushes for everything and did a superb job.....saying that they paint every day and have done for 25 years....big 2 foot wide rollers as well...I'd struggle to lift the thing

[Dengue]

what is the final coat going to be? Water or oil based? And what colour?

Will you be paying any special attention to the edges?

Remember MDF is very soft, just looks like compressed paper fibres as you will find out , and dents pretty easily. I would not recommend it for bookcases or any load bearing surface. As for $400 worth of paint for MDF, that is a bit of a waste

[Elill]

The final coat is a hard polyurethane acrylic sealer

I was going to put a hardwood edge on it, maybe with a profile.....basically its going to be a bunch of boxes (made of 18mm mdf) stacked together, braced at the back and with a 18mm side panel attached to match the shelf thickness

...just need to find someone to cut me 36mm edging as my table saw died 2 years ago and I haven't needed it until now (switched to all things Festool).....long thing repeatable cuts are a PITA

[NZStu]

I did a pair of large bookshelves (1800x1200x400) earlier this year. Because they were so big and because I didn't want to spend too much time faffing about with them, I painted all of the pieces with a roller before assembly. Worked suprisingly well. The edges were a complete PITA though - they needed about 4 coats of paint as the first two just sank right in. Wise move with the hardwood edging.

MDF is horrid stuff and I've vowed never to make furniture out of it ever again. That said, the shelves seem to get quite a lot of "they're cool shelves - where did you get them?" type comments. I can't for the life of me work out why. They're just plain, functional, white shelves. People are odd.

[Dengue]

here are some references to painting MDF, including advice I received from Wattyl. Hope they are of some use to you

http://www.woodworkforums.com/f9/sanding-sealer-waterproof-76886/#post784968
http://www.woodworkforums.com/f11/mdf-sealing-priming-painting-advise-please-105362/
http://www.woodworkforums.com/f9/how-paint-mdf-84622/
http://www.woodworkforums.com/f9/gloss-paint-finish-mdf-furniture-8996/
Prepping MDF for Paint (http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/Prepping_MDF_for_Paint.html)
How Do I Go About Painting MDF? (http://www.wisegeek.com/how-do-i-go-about-painting-mdf.htm)
Painting MDF | Professional Painting Tips and Techniques (http://jackpauhl.blogspot.com/2007/04/painting-mdf.html)

[Dengue]

Have you counted up the number of surfaces you have to paint? he he he

Last big toyshelf I did , with 9 separate compartments, gave 40 different surfaces, so I used a HVLP spray gun to do the job, tipping the toy shelf upside down first to do the under sides of each shelf, then right way up to finish..

Good luck with it all :)

[Elill]

Many thanks for this.

I had considered buying a spay gun/unit somethingerother, but I need to assemble the thing and then finish it, because its going to be too big etc etc, so a brush it is......yep 10L of the colour coat.....its going to take days and days to do well....rubbing inbetween.......whos darn idea was this? :D