Staining MDF

[legin]

Gday all

I have been building Cupboards for my shed. I built them all out of MDF.

I want to try staining them to look like natural wood.

I heard this is possible. One person told me to mix white glue and water and apply that to the wood first. This is meant to give a grain pattern when the stain is applied. Let it soak in then apply the stain.

I tried it with 2 small board, one with the glue and water mix and one without.

They both look the same. They sort of look like painted boards.

[durwood]

what type of stain are you using?

MDF is like blotting paper and can be hard to stain, it tends to get patchy and blotches. It has a wax inbedded in it which can affect some types of paint which dissolve the wax and then it dries unevenly.

A stain will colour it wood colour but you may have trouble getting a realistic wood looking finish.

The only easy method to get a wood grain look would be to wood grain it with paint.

[Harry72]

I remember doing this at high school...

Before assembling lay the mdf flat on the floor, grab a stiff bristled shop broom(pref natrual fibre), fill a container(paint roller tray?)with a dark stain. Dip the broom in let it drain and brush the stain on in one continuos stroke covering the whole lenght of the board. Then spray on a even coat of lighter colour stain to even up the colour accross the board.
This will give you a grainy appearance.
Practice on some butchers paper first.

[durwood]

Harry,
you have the basics but its the other way round. Light colour first then the dark.

Best method- pick a timber colour, say cedar and then paint on the ground coat if you were doing a top class job prime and prepare the surface for a good finish.

In the case of cedar paint on orange as the first coat. let it dry and then put on the grain coat which is dark brown.

For cedar it has just a straight grain so wipe the brown with a rough rag, or a course sponge or some cotton waste (something which will give a scratchy finish.) in fairly straight lines.

you will get a grain pattern. The easiest way to be sucessful is to use two paints which don't affect each other. such as orange enamel and then brown water based paint. That way you can wipe the graining colour off if you don't like the effect and re do it. If you use the wrong combination of paint one may attack the other.

When done seal it with a suitable clear to stop the pattern being damaged.

You can also produce a marble effect the same way. If you google you should find lots of info to do this. This is a house painter finish still taught in most tech colleges.

If done properly is neally impossible to pick it from the real thing. Any wood grain contact or wall paper is printed the same way

[legin]

Thanks guys

The idea of building these things for my shed is to get practice at doing these sort of things before I butcher something made for the lounge room.

So what the hell.

I'll give your ideas a go:D

If they dont work its only a shed cupboard and it will have a bit of characture.

[legin]

Gday guys.

I Just found this in an old thread from last year written by Ratbag OZ.

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I don't know if this will be much help to you as I know you are doing a large project, and it would be a difficult way of finishing something large, but just in case it helps.........

This is 6mm MDF which I cut with a coping saw. I stumbled across this finish while experimenting with stain on MDF. I used a Wattyl wood Gel in "Western Jarrah" and when I applied the first stroke with a rag, I got this lovely wood grain effect, you have to be careful though as it drys really quick, and you can only adjust it while it is very wet, you also need to be careful to do nice long strokes, as anytime you stop you get a puffy "sponged" look, which should be avoided.
I don't recall if I laquered it after or not? Most likely I would have.......

Hope this helps someone......
Ratbag
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I think Ill try his method too. I want a lighter colour stain so I think I'll use teak.

I'll let you know how it turns out. I'll do it on the weekend.

[arose62]

Multiple coats of stain-and-varnish can work well - just don't try to apply it as a single smooth coat, make sure you paint strips, and let the edges of each strip tack up before you get to them again.

See here for pics...
http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/showthread.php?t=31555

The inside of the lid was an experiment using a $29 airbrush, the outside is explained in the thread.

I'm currently thinking how to do a light-ish wood as I've made a lazy susan for a co-worker, and the spec. changed from "gloss white" (so I used MDF) to "light-ish wood" :(

Cheers,
Andrew