Sealing shop furniture

[Stopblock]

Hi,
I have just made a cabinet to house a 3d printer in the workshop and sealed it with polyurethane. It turns out the polyurethane costs as much as the rest of the cabinet itself. Does anyone have any tips on cost effective sealing products I could use in the future? Esp. given that this is shop furniture that I just want to protect against humidity and the look isn't that big a deal.

Thanks,


Brendan

* I guess the other option is to use melamine panels rather than ply and seal the ends?

[tonzeyd]

I've always used Danish oil for shop cabinets. It's easy to make your own batch with recipes found online.

Alternatively paint if it's not going to be used as any kind of work surface that will get scratched up. Eg 3d printer enclosure would be one of those situations where paint would have been an ideal finish.

[BobL]

Why does it even need to be sealed?

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Either Danish Oil or buffed wax here.

Mainly because I normally have both to hand, so both the initial use and any 'touch-ups' require minimum faffing around looking for stuff.

I prefer wax buffing any work surfaces I use for finishing or gluing up. More for the ease of removing spillage to keep things truly flat than cosmetic reasons, but still. I also prefer it for areas where liquid solvents, finishes, etc. are stored which may be inadvertently splashed or dribbled.

'Most everything else has been oiled at some point, being the simplest to apply..

Why does it even need to be sealed?

I would be lying if I said my shop was dust- or grime- free, but I still like my shop to look good on the rare occasions when I actually have time to clean up properly and reclaim floor/shelf/bench space from the dreaded "temporary storage."

Dust settles on everything and moving heavy objects around quickly grinds the grime into unsealed grain until only a re-sand can improve the looks. Whereas applying just one coat of whatever means I can get good results with merely a damp cloth.

Easy decision.

[Stopblock]

Thanks for the responses.
Danish oil appears to be blo plus polyurethane plus thinner. I have used blo+thinner before, so I guess throw in some pu

Do I need to seal?
In the past, no, but have had a couple of wet seasons now and it's clearly causing growth on some of the unsealed surfaces, so thought I'd better put more effort in in future.

In terms of cost per m^2, cheap flat interior paint seems to be the thing, possibly followed by decking oil.

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

You shouldn't need to seal if you use oil. It may suck up a bit more than you'd like with the first application, but be liberal and wipe off any excess floating on the surface after 1/4 hour or so

Mind you, if the damp is wicking up through the timber then sealing would be advised. But probably not sufficient... that is a whole other problem which a coat of paint can only hide at best.

If it looks patchy, wait a week for the first coat to cure, then re-apply. The first coat should act as a sealer. A bonus of oil is that it can generally be reapplied straight over previous coats with minimum prep, so long as the prior coats have cured properly.

I wouldn't bother worrying about making a Danish Oil up - modern DO's are not what I call a DO at all, but that's beside the point. If you're just looking to protect the surface and having it look reasonably good, even a cheap Decking Oil should do the job so long as it's durable. I'm unsure whether you can buy any without stain already added though.

Paint, while cheap, tends to become rather ratty after a while. To my mind it's basically the same problem as with unsealed surfaces.

I guess it depends on whether you want a pretty result or a minimal maintenance one. It's rare to get both without hefty costs.

[AlexOsk]

Just use any table oil. Olive, Sunflower, works the same to protect and highlight the timber.

[Stopblock]

I like the oil idea. I wanted to say that this is purely from humidity in the air, which has been unusually high over the past 2 years or so. None of the wood is in contact with the ground.

Actually, some of my unused panels have had some mildew form on them. Can I just wipe it off or do I need to do something more drastic?