I built a tennoning jig based on one of the old FWW articles by Pat Warner I believe. I made it out of MDF and it needs to slide but it tends to stick. I remember reading an article about soaking MDF in Linseed oil. My question is will linseed oil and mdf make a slippery surface and will it toughfen the MDF surface?
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Replies
lynnroy,
Beware. If you soak mdf with danish oil or BLO, it will stay uncured and "wet" for a long time. That may make it slippery, but I think a coat of wax might work better.
Good luck, Tom.
I also wouldn't recommend using an oil finish on MDF and it isn't needed in any case. If your only problem is sticking, just wax the sliding surfaces using either a paste furniture wax or by just rubbing on paraffin wax from a block.
The face of MDF is very tough and doesn't need any protection from wear but it will get stained and dirty looking from handling. I have found that two or three thin coats of shellac, applied a day apart, do a good job of sealing the surface. After the shellac has cured, applying a buffed out coat of paste wax is all that is needed to create a stain resistant surface that also slides well.
Last year I had to make a very quick router table for a magazine article. To seal the surface I applied a thick coat of paste wax and then used a heat gun to melt it into the MDF. The table has held up well and wood slides on it easily.
John White
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