Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Lets plan a theater space

If you have sanded properly to begin with (on wood) then the amount of sanding you need during the finishing stage isn't so bad.

My point with MDF is that most of the surfaces on the MDF are press heat rolled flat. The case hardening on the smooth surface will still give a bit of absorption but not too much. You don't want to sand back to the point that you break through the hardening and start to expose the fine particles below. Then you have a dogs breakfast to deal with.

The cut sections you need to seal first. I would even look into coating them with a waxless shellac. Zimmer might be good but I would look into getting some flake from either Lee Valley or WoodEssence. Have not played with Target waterbased shellac. If you give WoodEssence a call and explain the project they are great in the advice department of what will work best for you. You can use shellac as a primer for the whole thing. Start with a heavy cut coat and then built it up from there. I would also recommend that you seal the inside of the box as well.