You need to crawl before you can walk or run… sometimes it takes more work…
Hang in there I’m sure you’ll figure it out…
To avoid paint running down the cuts I paint the sheet before cutting. You may want to mask it to keep the smoke off the painted surface. You may also need to increaase the power slightly to account for the masking and paint.
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Thanks Tim. I’ll give that a whirl
“Quality approved finish”. Yes. Yes, I’m sure it is.
This came with a battery:
The perfectly aligned “hand stamp” tells you it’s really good.
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Already corrected it, I did a bigger frame to point to thickness but forgot to highlight it. 
Making positive progress. That’s really what matters.
Tim, painting prior and masking before cutting is a WHO LOT easer to a point. Only done 1, but I ‘m finding out that I’m not sure its’ worth all the time and effort. Having said that I’ve only done 2 and sold 0. No worries either way. Just occupying my time in the afternoons.
This time of year I spend a lot of time on a mower.
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I use a lot of MDF from Home Depot. It cuts and paints great. I use acrylic paint and rustolum spray paint depending on what I’m doing. The spray paint is usually flat white, black or red.
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Thanks Chet for the input. The more I do this acrylic paint, the more I like the look and ease of use. I’ll check out Home Depot as well.
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When i want a shiny surface coat, I use water-based Varathane gloss urethane spray cans. This is an indoor paint, but MDF outdoors is not a good idea anyhow.
I buy the Behr 7.25oz paint samples for about $7. They can custom blend any color or shade you can imagine.
Hello all.
Forgive me for beating a horse to death, but still struggling to paint my MDF letters or artwork. My foam brush and fine paint brushes are just to tedious for me.
Anyone use something like this?
I use 4" foam rollers. You can get a kit at Harbor freight very inexpensively, https://www.harborfreight.com/search?q=foam%20roller but I prefer these rollers from Home Depot.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/4-in-x-3-8-in-High-Density-Foam-Mini-Paint-Roller-5-Pack-HD-MR-200-5-4/202097452
You can use them with the HF handle. I use ziploc sandwich bags to store each color roller in for future use. I learned this from Kim & Garrett Make it on YouTube.
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Get some sanding sealer. Paint it on, wipe off excess, let it dry, tgen pain over it.
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Small update on my painting adventures on MDF… LOL
I have a couple of pieces of MDF that I have sealed with some Zinsser Bulls Eye Seal Coat that I had laying around when I was making pens and the such. I’m going to paint these pieces with Acrylic White paint. Maybe 2 coats. Then mask off for cutting.
I really think this will help.
BTW, I know I can apply the same technique to my Baltic Burch wood, but is it worth it? I was going to lightly sand that BB wood with some 600 grit sand paper before sealing. I may actually sand it, then lightly spray it with water to raise the grain, then sand again with 1000 grit paper before sealing. I did that when I was making bowls and pens.
Wifey wants me to take her shopping today. While there I’m going to go to Home Depot while I’m there. Any suggestions on types of sheeting I should consider for layered work?
TIA
I pick up and use a lot of 5mm sub flooring from Home Depot … relatively cheap, but not the best quality, seems to cut rather well.
I guess you can see it’s not painted.
This is some 3mm stuff I picked up… don’t know where it came from… it might be 3mm basswood.
Have fun shopping… the spouse never takes me… always ends up costing her more money
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Thanks Jack. I bought a 4x8 sheet of birch or something like that at home depot and had them cut it down to 15" squares for me. I just sealed them all this a.m. with MinWax Sanding Sealer, and sealed up what MDF I have left too. I’ll this stuff dry today, and maybe look it over tomorrow.
I’d like to be able to batch work this stuff instead of 1 day and 1 here and there. Or at the very least get them all sealed and painted with their base coat.
I have to take the wife cuz I’m the designated driver. She likes to eat at Raferty’s when we go, and have a cocktail with the meal.
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When it comes to painting, really the most important thing you can do is prime appropriately.
Not to prime is a crime! 
I personally would look for an acrylic (“water-based”) house paint primer that advertises that it’s good for stain-blocking and for painting over oil spills.
If it can do those things, it will contain shellac and can paint basically anything, including silicone, glass, cars… LOL ask me how I know that last one.
The right primer won’t give you a full coverage color, nor smooth surface, because it uses calcium carbonate as the main filler pigment. This is chalk, essentially, and provides a nice grippy surface for your paint. After painting a primer your surface should look a bit uneven and dodgy, but that’s fine! Because it should be a nice thin coat. It’s just there to let the paint work its magic.
The paint will be pigmented primarily with titanium dioxide which is extremely opaque, and will be how you get your nice even/smooth colors.
As with all painting, light coats are the key, paint should never pool or glob up anywhere.
I personally love mini (roughly palm-width) roller brushes with a microfiber nap for painting almost everything.
I also like using a tupperware container as my palette because I can close it (with the roller inside) between coats, so it’s really easy to pick up and put down. I even keep the rollers in jars with the paint tin at the end of the project, keeping them moist with paint until the next time I need that color. Saves me loads of cleanup and from buying loads of brushes/rollers.
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Thanks for all that great info Billie.
I painted one of my squares yesterday with White Acrylic Gloss paint. Applied it with some type of foam roller. Didn’t quite look good. Had a orange peel effect on it, so I applied a 2nd coat. We’ll see how it looks later today. I applied the 2nd coat with a Foam Brush.
Do you have any pics?