Paint advice

[teacup]

I'm currently painting my mdf cabinet with a Satin wood paint using a sponge roller, I've given it 6 coats of paint now but I'm not that happy with the result. The surface just doesn't seem very durable, certainly not good enough for the control panel which would get the most abuse, let alone the rest of the cabinet.

Should I just use more/thicker coats? Is it posible to use a varnish over the painted surface to give a more durable surface? Would using a gloss paint give a more durable finish?

Any other solutions?

Thanks

[SirPoonga]

first, it's mdf, did you use primer?

mdf is basically a sponge.

[TalkingOctopus]

The satin paint I used took several days to fully dry.  Have you waited that long? Afterwards it should be much more difficult to remove the paint.

[Wienerdog]

Should I just use more/thicker coats?

Holy smokes, don't do thinker coats.  Here are some important things to remember:
-Don't skip the primer.  Primer sticks to raw wood better, dries faster, and is a better base for your final paint. (if you already skipped the primer, don't worry, there's nothing you can do now and it's not like the cab is going to fall apart)
-Make sure each coat is dry before applying the next coat or it will take forever to dry.
-Using many thin coats is the best approach.  They dry faster, it is easier to avoid runs, etc.
-In general Gloss finishes are stronger than satin finishes.  

Those are the basics.  Search around, others have posted detailed tips based on experience.  It seems like Frosty went into detail based on experience from his previous cab, but I'm not positive.

[Hammerbot]

My favorite paint for these type application is Hammerite.

It is a synthetic resin with heat hardeded glass flakes that give a very hard and chip resistant finish.

It somes in 12 colors and has that "hammered" metal look when finished.

The stuff is thick and needs to be thinned but you can roll and brush it on. It takes only ove night to dry but a couple weeks to cure. Until it cures it gives off a slight "Arm pit" smell.

Local hardware store will have it, but you will have to search...

[teacup]

Thanks for the advice everyone.

I didn't use a primer, I was told that the first coat of paint would act the same. The first two coats of paint did dry really fast (5 mins) since it was just soaked up by the mdf, each coat after that took longer to dry tho.

I think I should just give it some more coats, and more time to dry off fully. I'm still considering giving the CP a coat of varnish of some kind tho.

And I did consider using hammerite paint, but I don't like glossy finishes, and I wasn't 100% about using the paint as its supposed to be for metal.

Oh and how do I stop getting roller lines in my paint? They not very noticable but when the light catches it looks really stripey.

thanks