wet proof mdf

[dertsap]

has anyone thought of using a coat of fibre glass resin , ive read posts where people say they would like to be able to use cutting oil and such , me i live in vancouver canada one of the dampest places in the world in the winter time , so with my workshop being out doors un heated ( unless im in there ) the moisture would kill my machine quick , so i just got finished coating the gantry i think it looks pretty good ,it will need some sanding and a coat of paint , the table im going to use counter top laminate (arberite ) ive read a lot of good post and have seen a lot of nicely built machines once i get a little further i'll post some pics , but for now i thought i'd share this idea with you

[ger21]

I used epoxy to seal the MDF on my gantry sides. Makes it much easier to paint, too, because the paint won't soak into the edges. Epoxy is more moisture resistant than Polyester (fiber glass), but much more expensive. Epoxy also doesn't have the nasty smell.

[automizer]

hey felow vancoverite, love the nice weather we got now ey... I was always told if your MDF part dosn't fit just add water

[dertsap]

hey homeboy , it s been good but cold man , not many good resources around here is there , controllers motors are either from the states or ebay , even all the links from the robotics clubs here point else where

[automizer]

Yeah I agree just put up the christmas lights and its cold. Yeah I have looked for alot of stuff, RP electronics has some stuff but most comes from down south and I hate customs, they pin yeah bad when they don't know what it is

[energyforce]

Hey me and DanOSB on this board are from vancouver as well! Langley, BC to be exact. WE are building a large scale cnc plasma / oxytorch cutting table. Nice to meet you! Maybe we could like meet up and chat one of these days?

[Spezzaferro]

Ive used this stuff to manufacture exterior signs for a local sign shop,
he has a piece sitting half way in a fish bowl, it's been there for about 3 months, and it doesn't swell. but it did 'nt do well for the gold fish

http://www.craftmasterdoordesigns.co...ext_e&UserID=A

[dertsap]

ya thats some cool material a buddy was telling me bout that stuff it's pretty tough

hey guys i'm in poco didn t think there were many guys around here interested in this kinda stuff , sounds good about getting together sometime , are you guys going industrial or is it for kicks after some of the crap i've seen at work over the years we can deffinitely use better in the area ,
i'm just playing , i'm building a machine to build a machine 24 x 48 table with under powered 118 oz-in vextas but it will work well enough to prove to the wife i'm not totally nuts , then i 'll have a more open buget down the road for a 4x8
keep in touch guys

[automizer]

well we are all alittle nuts thats whats so much fun about it. Your not to far from me im in Coquitlam. I don't have a machine right now, I will be getting on soon I hope.

[dertsap]

ya think i got to agree with you on that automizer gotta keep the brain stimulated what type of machine are you planning on doing large scale or small , i bought the fet3 from stepperworld , that guy is great with his support , i hear a lot of guys knocking it but if a guy is enginuitive you can get this thing to work pretty good , like down the road here , i'm going belt drive i' m going to make some 8.5:1 ratio gear boxes with some old drill heads i've got laying around at 120 rpm with 1.082 dia pulleys ( i've already made) will give me a perfect .001 resolution @77in/min ran a few programs with the motors running in the air the ran quite smooth , don't really need better resolution then that for cutting wood , working will be more like 20 - 30 in/min but for a cheap drive for hobby , good start (i think any how ) ill see how it pans out
right now it's lead screw which i slowww , to get er up an runnin

[sdantonio]

regarding epoxy (Gerry's post) I use it too for encaspulating wood that I want to stay absoutely dry or as an undercoating for an spirit based finish. Epoxy encapsulation is also common in the wooden boat industry.

The best adhesion between the epoxy and a top coat we be obtained between a spirit soluable top coat (alcohol soluable varnish etc. waterborn urethanes are actually alcohol soluable). I'll post a picture if you want to see my latest project using waterborn urethane over epoxy. If you want to paint it a certain color I would tend to go with waterborn urethane with a aqueous stain added. I can't speak to the adhesion of latex over epoxy as I have never done this.

My epoxy supplier is http://www.jgreer.com/ Relatively inexpensive as epoxies go and you can get very large quantities if you want.

A word of caution. Wear latex or vinyl gloves when mixing the liquids. Despite it's low odor (something Gerry pointed out) the monomers are not good for you and are readily absorbably through the skin. Once it's cured there is no problems with it (I once ran a research program using rapid cure epoxy as a possible battlefield fix for damaged reactive armor, one of several fixes we looked at. So I had to research the health risks first)

Steven

[SteveT44]

A layer of TiteBond II carpenters glue makes a pretty decent water resistant coating. Cheaper than epoxy and sticks much better than polyester resin.