Do heat guns work well on MDF?

Question

My mom's trying to fix the house up and when she sanded one of the drawers in the bathroom, she found out that it was MDF, not actual wood. Would a heat gun still be ok to use on it to remove paint?

Answer 1

Use the low setting if possible. MDF will flame up if it gets too hot. Any wood will but MDF will come undone and bubble.

Answer 2

no, it will damage the mdf, mdf consists of saw dust and glue, high heat will definitely damage it...

Answer 3

Not to good no.

Answer 4

Have her do a "Test" on a piece of it underneath the counter or on the back of a door to get a "feel" for the heat produced by her particular gun. If she does use a paint "Stripper" don't get any of the Eco or Orange c**p, you need something that has lots of VOC's in it and zero water molecules that will swell and distort the very porous MDF. Be sure to lightly sand and prime it with a good oil based primer after stripping it to "Seal" it up. Especially in a high humidity environment like a bathroom. Do the end-grain (Edges of boards) very well, I would say that two coats of good oil based primer like "Kilz" oil or BIN would note be overkill in this instance. Like anything else, there are varying grades of MDF, if the contractor did his job correctly he used a grade that contains glues and resins that are baked in to help keep it dimensionally stable and water-resistant.

I would start out using a stripper and then finishing up with the heat gun. Get a very good set of "Sandvik"  profile  scrapers from a woodworking store and some extra carbide blades, they stay sharp and wont "Gouge" the relatively soft MDF. If you do get a few "Gouges" with the scrapers you can fill & feather them with a little 2 part wood filler (Bondo) or to a lesser degree a little tube of "Spot" putty you can buy at a auto paint store, just tell them what you are doing and they will be glad to help out with the selection of product that will be compatible. The mere presence of paint stripper fumes on some paint makes is oh so much easier to remove with a heat gun, it starts the chemical de-construction of the paint molecules and binders, making the scraping and heating go much faster and less damaging to the substrate.

Answer 5

Why strip the old taint off? Sand the surface well, treat with a primer/undercoat and paint with a good quality water resistant paint. A gel type paint always gives good results if applied with a very short bristled roller.

Answer 6

yes it will mdf is whats called medium density fiberboard which is a really hard sub strait so you ll be fine