Greetings all

I have been reading here for a while now, but this is my first post.  I recently acquired an MFT3 for my shop.  In moving stuff around (i.e. shoehorning it all into place) I have come to the conclusion that the best spot for it for the foreseeable future is next to my big lathe.  I am somewhat concerned about moisture, since I turn a lot of very wet wood.  I searched the board here and found a couple of threads on sealing the top of the MFT, but no comments on how it actually worked out in use.  I would hate to seal it all up only to discover it was a real bad idea, worse than it getting a little wet from time to time.  Has anyone here sealed up their table and used it for a while now?  Did you experience any other effects than the expected one of preventing moisture damage?  Would you do it again? 

Thanks. 

Thanks.  A tarp did not occur to me.  I can just use the drop cloth I already have in the shop.  One of my concerns was getting goop in the holes.  Yeah, I know about water based finish and swelling too.  I have been running a woodworking business for 19 years now, and have learned all sorts of things the hard way.   

Welcome to the fog billg

Nice looking lathe..

Welcome BillG.   Pull up a chair and have a drink of GREEN cool-aid. One sip and you will be hooked.

Thanks.  It makes Festool stuff look inexpensive by comparison.  But it is the main tool in my shop. 

id cover it or fold it up and put it to one side.
sealing could cause problems . you might make the surface too slipery to work on or clamp things to

I'm surprised someone could ruin a top with some wet wood, I have had several drinks spill on mine with no lasting effects. Came back from lunch last week and saw that the painters had used one as a convenient place to sit their snow cooled Cokes while eating lunch, with a bunch of snow and drink rings still there an hour later.  Wiped it down, just another stain.  You can always hit it with a sander if it gets too bad.

Thought about sealing mine with shellac but worried it might warp the top if you didn't get both sides. Then I put a couple dozen kerfs in it and stopped worrying.

Shellac definitely makes the top a bit more slippery, but not so that it is a detriment to working. I've not experienced any issues with clamping difficutlies.  I actually like the affect on the ability to slide pieces.

I agree with with suggestion to move the MFT when using the lathe.  Its amazing how much sap is thrown off when wet turning - it soaks not sprinkles.

I've been caught out in the rain with mine twice. I was playing with fire trying to get things done and that overcast sky became a full downpour. MFT was always the last item I got indoors. Wiped it down and no issues so far.  I like the wax idea of all of them. If I were to used a sanding sealer I would give it a light sanding after it dried to increase the friction on the work piece.

You guys with the pristine MFT tops are damaging to my psyche

If it is set up outside and it rains, it gets wet. If it rains really hard, it gets really wet. If inside was an option under a cloudy sky it was an option under a sunny sky.

If I happen to have my sander out, I sand it. The only place it really gets 'the swells' is near cuts so I sand them back down, no big deal.

If I happen to spill stain on it, I wipe up the stain. What don't come up, don't come up adding to its 'professional patina'

If I happen to be using shellac or poly, since I don't ever return anything back to the can, I just use what would be 'waste' on the top.

Remember it is a WORKTOP, not a china cabinet!

Bill,

I put a wash coat of shellac on my MFT/3 a few years ago... seems to work well.

And not surprisingly, (you know me...) I made a small tweak to my MTF/3 setup.

Because I tend to do things differently than many other folk, I mount the angle unit and fence on the near side of the table rather than the more typical far side.  I did have to mill a notch in the 'other end' of the fence to match the original notch that typically slides under the guide rail when used on the far side.

Harry, if you could see the rest of my shop, you would realize I am not worried about appearance, only function. 


Yeah, it is hard to contain the shavings from that gouge without putting the whole lathe and myself in a bubble, and that ain't gonna work.  I don't mind the top getting dinged and dirty, I just don't want it swelling up like a tick while I am making shavings.  So far that drop cloth seems to be working out well.  I just got back from some "target practice" with shavings up in northern PA, and the one piece of wood I turned was so wet I could have used a windshield wiper on my helmet.