Finish on an MDF workbench

[Steve N]

I just finished this workbench and want to put some sort of a finish on it.  Mostly for the drawer fronts and doors, but probably on the top as well to keep glue from sticking.  I've never done anything to MDF before except paint it, and I don't feel like painting this, so can anyone point me in the right direction?  I was thinking of just rolling some poly onto it, but before I do I thought I'd ask and see if someone had a preference for any particular type of clearcoat on MDF for any reason.  

I did a wipe on mix of MS, and Poly several years ago (guessing 35 or so years) and I still see that old bench frequently, and it still won't let glue stick to it, just wipes off. I laid on about 3 or 4 coats when I did it, they dry pretty quick, so in a warm place you can easily finish in a day, now if it's cold, you may need to add heat (usually over 65*) to get it to cure well. I just went 50/50, and it wiped on easy, and healed up very durable.

Ohhh I painted it red before the finish, and that didn't work out so well, so I just did the finish over the paint, kinda made it murky red, but hey it was a bench. A lot of people asked how I got that color. I'd always look at them kinda sideways and asked if the were joking.........

[Dara]

Just don't use a water based finish on it. The water will soak in and cause it to swell

[rwe2156]

I top coat like poly is going to eventually wear off anyway.

On my assembly table I flooded it a 1:4 mixture of BLO and Turpentine 2 or 3 coats.

[Alan S]

I like the phrase used by Pat Warner in one of his books, with regard to finish on an MDF router table.  He said to "dunk it in Watco."