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best way to clean mdf before painting? I vacuumed but still see fine dust. Can I use a damp rag without swelling the mdf?

Harry

Better to just use a cloth dry. Should get most of it. But as long as it's not really wet, you should be fine.

I hesitate to mention this, but IF (IF!) your paint doesn't have anything to do with the current generation of water soluble varnishes (mostly Minwax Poly and its cousins), you can wipe the whole thing down very effectively with old fashioned tack cloth (gauze treated with pine tar). You will have zero dust after a light rubbing with tack cloth, but be damned sure about your paint. After 200 years of varnishes, paints, shellacs, and lacquers worked fine, we have recently been overrun by water soluble finishes that are fussy as an old maid schoolteacher.

I used plain old what ever is cheapest from The Big Orange Box a semi gloss, did'nt worry about getting all the dust off, rolled the paint, one coat and laid the copper tape, after about an hour of "rubbering" in the cars with Paul Guage tyres hooked up real good!.
Try not to be a perfectionist it gives the track some character and makes the track a drivers track, so no one will "master" it and give others who are learning how to drive have a chance at out driving the "good" drivers.
My buck 298's worth!
Marty

When you use a water based paint on MDF that causes some of the fibers to pop up resulting in tiny bumps in the surface. You could lightly sand the surface before applying a second coat, but our master track builder likes to scrape the surface with a razor blade.