Quote Originally Posted by old man emu View Post
Back in the day when the i3 8" was the bee's knees, I painted my woodwork mainly for aesthetic reasons. However, I have had a number of experiences of having MDF soften and swell when liquids landed on it. You might think that water droplets and suspended vapor (humidity) would be the only culprits, but my printer has been in the firing line of WD40, grease, anti-freeze and such because it has been in my workshop. Since I moved house it has come closer into the living space, and it's a bit hard keeping a 2 year-old's juice bottle away from Poppy's maker thing.

Besides, to me, Baltic pine laminate just screams IKEA.

Old Man Emu
love the CAPS on IKEA....
just dropped an Order for a 12" been thinking of ordering a 8in for days but just bit the extra and got the big guy. mostly because i like the Z adj and Rambo board/screen upgrades.
as far as warp is I'm not worried about it i work in a machine shop and we have a 35 foot by 18 foot 5 axis water jet i use all day lol.
I teach Master-Cam at night and have been using both master-cam and solidworks for around 9 years now the bed can't warp if it's 1/4in 7075 alu Faced to ±.0003
i plan to use 1/8" stainless steel sheet as a print bed etched to a finish much like 3000 grit compound, but i do plan on coating the melamine mdf.