How to Protect and Seal Unpainted Mild Steel.

How to protect mild or non stainless steel if you want to keep the raw metal look on your furniture.

I started this project some time ago when I wanted to build an entertainment center out of wood and metal for that industrial look. building it was a lot of fun and a great learning experience. However sealing the metal became a bit of a challenge after some trial and error and some research I discovered Penetrol.

This is all the stuff your going to need.
Penetrol is an additive for oil paint it's supposed to remove brush marks and increase the working time of the paint. I found that it works great to seal metal it is transparent and very durable. I tried clear acrylic spray paint but it was weak and chipped easily. Penetrol is pretty cheap and a little goes a long way it is usually in the paint section of lowes or home depot and is around 10 bucks a can.

Brush and container. it's pretty self explanatory your going to need something to apply the stuff I found chip brushes and plastic containers at Harbor Freight for really cheap you can buy the expensive stuff if you want but I'm cheap.

Respirator and paint thinner. optional but recommended. This stuff is pretty stinky so you might want a chemical respirator I got this one st harbor freight for around 15 bucks it works great and I use it all the time for other projects. Paint thinner is just in case you want to reuse your paintbrush and is completely optional I store a small amount in an empty paint can with a lid for rinsing brushes.

This stuff is really easy to work with just apply it like paint make sure you cover all cracks and sides.

you might want to practice on a small piece to see how it looks like in the first picture you can see a slight difference in shine. but the unpainted part is already getting rusty but the painted end looks fine.

This stuff takes around 24 hours to be dry to the touch but will feel sticky for a little while because it needs a week to fully cure. once fully cured the stickiness will disappear.

I hoped this helped good luck!