After much searching of the internet and reading I decided to put 2 coats of an oil-based paint on the drum. I shall also be sealing the ends of the MDF drum. The product that I used with a brush is Glidden Trim & Door Ultra High Gloss - with Gel-Flow Technology. I must say that I am impressed with this paint. It went on fairly easily, gave good coverage and dried very smoothly. I did sand between coats with 400 grit sandpaper. This image was taken about 30 minutes after applying the second coat. It is not dry. I will let it dry for 72 hours before doing anything more with it.

Why do I wind the end of the power cord with red tape? Just to let me know quickly where it is in dim light and to be careful! It's something that I started doing years ago when my first shop area lighting was very poor. I cut a power cord one day because I couldn't see it properly - got a big surprise there ;-) So I wrapped it with red electrical tape - haven't made that same mistake again...