Is painting melamine safe?

[GYMRAT2B]

I have a friend who's building a 4-cage melamine tower for me like what I found at Showcasecages.com. He's building it for me at half the price plus two baby ball pythons. Our only problem is, we couldn't find black melamine anywhere at Home Depot, Lowes, OSH and other local lumber yards. However, we were told that we can actually paint the outside while keeping the inside plain white. Is this safe for the snakes? Also, someone from a different forum mentioned that melamine gives off vapors or something. Is that harmful to the snakes? I thought people have been using melamine for a while now. Any help/advise would be appreciated. Thanks

[sSNAKESs.com]

Melamine is fine... EVERYTHING off gasses... people have been using melamine caging for years with NO ill effects to there animals... You can paint the exterioir of the cage no problem just make sure you give it a few weeks to dry completely.. I wouldnt paint it though unless you absolutly need them black.. just dont paint the inside.

[Grant vg]

Why do u want to paint it?
Teh white is nice!...:)

[GYMRAT2B]

Just because....

If you MUST KNOW, I live in an apartment building-turned condo that was built in Hollywood (CA) circa 1920's. There's an old ice box in my kitchen which I use as a small cupboard. Bein an artist, all of the models & actors I've done headshots/bodyshots for are all done in black and white. The best shots that I'm proud of are framed in black leather with gilded silver corners. Since space is very limited, the best furniture designed for my space are from IKEA. I've made sure that shelves that I've added are all black (did I mention I love IKEA?), my sofas are in black baroque satin to match the curtains and prior to moving in, I had the hardwood floors sanded and restained in ebony. My walls are a deep matte eggshell. TELL ME HOW will white melamine match all of this? For you fellow landscapers, you know that BRIGHT colored flowers must be planted up front and dark colored plants and flowers should be planted far away. The finished effect will give one the perception that the garden is much larger than it really is. The same concept works in small condos.

See, this is what happens when an inane question is asked of me.

Peace, y'all!

[sSNAKESs.com]

Then find black melamine!! it should be just as easy to get as white...

[GYMRAT2B]

If we were able to get it, we wouldn't have to paint....obviously

[Jeff_Favelle]

Yeah Stupidhead. Duh.




heh heh :-)

[Grant vg]

Well im sure u could paint it...and if its the outside of it only then i dont see a problem....im not sure what type of paint u would have to use but theres a couple smart guys on here who know all about off gassing etc....either way it would be atleast a few weeks till u could safelyput em in there...

Hopefully quervo will reply to this message....

[corr]

I see no problem painting melamine but you should give it a light sand first or the paint may peal eventually.

I had a problem finding black melamine not long ago too... every colour except black. Finally found a piece in a scrap pile at a local lumber store barely big enough to cover the doors of my TV stand. Goes good with the IKEA wall unit, doesn't it? :D

http://features.aaquaria.com/gallery/albums/album77/aae.sized.jpg

[Linds]

Yup, as Corr said, you have to lightly sand it first, then prime it before you procede to paint it. Very important that you sand it so the primer and paint has something to hold on to or it will just flake right off.
As for safety and offgassing and all that jazz I would go with Grant, Quervo is the guy for safe building materials :)

[Quervo]

He's summoned .. and as if by magic, appears. Poof !!
Hey, who are you calling a poof??

Okay, so much for comedy.

Hmmm Melamine, well, I guess as Jeff says .. everything offgasses. I would pay close attention to ventilation in any tank made of melamine, cause it is a nasty gasser.

As for painting it .. obviously you will be painting just the outside (cause to paint the inside would spoil the whole point of a melamine coating, right?) I would use an exterior latex paint, which should handle any moisture issues for the outside .. inside, make sure you seal all the joints well with silicone. If you haven't gotten too far in the construction yet, I would seal all the edges of the melamine before you assemble it, just to make sure.
Melamine is just a particle-type board with a melamine plastic coating on one side, so the actual wood part of it is rather prone to puffing up with the moisture (puff up, puff up, they hate that) oops, sorry .. too many kids videos.

If you are worried about the latex standing up, or if you want a glossier finish you can seal it with Minwax Polycrylic. Make sure you get the water based stuff, and put on a couple coats. Leave the whole works to cure for at least three or four days .. preferrably with all the lighting going (heat helps to cure things faster).
Make sure there is little or no smell before you put those delicate little critters in there. :cool:

Okay, I'm getting to the point of rambling again, I'll shut up now.
See, once you get me started ....:D

[Jeff_Favelle]

Now that we have Quervo ranting, I can ask him a question:


Is plastic varathane safe? Does it dry non-toxic? Is it better than using marine enamel?

[GYMRAT2B]

Well, you guys...my buddy actually did it all for me. He even thought about the primer and stuff. He did used an oil based paint. The cage will be delivered to me tomorrow so I can't wait!

And Corr....nice IKEA wall unit....looks like the new NIKLAS model. I've got the 4 ft. LACK shelving system (I love that you don't see the hardware - and yes, it's black!) and the old BILLY bookcases in black (they've since discontinued the color - why I don't know).

Now, if only IKEA would make a cabinet that's 4' W x 20"H (interior) x 16" D in either black or stainless steel, that would be the perfect cabinet to house my cpu, printer and a few books then I can have another cage made (possibly double unit) to go on top of that then the LCD Flat panel monitor (which I'm about to purchase - finally) and the keyboard (which should probably be the wireless kind) would go on top of that. As it is, I have a little 10 gallon aquarium sitting under my computer desk (another discontinued IKEA model in white - that's how I know white melamine doesn't match what I've got) and the aquarium sits where your legs would normally go.

All of this because I fell in love with (& purchased) a $20 ball python 2 years ago. Now I've got 2 dozen CH babies - 3 are unproven pastels, 2 are copper-colored bandeds and 1 is a pastel jungle. It was like getting Christmas in mid-May!!!

(If I can only figure out how to add the pic since the browse button's not working....aaaaaargh!)

[jason h]

well i dont know if you can still get it but a few years ago i got an actual malemine paint it was black and if i remember correctly i got it in the kitchen and bath area its actually a paint that you can put on regular wood to give it a malemine coating but it works good if i can remember ill try to find the brand name etc and post it.:confused:

[Linds]

I know what you are talking about Jason, I think....lol.....it was a melamine paint, that when we painted over a melamine desk were told to use that......

[jason h]

OK LOL!!sorry if my discription was bad just got off a 12 midnight shift lol:o

[Quervo]

Okay, I'll try to get everyone in one post here.:D

Jeff:

Is plastic varathane safe? .. according to Varathane it is "baby safe". Now as for reality .. I'm not sure who's baby they are putting on the line here. I tried it on one of my cages and even after two weeks of curing time, it smelled so bad I couldn't stand to have it in my room. I finally covered it with a water based acrylic and that fixed things. I imagine if you could get it to cure it would be fine, but it looks like that takes a loooooong while.:D

Gymrat:

An oil based paint ... hmmm. Oh well, it's on the outside so that's not too bad. Keep it well ventilated for the first few weeks just to be on the safe side.

Jason:

You're probably thinking of the Varathane liquid plastic. It's a paint on melamine (sort of) coating. I imagine it is a paint with melamine additives. It's not quite the same as the melamine plastic that is fused to the wood. As I told Jeff, it does have a long cure time, but works well if it is sealed with a water based acrylic (either Minwax water based Polycrylic or Varathane water based Diamond Seal work good)

There .. all done and a minimum of ranting.:D :D

[Jeff_Favelle]

Thanks Quervo! No Varathane for me!