Varathane plastic enamel

[KaHane]

Just wondering if anyone ever used Varathane plastic enamel paint to paint their enclosures? Any info on this would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks, KaHane&Helena

[Quervo]

Yup .. I've used it. I painted the light hood on my ball cage with it. Cats howled .. dogs yipped .. birds fell from the sky.

Okay .. maybe it wasn't that bad.

It works okay except ... I left it to cure for about two weeks and it still smelled so bad I couldn't stand it in the house. I finally coated it with Minwax water based Polycrylic, let it sit for three days and everything was cool.

As with most oil based paint, it offgasses like crazy for the first while (probably a month or so) and then the gassing diminishes gradually over a couple of years.

Basicly, it works okay as long as you seal it.

[KaHane]

Would that be O.K. for inside the enclosures?

[sSNAKESs.com]

KaHane, i would definatly go with what quervo is saying and use Minwax Polycrylic... its a water based sealant and it doesnt even smell to bad when you apply it. you can get it at the home depot in the paint section... if they dont have it, try a differant water based sealant... but look for the minwax polycrylic oil based can off gass and stink for upwards of a year... i build a 4 stack of 3 x 2 cages and painted it with some black melamine paint inside and after 8 months of them sitting in my garage, i couldnt smell anything so i install all of them with light fixtures etc, fired them up and BAM the paint fumes came back so bad i just took it apart and threw them all out :P lol

[Quervo]

Yup .. that's a good point Jeff .. you should age your cages with the lights ON. That will bake out more of the nasties quicker.

If you want to colour the inside of the cage the Varathane will be okay (like I say, just seal it with the minwax .. a couple of coats will do) If you are just trying to finish the inside, the Minwax itself will work .. use at least three coats over bare wood.

[KaHane]

O.K thanks guys. Any other suggestions? Maybe there's something else I could use? I've used fibre glass resin before to build a 10ft X 8 ft enclosure. That was a pain in the but. Now I need to buid a bigger one and wanna try something else.

[sSNAKESs.com]

KaHane... if money isnt a issue, i would just build your cage and then buy a few sheets of just the melamine without the particle board.. its really thin, cut it to size and install it.... to me anything to do with paint is a real pain in the butt! melamine is heavy but i find it is just SOOO much easier then painting anything...

[Jeff_Favelle]

Ian and I found out the hard way out here on the left coast, that if you paint from October to April, you're waiting forever for the paint smell to go away. Paint in the summer, PUULLEASEE!!

I made 6 Rainbow cages and they took a total of 5 days to fully cure! Just bake them in the sun in +25 degree weather and that's it! The sun works miracles, trust me! I have a keen nose for paint fumes and I could not smell a thing after 5 days in the hot sun! Trust me, it works! Works best when you angle them towards the sun at 90 degree angles too!!

[dilwann]

I just used polycrylic on my cage. It works great dries fast and the only problem is it takes alot of coats at least 3 for it to seal.