Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Can i sand it down to get it rough and spray paint it with some acrylic spray paint or do i need to roll it on?

thanks
ken

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0.1 Albino Cal. King (Fokker)
1.0 Reverse Okeetee Corn (trouble)
0.1 Creamsicle Corn (Spot)
0.0.2 Anery (Thanks Jimmy)
1.2 Dogs(2 Boxers, Cookie and Joe, Lhasa Apso, George)
1.0 Betta
0.1 Wife
0.1 Kid

>>Can i sand it down to get it rough and spray paint it with some acrylic spray paint or do i need to roll it on?

I was under the impression that melamine required special paint. In my experience, pretty much nothing will stick to it: paint, glue, you name it. Maybe you should google for more info? Or, if you haven't purchased melamine yet, consider ordering it in a color/pattern that is pleasing and skip the painting step. To be honest: if you're going to paint melamine, you'd have been better off buying MDO, cheap plywood, or something like that! Melamine's only real benefit is that you don't have to finish it!
HGTV on painting melamine

Crtoon83 had made a couple of posts regarding this recently. I just took a quick look but did not find them. I believe he recommended two different primers. One was oil-based, another latex. Maybe Bullzeye and Zimmer were the companies?? I don't remember.

Are you painting an existing cage or are you planning a cage from scratch? Big difference as to whether or not painting is a good idea.

Overall I tend to agree with sstorkel, the real advantage to melamine is not having to finish it.

However, I do believe it offers other advantages. For such an inexpensive product it's remarkably flat and true. Many cheaper plywoods are a bit warped and that can be difficult to deal with for the novice. Many of these plywoods also have one side that looks lousy, meaning either your interior or exterior will look lousy.

Melamine makes for a very nice looking cage exterior, even if it's one that requires some sort of additional protection on the inside. That does save a bit of money.
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Current snakes:

0.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Silver/Yellow)

3.3 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Green)

2.1 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black)

3.3 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black & Tan)

http://forums.kingsnake.com/view.php?id=656935,657920

Turns out that both "Zinzer" and "Bulls Eye" are in the name of one product. Not two different products (Zimmer and Bullzeye) as I suggested.

I'm sure he mentioned an oil-based product in another post. Hopefully he'll chime in and help. The melamine paint Sstorkel mentioned would be interesting. I know I've used it on a reptile-related project and thought it was pretty good. I did not paint it over melamine, however.
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Current snakes:

0.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Silver/Yellow)

3.3 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Green)

2.1 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black)

3.3 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black & Tan)

http://forums.kingsnake.com/view.php?id=587643,588029

Turns out the Zinser company makes both a latex and an oil-based product.
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Current snakes:

0.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Silver/Yellow)

3.3 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Green)

2.1 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black)

3.3 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black & Tan)

Chris you are the man bro, you rock. When i get a garage I will make them better but for now i am using melamine.

"Are you painting an existing cage or are you planning a cage from scratch? Big difference as to whether or not painting is a good idea."

It is a cage I had for my beardies, and I no longer have them so I am converting it over to a corn snake cage. The thing is I want the cage to be black, i tried contact paper, but that did hold, and then i tried putting that aquarium background but i could not get it cut right to cover everything so i am going to go with paint. It would have been easier if it was new cause then I could have glued the back drop on then built the damn thing. Well the deal with the cage is it has holes all in it where i had shelves and ledges screwed into the sides for the beardies. Well I am going to try the bullseye and some black paint to see how that works.

Thanks
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0.1 Albino Cal. King (Fokker)
1.0 Reverse Okeetee Corn (trouble)
0.1 Creamsicle Corn (Spot)
0.0.2 Anery (Thanks Jimmy)
1.2 Dogs(2 Boxers, Cookie and Joe, Lhasa Apso, George)
1.0 Betta
0.1 Wife
0.1 Kid

>>Well I am going to try the bullseye and some black paint to see how that works.

I think you should at least price the melamine paint. You'll be purchasing both a primer and a paint with the bullseye, it might be easier to use just the melamine paint.

Either way, let us know how it goes on and holds up.
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Current snakes:

0.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Silver/Yellow)

3.3 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Green)

2.1 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black)

3.3 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black & Tan)

Both of the primers are made by zinsser... one is called cover stain (oil based) and the other is bullseye 1-2-3 (water based.) I wouldn't spray it, because all spray paint is oil based and will take a long time to offgas.
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-Chris

The reason mainstream thought is thought of as a stream is because it's so shallow. -George Carlin

A fool doesn't learn. A smart man learns from his mistakes. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others. Which one are you?

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Current snakes:
0.1 Licorice Stick Black Rat (Lola)
1.0 Black Rat (Frankie)
1.1 Texas Bairds (Jose and Rosa)
0.1 Blue Beauty (Brunhilde)
1.0 Green Tree Python (Claudius)... coming soon