Reptile & Amphibian Forums

....which takes longer,and which is more harmful, melamine or stained and polyurethaned oak plywood??

Thanks for your time and input,

Scott

....which takes longer,and which is more harmful, melamine or stained and polyurethaned oak plywood??
If you use an oil based poly, that will take longer. Once it's fully cured, nothing will be harful. And the melamine depends on how fresh it is, and how its been stored (stacked on top of each other, or what.)

However, if you use a water based poly (such as polycrylic by Minwax.. thats what i used...) it shouldn't take but about 2-3 weeks. I personally like the natural wood look, I used a water based stain and 4 coats of polycrylic. The inside I painted satin white.

I'm very happy with the polycrylic... looks very nice.
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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?

My Website
N. American Rat/Corn snake care sheet I wrote
Information on substrates

Current snakes:
0.1 Licorice Stick Black Rat (Lola)
1.0 Black Rat (Frankie)
0.1 Texas Bairdi (Rosa)
0.1 Blue Beauty (Brunhilde)
1.0 Green Tree Python (Monty)

I said once fully cured, nothing will be harmful... i meant neither of these choices will be harmful.

by the way, an oil based poly will take 2-3 months.
-----
-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?

My Website
N. American Rat/Corn snake care sheet I wrote
Information on substrates

Current snakes:
0.1 Licorice Stick Black Rat (Lola)
1.0 Black Rat (Frankie)
0.1 Texas Bairdi (Rosa)
0.1 Blue Beauty (Brunhilde)
1.0 Green Tree Python (Monty)

I just finished building my first cage. And finished it with oil based polyurethane, and oil stain.
And now I find I need 2-3 months for it to offgas??
I could have ordered and received a commercial cage in less time.
I was hoping this cage would be ready in a couple weeks!

All oil based products take a LONGGGG time to offgas. If possible, I would put it in a climate controlled area of your house, rather than your garage.

It will also speed curing time to attach your heaters and turn them on full blast - however this will also be quite expensive over time. It's basically up to what you want.
-----
-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?

My Website
N. American Rat/Corn snake care sheet I wrote
Information on substrates

Current snakes:
0.1 Licorice Stick Black Rat (Lola)
1.0 Black Rat (Frankie)
0.1 Texas Bairdi (Rosa)
0.1 Blue Beauty (Brunhilde)
1.0 Green Tree Python (Monty)

>>I just finished building my first cage. And finished it with oil based polyurethane, and oil stain.
>>And now I find I need 2-3 months for it to offgas??
>>I could have ordered and received a commercial cage in less time.
>>I was hoping this cage would be ready in a couple weeks!

I'd have to disagree with the 2-3 month wait. Pure tung oil is about the slowest curing finish you can use, and it doesn't take more than a month to cure. It's dry long before then, it just hasn't reached it's full level of hardness/protection.

My advise is to wait until you can't smell the finish yourself, wait a couple more days (or a week if you're paranoid), then consider it safe... unless you're dealing with amphibians or other species known to be very sensitive. I've used this method with quite a few pythons and colubrids, the ones commonly found in the pet trade, and never had a problem...

Thanks for your response...any idea how long (worse case senerio, (i.e "stacked") the melamine will take??

I like the natural wood look also, however, I can recall stained and poly oak cages I built 10 years ago. Urates and constant cleaning eventually had an affect on the poly. (to the point of needing to be recoated) It would be a real pain to have to "relocate" the snakes for 2-3 months each time I needed to do some recoating.

I think I'll stick with the melamine and just plan ahead for the "off-gas factor".

Thanks for your time and effort,

Scott

melamine.. id think less than a month. however i've never used it so i'm not too totally sure.

What I did for the floor of my cages was I got some FRP (fiberglass reinforced plastic) and cut it to line the bottom and up 8 inches of each cage - then painted the rest of the interior white. This is keeping the floor nice and wont wear off too fast (i hope)
-----
-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?

My Website
N. American Rat/Corn snake care sheet I wrote
Information on substrates

Current snakes:
0.1 Licorice Stick Black Rat (Lola)
1.0 Black Rat (Frankie)
0.1 Texas Bairdi (Rosa)
0.1 Blue Beauty (Brunhilde)
1.0 Green Tree Python (Monty)

>>....which takes longer,and which is more harmful, melamine or stained and polyurethaned oak plywood??

The glues used in melamine contain LOTS of formaldehyde, which is a Class 1 carcinogen IIRC. It can off-gas for a long time! I once was considering some melamine racks. Sent an e-mail to a guy who was a professional breeder at the time, using the racks I was going to buy. He told me that with heat-tape directly on the racks, the formaldehyde levels in his snake rooms had been tested at relatively high levels. High enough that he was willing to throw the racks away (and I believe he had $10-15K invested in them) and replace them with wood racks.

That's only one data point but... it's enough to make me reluctant to use melamine for anything that will have heat tape in direct contact with it. I built my old rack out of plywood and sealed it with a couple of coats of one of those Minwax stain poly combos. Had it running for 8-9 years without a problem. I put mine into use as soon as it stopped smelling; about a week I think.

If you're really concerned about off-gassing, consider using a water-based finish rather than an oil-based one. You might also use something like shellac rather than poly. It doesn't provide as much protection, but it dries very quickly and you don't have to worry about off-gassing as much. Plus, it's very easy to touch-up or repair!