Safe Stain

i am looking for a sealer to finish the enclosure i just built!!! i have been to Home Depot, Rona, Rona lancing and Crappy tire with no luck. The only water based sealer they sell is MinWax. I was told by employees at all stores they would not risk it, so i need some help.



Anyone know if MinWax water based stain/sealer is safe to use???? if not any name brands i can ask for???

thanks
mike

Are you talking about stains or sealers?
Did they give you any reason not to use it? Water based polyurethane is a standard for sealing the wood on cages. And minwax is a major brand!
I have a couple of cages that I used minwax polyurethane (called polycrylic) on.

I asked about both stain and sealer. i wanted to just put a clear coat on it but i wasnt sure if it was safe just because it was water based. all the store reps didnt want to commit and say it was safe so they told me i should go to a specialty paint/stain store?????!!!!!!!

well thanks

In other words they didn't know th answer so they advised against it.
An acceptable attitude.
At least they didn't lie to make a sale!
Since the poly is sealing anyway it wouldn't make any difference what color the wood was.

Will there be a lot of water contact with the wood? If so I would go with an epoxy instead. I just bought a litre from leevalley.com if you're wanting to go that route let me know and I'll get you the exact product link.
If not, Home Depot carries a product made by Rustoleum called Painters Touch. Basically it's a paint but comes in many colours. I use the Khaki colour. This is a safe product as it's designed for baby furniture. I believe Rona should carry it as well. Crappy Tire doesn't carry much of anything really. Just a bit of everything.
I looked into sealers and really couldn't find a product that was quite low in VOC's compared to some paints. That and the info on the safety of sealers is harder to get compared to paints.

wel it wont be soaked but i wanted t be able to mish down he enclosure. i was also thinging about making a foam background at some point so the more water resistan the better i guess

With the foam background you'll definitely need to use epoxy. Two choices for that are the West System Epoxy and the G1 product which is the one I have from G1, G2 Epoxy - Lee Valley Tools
Don't buy the G2 product only the G1 is safe to use.

Originally Posted by Merlin

Are you talking about stains or sealers?
Did they give you any reason not to use it? Water based polyurethane is a standard for sealing the wood on cages. And minwax is a major brand!
I have a couple of cages that I used minwax polyurethane (called polycrylic) on.

Merlin, are all minwax polyurethanes water based? I was looking today at Walmart and found alot of minwax sealers w/ stain included...but did not know if they made more than one type of product. Will the can say that it is waterbased?

Yes. It will actually say Polycrylic.

Found it! lol Minwax sells both stain and polyacrylic water based products at Lowes, if you have one nearby. The stain comes in 3 colors.