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.

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

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.

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

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.

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Mike
"Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time, and always start with the person nearest you."

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.

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Mike
"Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time, and always start with the person nearest you."

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?

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"Dare to Dream! Without dreams, there is no Hope."
***Tami***

Yes. It will actually say Polycrylic.

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

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.

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"Dare to Dream! Without dreams, there is no Hope."
***Tami***