Can I paint small metal pieces with enamel and bake in our oven?

As long as the enamel is safe to heat, some kinds release toxic fumes or may just melt all over..

It would be helpful to know a little more information here. Also, safety is a factor as indicated in the above post by charlotte234s.

Why are you wanting to bake metal pieces that have been painted with enamel, please?

We have several bathroom cabinet hinges that have tarnished and replacements are unavailable. Our thought is to lightly sand and paint with enamel then heat in the oven.

The kinds of enamel paints that you would use on the bathroom cabinet hinges should harden sufficiently on its own in time and be plenty hard enough to withstand daily use. So, I don't think that there would be a need to bake the enamel and to take the risk of the possible health ramifications with fumes.

Just my opinion...

Are your hinges made of brass? If they are, than that could open up some other possibilities as to what to do with them to make them look better.

I don't think your oven will get hot enough for actually melting the enamel to the metal. Jewelers use specialty ovens all the time. Enamel is essentially powdered glass, so imagine putting that in your oven - it's just not going to be hot enough.

Good luck though!

You would actually want to powder coat, which is a whole system in itself. See.Plating Kits Electroplating Kits Aluminum Anodizing Kits Powder Coating Systems Metal Polishing And Buffing Supplies - Caswell Inc. It does have a baking step.

Hinges can be plated. I can't find my bookmark for an online company that will do it. If really interested, I can try to locate the company again.

Bathrooms would benefit by a powder coat system better than anything else.

It isn't recommended to use a baking over, but rather a separate oven like a toaster oven for potentially toxic processes. Baking enamel is just going to make a mess.

The next best thing would be a two part epoxy paint sprayed on. This could be found at a marine store. There are small very low-cost paint systems at the hardware store that use a propellent cartridge and a container. Two-part epoxy paint also doesn't come cheap.