I am researching building a rack and I am finally starting to get an idea of exactly what I want in it. The problem is I am facing the age old back heat vs belly heat dilemma. I understand the pros and cons of each, but I have limited tools available to me as I am a poor vet student. I was wondering is it completely necessary to recess the belly heat tape? I have recently had problems with a couple snakes getting thermal burns due to malfunctioning heat pads, and so I am a little gun shy putting in belly heat without recessing it. Does anyone have an opinion on this?

I have also found it very hard to find many sources of how people actually placed the heat tape in the rack. If it is back heat do you run it the whole way across the back, or just down one side? Same for belly heat, how exactly should the tape be oriented?

I am interested to hear any ideas, opinions, thoughts, or suggestions about building a rack since this is a new undertaking for me and I want to get it right the first time, since I probably wont have the money to do it a second time!!

Thanks for any help!