My homemade rack!

[Trackstrong83]

Well I finally got around to building my rack. I decided to build it because I'm getting a female Mojave and a female butter here in a few weeks. Its made out of 3/4 inch melamine. I still have to attach the back plate and hook up the flexwatt but I'm not doing that until I'm done with the semester and home for the summer. But here it is! Took about 2 hours to assemble and total cost of the melamine was about 90$.

The shelves are 35" long and 17" wide. Its built to hold 41 qts for my big girls and 28 qts for the new girls I'm getting.

I have it on a comforter so I could move it around easily lol


Here it is with the back plate. Like I said its not attached yet, but I placed it there to show what it would look like.


I used six CDs as spacers. I placed the CDs down, put the tub on top of the CDs, placed the shelf on the tub and screwed the shelf in place. That way when I removed the shelfces the gap from the top of the tub to the top of the shelf was the exact width of a CD.


Well there it is! It was pretty simple to build, and if I can do it anyone can!
Thanks for looking

[Adin]

Very nice! Gets me more excited to build mine I got my tubs already just waiting on my thermostat and waiting to order heat tape then gunna get the melamine when it comes time to get started on it. But very nice indeed

[Trackstrong83]

Thank you! It was actually easier to build than I thought.

[Adin]

That's good! Do know if they make black melamine edging I'd prefer to get black melamine but if they don't have the black edging ill just go with white cause if hate to stare at the wood edging it would bug me too much ha.

[Burzurk]

Very Nice looking rack great job !

[Trackstrong83]

That's good! Do know if they make black melamine edging I'd prefer to get black melamine but if they don't have the black edging ill just go with white cause if hate to stare at the wood edging it would bug me too much ha.

You might could order black, but at Home Depot they only had white.

[WtGreg]

Nice job.
why the back plate? seems it will add unneeded weight.

[SaintTawny]

Nice job.
why the back plate? seems it will add unneeded weight.

Specifically I don't know why OP added a back plate but I added one to my homemade racks for added stability, heat retention, and as a backstop for the tubs.

[WtGreg]

Specifically I don't know why OP added a back plate but I added one to my homemade racks for added stability, heat retention, and as a backstop for the tubs.

I have larger racks of melamine, so things like weight pop out to me as it can become a concern the larger they are. If it is for heat and stopping, Iwould suggest a lighter material. For a small rack like this I am sure will make no difference, but when you get into larger melalmine racks, one panel can be significant.



On the subject of heat, if I may make a suggestion/observation: keep an eye on the temps in that bottom slot. I have had problems before with the bottom levels until I started raising on casters and insulating below the bottom level. This wasn't a problem when I built my first racks which sat close to the floor, but when Imoved them to a new locations, the floor was colder and called for a change in design on my racks. Hopefully you will not find this happening, but if you do it is a easy fix.

[Trackstrong83]

Specifically I don't know why OP added a back plate but I added one to my homemade racks for added stability, heat retention, and as a backstop for the tubs.

Same reasons. I musing backbeat for this rack, so I'm taping the flexwatt onto the back plate, and it stays a little cool in my apartment (76ish) so I'm using it to hold heat in as well. During the cooler months I'm going to add a door as well (not made out of melamine). I've heard some people having the room in the low 70s high 60s but with all sides enclosed it stays a nice 79-81 ambient temp in the tubs.