Building A Rack

[SatanicIntention]

Hey all,

I am building a rack that is going to be constructed out of melamine covered MDF(or is it particle board?)(3/4"). It is going to have 6-12qt tubs in the top half(2 shelves with 3 on each shelf) and 4-41 qt tubs in the bottom.

I have the 12qt tubs(sterilite 1954) already and they are the ones from Wallyworld. I am planning on looking at Target to see if they have any Iris tubs that are appropriate, and if not, I will get the 41qts from WalMart(made by sterilite, maybe 1960s, maybe something else).

These look nice: http://www.stacksandstacks.com/html/...ainer-58qt.htm
I wonder if target or any surrounding stores carry those(Container store maybe?).

Since my room is cooler(75-77, but can be as high as 78-79 in the far corner and doesn't vary too much in winter), I am planning on using 2 strips of 3" flexwatt on the two top shelves for the 12qts, and 2 pieces of 11" flexwatt for each bigger tub in the bottom half(maybe 3ft, 2 ft for cool side and 1ft for hot spot). I can use either my Herpstat 2 or one of two JC units I have to control temps.

I also wanted to know how I make a recession in the wood underneath the tubs for the flexwatt as I don't think it would last long with the constant tub sliding. Would I use a router or could I get the people at Home Depot to do it for me?

Thanks for the help, and if anyone wants to see my plans, I can post them.

[greenmonkey51]

As far as the recession, a router is what you would need and I doubt Home Depot could do it. I did about the same thing with melamine and 28qt tubs. I just taped the flexwatt down and let the tubs sit right on it. So far it doesn't look like anything has happened to the tape. A tip for the shelves, when I built mine I cut a couple wood scraps to the exact height I need for the tubs and the space and rest the shelves on the scraps then screw the shelves in. Hope that makes sense.

[SatanicIntention]

Well, I have the 12 qt tubs and can use those to measure the distance pretty easily.

Also, what size gap should I leave between the top of the tub and the shelf? 1/8"?

[muddoc]

Becky,
when I build melamine shelves, I try to leave no gap at the top. However, I do run my heat tape down the back of the rack. If you do want to put the heat tape on the shelf, I would recomend that you leave a very small gap, I would recomend about 1/32". That is just enough space for the tub to slide over the heat tape without binding. I used the same size tubs to build the rack for Joe that you can see in this forum a few posts down. It will have back heat on it though. As soon as I can get home, and wire up some heat tape, I'll post more pics of the finished product. Let me know if you have any more questions.

[Shaun J]

Becky, can you post the plans for me? Maybe it will give me a good idea of how I should build mine.

Thanks.

[SatanicIntention]

I'll post 'em when I finally get down to it. Have to make sure I have enough flexwatt and all that mess.


Question though, I have two Johnson T-Stats. Would those be sufficient to run the rack(two different types of flexwatt) in a stable room? I eventually plan to heat the room, so I won't need to heat the cool sides of the enclosures. I figure it will do fine for now until then.

Thanks for any help.

[jglass38]

I'll post 'em when I finally get down to it. Have to make sure I have enough flexwatt and all that mess.


Question though, I have two Johnson T-Stats. Would those be sufficient to run the rack(two different types of flexwatt) in a stable room? I eventually plan to heat the room, so I won't need to heat the cool sides of the enclosures. I figure it will do fine for now until then.

Thanks for any help.

That should be more than fine to run all the flexwatt for the rack. The Johnsons are rated for 1500 watts. 3" Flexwatt is 10 watts per foot and 11" is 20 watts per foot.

[SatanicIntention]

I wasn't really concerned about the wattage, but about controlling the two different types of flexwatt(cool and warm sides with each set).

For the top talf that will have baby tubs(12qts), there will be 2 strips of 3" flexwatt. and the bottom half will have 41qt tubs(5 of them), and each will have a 2ft strip of 11" for the cool side and a 1ft strip for the hot spot.

As I have it now, I have the JC unit controlling the hot spot at 94, and a dimmer that is plugged into the tstat, and dialed down until the cool side is 82-84. It keeps everything perfectly steady, no fluctuations.

What I'm asking is, could I use the dimmers for the cool side flexwatt, and not have to worry about another JC unit or another tstat(my wallet hates me as it is, LoL).

Thank you!

[jglass38]

I wasn't really concerned about the wattage, but about controlling the two different types of flexwatt(cool and warm sides with each set).

For the top talf that will have baby tubs(12qts), there will be 2 strips of 3" flexwatt. and the bottom half will have 41qt tubs(5 of them), and each will have a 2ft strip of 11" for the cool side and a 1ft strip for the hot spot.

As I have it now, I have the JC unit controlling the hot spot at 94, and a dimmer that is plugged into the tstat, and dialed down until the cool side is 82-84. It keeps everything perfectly steady, no fluctuations.

What I'm asking is, could I use the dimmers for the cool side flexwatt, and not have to worry about another JC unit or another tstat(my wallet hates me as it is, LoL).

Thank you!

You could definitely use a dimmer for the cool side. Of course you give up accuracy of temps. What is the avg room temp?

[SatanicIntention]

Well, the dimmers are plugged into the t-stat, and it's very accurate actually. Very cool idea from someone on here, I think.

At school(quarantine place), the rodent room temp fluctuates 75-78(sometimes 80-82 in the equine area, where some of my snakes are, on a counter in the back part of the room). At home, where the rack would be, the temp in the corner of the room ranges from 78-79.5). It's easy to keep temps in here as it's not drafty and humidity is normally 45-50% anyway, LoL.

Thanks for the help, Jamie.