I did it!!!!! and I wanted to thank those who helped....

I finally successfully wired and soldered and taped and got my rack set up with heat tape and IT WORKS!!!!! I was so afraid of it but now I feel like I could do it as many times as I need, it's a lot easier than it seems. I'm so proud of myself!!!! I was convinced that when I plugged it in it wouldn't work. BUT IT DID!!!!!!
:banana:

The way I did it was extra tricky too, it's a solid 8 tub rack so I drilled holes in the back to run the cords through and daisy-chained 4 strips on the bottom running on one cord and 4 strips on the top running on another so that it's 2 separate sets of 4 interconnected strips with a cord on the lowest strip of each set (I hope that made sense, I wish I took pictures.) It only has the wires going outside the rack so I actually had to do some of the soldering inside the shelves.
So for anyone afraid of wiring heat tape like I was, watch the tutorials a couple times. You can do it!!!!!!!

I just wanted to thank everyone who helped me and gave me advice; Everyone who replied to the thread: http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ght=heat+clips, OhhWatALoser for posting the thread http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ghlight=solder, RichsBallPythons for creating that thread, and most of all Pookie! for her extremely drunken soldering lessons. She was so drunk she couldn't possibly do it herself or even really make complete sentences but she still talked me through it and showed me enough that I can now solder fairly well.

Thanks guys!!!!!!!!!

Now everything's all set up on my new Herpstat 2. My snakes are happier for it.

Congrats!

I've been reading up on threads that explain how to solder and set up heat tape and, tbh, it's kind of intimidating. Haha. It's the only thing I'm debating on when I happen to get snakes in the future. Either do it myself, or, buy it already clipped and such from Reptile Basics.

But, I'm happy that you were able to do it! Congrats again! Next time you do it, better write up a DIY so I can follow along later ;)

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Originally Posted by theReptileGuy

Congrats!

I've been reading up on threads that explain how to solder and set up heat tape and, tbh, it's kind of intimidating. Haha. It's the only thing I'm debating on when I happen to get snakes in the future. Either do it myself, or, buy it already clipped and such from Reptile Basics.

But, I'm happy that you were able to do it! Congrats again! Next time you do it, better write up a DIY so I can follow along later ;)

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Thanks!
Watch the video on the second thread I posted, its what I used and I honestly don't think I could make a better tutorial (plus I hate the sound of my recorded voice and pics of me so I'd rather not make a video lol.) Also maybe watch a video or two just on HOW to solder.

I actually bought the clips and was going to used those cuz it seemed easier (the way I did things I couldn't have RBI clip them for me) but everything I read made soldering seem the better option. It was a lot easier than I thought.

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Good job!
But... no pics?!

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Originally Posted by Mike41793

Good job!
But... no pics?!

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Lol I'll have to take some later. I finished really late last night so I just hurried to put everyone in the rack.

Congrats on the build. Can't wait to see some pics of the finished product.

Good job! I frequently electrocute my self.. i dont know what it is but electricity seems to be attracted to me. But anyways the rack I bought came all wired up and everything so I was very happy lol.

WOOT! Its a great feeling isnt it! I am not a handy man at all so I was super excited when something I built was actually functional! Congrats on getting it built! :gj:

Well to be fair I didn't build anything, just wired. With the last group of snakes I bought I got 2 racks made of melamine but they were heated with heat cable regulated by a cheap Zoomed rheostat and it seemed not nearly warm enough, especially in my house since I don't have a dedicated reptile room right more.

I'm going to build racks, out of pvc if I can in the near future but this was much cheaper and faster.

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LOL http://www.partlyfiction.com/images/...hprince329.gif

Thats what friends are for! Lol now you pretty much know how to weld too