New Homemade Rack w/ Set Up Pics... (DUW Big Time)

Well it took me long enough but i FINALLY finished my homemade rack. i got the flexwatt from Rich today, and a couple hours later... all done. here is the final product with some snakes, the rest will be arriving aug 8th.

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...8/IMG_2135.jpg

i took pictures of how i constructed it. this is the website where i got the main idea off of: http://www.dozierstudio.com/hatchrack.html i am not taking any credit for this "plan" or anything, i just want to show off this rack that took a lot of my time. i apologize for any blurry pictures, as i don't have the worlds greatest camera, and it doesn't have the greatest camera man...

this is the beginning... the supplies
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...8/SANY0031.jpg

started the bottom. i left a 6" kick plate so the bottom tubs wouldn't be on the ground.
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...8/SANY0035.jpg

this is how i determined the shelf height. i placed the tub i wanted on the bottom, with a piece of extra melamine backing that was cut for me. thsi gave me some height for the flexwatt and a little gap on the top of the tub for air flow and to help keep the humidity down.
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...8/SANY0037.jpg

here is it all the shelves made. also the remaining 6" from the kick plate (had 12" board i had to cut) is on top of the rack, so nothing fall down the back and i have some room to hide a power strip.
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...SANY0050-1.jpg

i just want to show how i set the shelfs up. the top i have 8 6 qt tubs, with 11" back heat. the middle 4 shelves are 32/15 qt tubs with a strip of 4" belly heat. the bottom 2 shelves are 41 qts, heated by a single piece of 11" belly heat. these will be for my big girls.
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...8/IMG_2102.jpg
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...8/IMG_2103.jpg
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...8/IMG_2104.jpg

then i dropped it down and put some water proofer on the back. i did this to any part of the wood that was not covered. hopefully this gives it a little more years of life.
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...8/IMG_2109.jpg
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...8/IMG_2111.jpg

here is some of the flexwatt i got all wired, and ready to go. also i pre cut the aluminum tape so it would be easier to apply.
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...8/IMG_2121.jpg
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...8/IMG_2122.jpg

Flexwatt on the rack...
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...8/IMG_2124.jpg

now to attach the melamine back.
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...8/IMG_2126.jpg

looking good so far.
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...8/IMG_2129.jpg

i drilled some holes to put the thermostat probes in and attach to the flexwatt. then i put a piece of aluminum tape over the hole, even on the inside.
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...8/IMG_2131.jpg
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...8/IMG_2132.jpg
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...8/IMG_2134.jpg

finally loaded all the snakes in and put all my stuff on the top shelf. i still have a little work mounting the thermostats, and i plan on making a locking pin for the 41 qt tubs. i also need to find a book shelf for supplies to put next to the rack....
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...8/IMG_2135.jpg

SORRY for such a long post. i just hope this can help some other with ideas to make their own rack. if anyone has any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

Great job Kevin! :rockon:

Great job Kevin. That rack looks great. It always give me a great sense of accomplishment when I build a new one. Should get that feeling this weekend actually. I am in dire need of another 5 racks.
Congrats,

Thanks for the comments.

yea after almost 2 weeks of planning, buying supplies, ordering the flexwatt and thermostat, and all the labor, now that it's all done it feels pretty good. i have given my snakes a very nice place to live. add it really cleared up some of the clutter. before i had tubs and supplies everywhere, and now it's all in one little area. just in time to fill it with more snakes. the top row of hatchling tubs is going to be filled next week. i have a spider, a pastel, a het ghost, and a normal female all coming in from Brock Wagner. he is a A+ breeder and an even better person.


i don't know if i would enjoying building 5 of them though....

how much did you spend?

Hmmm...notes Kevin doesn't live all that far away from me....starts sketching out a plan to kidnap Kevin and feed him beer and pizza until he builds me some of those nice racks (this was my original plan for Jamie Glass but heck once I figured in the beer bill...I would have been cheaper to build the racks from gold!)


Very work Kev! :)

Nice job! I just bought some wood today to get started on one for myself. It doesn't look like you "daisy chained" your flex together (so you could use less plugs). I was thinking about doing that on mine. My rheostat only has two plugs. So the less plugs I have the less rheostats I will need. Or am I missing something here? Any help in this area would be appreciated. I'm looking at having 10 shelves, seven with 4" flex and 3 with 11" flex. Anyway great setup you got there. I bet your excited about the new arrivals. :carrot: Nothing like dragging out Christmas eve.

I like the combination of all the different tub sizes! Looks very nice and professional. :)

i had a budget of $200 and i used all but $4.35... although i am missing some tubs. and that doesn't count the thermostats that i am using. i have 2 JC's and a herpstat (which i love!)

i decided not to daisy chain so that i could just unplug what ever shelf i am not using. and since i have the 3 different types of flex, i needed 3 different thermostats. there maybe more wires and clutter, but it was just simpler for me.

beer and pizza actually helped me get through this one... :)

i really like the rack great job

i think i am going to try and make a curtain rod to go around the entire rack, so i can close the area off at night or when we have people over. and if i get a thick curtain it will trap the heat in the winter and keep the temps more stable.

i was thinking of making a plexiglas door for the whole thing, but i think it would cost a little more then i would want to spend, and it would be huge when i open it (36" long). i hope the curtain thing works...

and other ideas for what i can to to cover it up alittle?

loving the rack...youve got mad skills...

You wiring of the fw is clean....although ive seen someone just hooked it up to one long peice of fw and did it where it looked like an S thoughout the back....ill check if you want the image....but nice...

yea that would be a lot of flex. i got away with only using 5' of 11" and 12' of 4", which still cost about $50. can't imagine how much if i used one big piece. plus the way i wired it i can unplug a shelf when it is not in use. the rack i build this off of had 3 strips of 3" running down the back of the whole thing. i couldn't see how that would be enough heat.

what do you think about adding doors or curtains?

Thank you very much for posting, In the next couple week's I'm going to building something very similar now I can mesh the Idea's.

now that i got a weeks worth of use out of my rack i thought i would post a little update. the middle shelves (4" flex) heat the tubs up very well and are pretty consistent. the bottom 4" shelf stays at 88-89 and the top 4" shelf peeks around 91-92. i haven't used the larger 41 qt tubs yet because i need to buy some locking pins to keep the tops of the tubs from sticking out. i have also added a paper towel holder (the kind you mount under kitchen cabinets), which i much say is a wonderful idea.

i will be turning on the hatchling tubs tonight and get them running because wednesday i will be receiving a nice box full of snakes from theeee Brock Wagner. i can't wait. once i get them settled in and move my boa into the bottom shelf i will post some more pictures.

Very nice! I love DIY reptile caging. Congrats on the great set up.

hey man do you think you could give me a list of the materials you used? like measurements and stuff?

Man good job. I still have melamine flexwatt and a bunch of tubs to make one but never got around to it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kennyxemerson

hey man do you think you could give me a list of the materials you used? like measurements and stuff?

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this website has all the supplies you will need and the measurements:
http://www.dozierstudio.com/hatchrack.html

i did some little changes here and there, like using different tubs, and having the flexwatt on the shelf and not the back, and not using his dimmer and thermometer top. i bought everything in one trip to home depot and lowes, ordered the flexwatt from reptile basics, borrowed a drill from a friend, and that's it.

have fun with it.

bad link (404 not found) :\

but good job dude im jealous haha
I cant seen to find ANY plans for a good rack
I used the search multiple times and googled like crazy.
I think I may have to just buy a rack.
I kinda wanted to build a custom one.

You mentioned having a curtain rod around it. You could use a tension rod and just cover the front of it. Then you can take it off in the warmer months and there won't be any holes or brackets in your nice work.

well i guess the original designer's domain ended.... well i will get up a list of what i used and the measurements in a day or two.

if you could that would be amazing, but if not its cool haha dont go out of your way or anything

what size shelves did you use, and where did you get them? I'm guessing I need 18" wide shelves, but 15.75 is the widest I can find, then it jumps to 23.75. This is at Home Depot...

Where did you get your melamine from?

Looks like you did an awesome job. Wish our first attempt at building our own racks came out as nice as that one.

That is a great looking rack. Looks big too!
and yes, thanks for sharing, someday I might just use your idea!

Looks great. Where do you put the probes for the tstats though? In each tub or just along the fw? How does it work out for the thermal gradient?

Thats looks real clean! nice job man! :sweeet:

I was roaming through Lowe's and noticed the white laminated shelving boards I'm sure was used for this setup. They measured 36"x16".

There was also a 48X16 which could be used for the sides. Using Sterilite 41qt tubs I think would work perfectly since they measure 34x16, leaving about 1" on each side of the tub.

Reading previous posts, are the 41qt tubs sticking out enough to allow escape?

How much did everything cost?

I went to Lowe's yesterday and priced out similar looking stuff and I was at $200 before tubs, thermostat and snakes...However, most thermostats will control 2-3 racks trhat size. I really wanna know the material list for this beauty!

Just remember, you cannot use one thermostat for different size flexwatt in the same rack.

ie : you would need one for the 11in. back wall heat, one for the 4in belly heat section, and another for the 11in. bally heat. Thats if you built the exact same one as posted.

wow i didn't know my rack what this popular... if anyone still wants to know i can come up with a complete list of supplies for building this thing.

AWESOME job on your rack :gj:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TheHabit

AWESOME job on your rack :gj:

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Thanks.

I costed about $150 in supplies (including a few tubs) and labor costs (beer), and another $200 for flexwatt and thermostat.

very clean. buy you know you can buy tape that covers up the screws thats matchs malemine

I'm also guessing you could get a big sheet cut up to save on cost since I'm sure pre-cut stuff costs much more than just one big sheet. I'm fortunate enough to have a table saw so methinks I am going to just buy one big sheet and go to town. I also need a multi tub style rack as I'm going to have at least 2 boas, 1 or 2 BPs and who knows what else lol.

Very nice rack. I'm looking to build a multi-sized rack system like that this coming year. Great work!

are you running two thermos for the one rack??? ive noticed you have two diffrent sizes of flex watt ...can u run both on just one thermostat??? great rack...yes the plans for theis rack would rock!

thanks
greg

Nice rack but my question is i see alot of people have these same white water dishes in there racks where did you get them?

Those white dishes are actually flat PVC end caps from Lowes or Home Depot. They are like $1.50 or something, you'll find 'em near the plumbing section.

Dane

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Danegerous

Those white dishes are actually flat PVC end caps from Lowes or Home Depot. They are like $1.50 or something, you'll find 'em near the plumbing section.

Dane

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nice thanks

I just have two questions is there/can you make a list of materials(this would help alot) also saw the heat tape setup BUT no terminal ends? Did you plug them in directly to the wall/thermosat?

Pete:bow:

I don't know about anyone else but I would still love that list of supplies and sizes so I can start making my own. Great job!

impressive!

Can I get demensions

:gj::gj:

I really like how it holds all the different size tubs. How wide does it measure?

well done!