DIY Rack - PVC vs. Plywood

I am going to be bulding a rack here in a couple of months once I am home from Afghanistan and while I was intially going to go with PVC I have decided to switch to plywood. I will be using a sealant on the bottoms of the shelves to prevent the humidity within the tub from damaging the wood. Aside from weight are there any real drawbacks to using plywood as opposed to expanded sheets of PVC (aside from the fact that PVC will last just about forever)?

Plywood will expand with the humidity and warp over time.

What kind of sealant are you planning to use. A lot of sealants that truly protect against water are oil based and any oil based product isn't the greatest idea for herps. If you do use any kind of sealant make sure you give it plenty of time to out-gas everything in it.

I would suggest good plys to start they will reduce or stop warping. personally my first choice is Baltic birch it is many plys so it has a extreme dimensionally stability. (3/4 inch BB is 13 lamination/plys over the 5-8 for regular) The second choice is brunzeel aaa ply for the same reason it is more expensive and therefore my second choice.

Sealers the very best are epoxies system 3 makes a food grade sealer and industrial formularies has 0% VOC sealer (g2) both are great performers. I like the system 3 more but it is thick and can be harder to apply. Both need to be fully cured before use one week at 72ºF +. The issue with these is cost both are very expensive add the cost of the ply and you are spending quite a chunk of change. Buying a rack would likely be cheaper if you build it using these methods. A good tough LP paint might hold too but would need to be renewed every now and again and that (waiting for a week with no rack) would be a pain. The brunzeel maybe able to go unfinished but cleaning is then a pain.

Wood is strong and durable more so than plastics with the plys I have mentioned I would use 1/4 and 1/2 as it is easily twice the strength of regular plys 3/4 is over kill massive over kill. Plastics are cheaper when you add in the sealer and melamine out gasses forever and it too needs to be sealed up and the glue on edging stuff I HATE using that I simply refuse to work with it. Especially as it should be sealed front and back.

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sorry that is epoxy systems not industreal formulary the #2

Check out the great plans for PVC racks on the NorthEastSnakes.com site. http://northeastsnakes.com/racks.html I'm not even sure this guy is still in the business but these are good inexpensive racks for the DIY. These racks are really light and easy to use. I would recommend these over wood any day.
I basically followed these to build my racks but modified the size to suit my needs and used the pre-primed white wood from Home Depot for the frame. These racks are really light and easy to use. I would recommend these over wood any day.
Ill post of pic of them soon.

I used a plywood rack for 5 years and we used that white pegboard on top. I never had it mold or warp or anything! Our only problem was it weighed a ton!!! And being in the military (like you) I was and am super worried about weight. Also I couldnt move it around when my husband was gone to clean. It was 6 shelves high and held 3 32qt side by side. But as long as your not worried about the weight issue, GO FOR IT!

I am thinking that I will be going with wood simply for the cost savings over PVC. Did yours have wheels, Robin? I am going to be building a rack for both the snakes and breeding rats, and wheels will be going on both racks. Thanks for all of the advice, everyone.

Just a quick comment wheels are awesome. I would suggest buying good ones and a set that LOCK the last thing you need is to bump the rack and have it roll away ;)

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Originally Posted by kitedemon

Just a quick comment wheels are awesome. I would suggest buying good ones and a set that LOCK the last thing you need is to bump the rack and have it roll away ;)

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LOL on the rolling away part. I can see it now, me chasing my rack down the hallway or something like that.

:D It sounds funny but I have a rolling tool cabinet that came with crumby castors and I roll it to the machines I calibrate so I wanted it to roll well. I replaced all the castors with high quality ones they actually roll well. I didn't decide to buy the locking ones mostly because it is very heavy and was so hard to roll before. It rolls very easily and if you bump it it rolls away. The building I work in is 120 years old converted warehouse... I often am chasing it down the halls... LOL I could just see bumping a rack and having it move far enough to pull the probes loose or topple the t-stats...

I can picture someone running down a hallway in an old building chasing their tool rack. LOL Yeah, messing up the t-stat sensor would be my concern if I were to move it too far.

I just had the warping issue for the first time today. I used masonite 5/8" thick presswood for the shelves and 2x2's for the rest. I have had it functioning for three years with no issues, but today i decied to see why the top tub was so hard to slide, sure enough the top had swollen. non of the others show any signs of sweeling. I think i missed the 2nd coat of exterior valspar paint when i was coating them. I say as long as the shelves are sealed up correctly there should be no problem with swelling or bowing. make sure you paint before you build though. my first rack was so tight i couldn't put a tub in it let alone heat. all because i built it then painted it well (like 5 coats).

Heres one that I built out of Baltic Birch. I used 3/4" and 1/2" sheets. I have a series of pictures detailing the build in my albums on my facebook page.[IMG]http://i1155.photobucket.com/albums/...ps00bc9ed4.jpg[/IMG]

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Originally Posted by AKA Reptiles

Heres one that I built out of Baltic Birch. I used 3/4" and 1/2" sheets. I have a series of pictures detailing the build in my albums on my facebook page.[IMG]http://i1155.photobucket.com/albums/...ps00bc9ed4.jpg[/IMG]

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I recently took up woodworking and had actually just planned something very similar to this for my rat breeding rack. Well it's gonna be a birthing rack with 12 tubs up top and 3-4 holding bins on the bottom. It's good to see this design executed so well at home.

Since I use it in the living room I needed it to be furniture grade quality so I went all out.

The quality of Baltic birch is so high compared to most other plys it is worth the little extra. I like your rack really nice. I personally can never bring myself to paint BB I love the birch natural look.

Me too. But since it was going to be in the living room I needed it to match the rest of the furniture. Wifes orders.