My first rack!!! Built and 98% done

All I need to do now is add a thermostat, which I already have. I plan on mounting the power cord on the back connected to two powerstrips. I am building a second rack identical to this, and one thermostat will power the top 6 shelves in both racks, and the bottom thermostat the bottom 5 shelves in both racks, helping me keep a better heat grading across the different heights/heat in the room.

Here is the view from the back after the shelves have been secured, with the flexwatt attached.

I ran 4' of flexwatt and soldered it to the ends of the extension cord, and then stapled them down so they wouldnt pull and break the solder


https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...ackAlmost2.jpg


I put the back on then, first stapled a 6' x 4' piece of Reflectix Radiant insulation to keep the heat moving the right direction, and then 2 6'x2' pieces of 1/2" particleboard . Screwed into the back of each shelf twice, and once on each side, for support.




https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...Thermostat.jpg

I still need to add the thermostat, but, Im happy with what I have so far :)

More info later.

dang that is NICE. wanna come by my place and put one of those together in my herp room? ;) :P

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Originally Posted by mlededee

dang that is NICE. wanna come by my place and put one of those together in my herp room? ;) :P

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hehe, dont even ask how long this took me to make ;) Was my first rack. Maybe after I have gotten it down.

I also cut 1/4" notches for each shelf to slide into (dado).. Word of warning, if you are making it for 1/2" shelves, make it 5/8 of an inch for easy sliding, otherwise you will end up with my frustrations ;)



Copied from another post on another forum i made:

Dimensions: 4' wide x 6' tall x 17" wide

Material: 1/2 Particle board for the shelves, 3/4 Particle board for the sides

Fastening: 2 screws in each side of the shelf, 1/4" dados, 4 screws in the back of each shelf (back is 2 6' x 2' pieces of 1/2 particleboard

Heating: 3" flexwatt run about 3.5-4 inches from the absolute back of the shelf, each shelf has its own extension cord for individual control of heating. Held down by foil tape. Back of unit is covered in a 4x6 pieces of Reflectix underneath the particleboard mentioned above. 2 Helix thermostats, one for the top 6 shelves, one for the bottom 5 shelves. I plan on putting two of these racks side by side and using one helix for the top 6 of both shelves (480 watts) and the second helix for the bottom 5 shelves ( 400 watts)

Paint: Two coats of paint on all sides of the particle board, bathroom type paint (forget the exact kind offhand)

I may or may not add front supports as spacers if i need to adjust the exact spacing of the tubs. As of now there is no bowing, and i dont see 2 tubs with 8 lbs weight maximum causing any problems with the solid back and screws in the back of the shelves in the center.

I may be missing something, there is no thermostat in the picture, will have that all hooked up tommorrow. If anyone has any input or suggestions, or questions please feel free.

I was able to pick up the front and tip this guy up on end by myself no problem. I have furniture glider pads under each corner and can slide it around the reptile room easily.



Price List:
Just the Rack + flexwatt, etc

(4) - 1/2" 4'x8' Particle Board - $44
(1) - 3/4" 4'x8' Particle Board - $13
(98) - #6 1 5/8 Drywall Screws- $2
(44) - Feet of 3" Flexwatt - $88
(11) - Extension Cords - $11
(1) - Roll of Foil tape - $10
(1) - Gallon of Paint - $20
(1) - Reflectix Insulation - $8
(2) - 6 outlet power strips - $4
(40) - Staples - $0 (like 20 cents)
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total $200 (wow, to hold 22 - 28 quart tubs!)

Thermostat
(1) - Helix Thermostat (sharing 2 between 2 racks, so 1 per rack avg) $135

Tubs
(22) - 28 quart tubs - $88

Hides + Water bowls
(22) - ceramic glazed bowls $13
(22) - Plastic bowls with hole cut $6


Total for full rack with hides and water bowls and tubs and thermostat
$442

for 22 snakes that fit in a 28 quart tub (16x23 are the dimensions). So ~ 3 feet snake max.

I am h a p p y.

Now I just need to make another one of these, and then 2-3 4'x4' hatchling racks (wish my sanity luck!)

Follow up question. Is there a "max gap" recommended for tubs in a rack system like this, based on size? right now my carpentry wasnt perfect, and it varies from 1/8 to a little over 1/4 of an inch.

With this 1/4 of an inch allow enough airflow? (I would hope so).

Is there any point in putting side holes in these tubs now that i have it in a rack system (not lidded?) I think there should be plenty of air flow into them from the tops, but i could be wrong.

Thanks

That is an awesome job:D. As far as the air flow is concerned you have nothing to worry about. That is just fine. Once its wired up to the stat you'll probably spend some time dialing in the humidity more than anything else considering you split the heating source. Nice touch using the reflextic. That should work out well for you. Really nice work.

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Originally Posted by ARamos8

That is an awesome job:D. As far as the air flow is concerned you have nothing to worry about. That is just fine. Once its wired up to the stat you'll probably spend some time dialing in the humidity more than anything else considering you split the heating source. Nice touch using the reflextic. That should work out well for you. Really nice work.

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Thanks man, Im glad it turned out the way it did. Several very frustrating things I ran into, but Im hoping my next one will go smoothly. Either way it ended up coming out ok, whew!

Sweet! :sweeet: I love all the do it yourself racks, I wish I was that handy!

Loaded and Heating, wish me luck!


https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...8/rackDone.jpg

Looks great! Are those the Walmart bowls? My snakes love those! :) BTW, have you noticed any problems with the particle wood sagging now that it's loaded up?

Wow! Thats a very nice rack.

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Originally Posted by xdeus

Looks great! Are those the Walmart bowls? My snakes love those! :) BTW, have you noticed any problems with the particle wood sagging now that it's loaded up?

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Not at all. Those tubs loaded add maybe a few pounds per shelf. the water bowls are ceramic and are located in the back corners on each side, that puts the most of the weight where 2 screws are holding the shelf up, so no sag. The worst case scenario, I put a piece of 5 7/8 2x2 in the front to hold up the edge, and it will be rock solid (I planned on doing that at first, but they didnt sag at all, so i figured what the heck, and left them. Will definitely add that if needed, so it will be a test of time.

Thanks for the feedback!

Nice rack! Great balls!

Looks great!

This weekend we built two more racks to hold 56 15qt/28 30qt tubs with belly heating for $360.00 out of Melamine and 3" Flexwatt. I just couldn't force myself to pay 3X's as much for a XPVC shelf to stack 1/3 of the amount of sterilite tubs.


Great work!

Ok people. Feel free to come over and build some for me..

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Originally Posted by ssscales

Looks great!

This weekend we built two more racks to hold 56 15qt/28 30qt tubs with belly heating for $360.00 out of Melamine and 3" Flexwatt. I just couldn't force myself to pay 3X's as much for a XPVC shelf to stack 1/3 of the amount of sterilite tubs.


Great work!

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Nice! Pictures? Any explanation on how you did it, I kinda pulled mine out of nowhere, did some research and put it together. Im sure it could use some improvements.

Hrm, 28 tubs, is that thiing 8' wide? or 8' tall :) or is that 2 racks, for that many tubs total?

Ok temp/humidity readings... Im wondering if i have an issue with one of my thermometeres.

Also confused why the temp in the room is 76 at 6' and 74 at floor level, and my lower thermostat at 92 is keeping those tubs warmer than the 96 degrees my top thermostat is keeping my other tubs

#1 78/92 50%
#2 83/89 43%
#3 81/99 47%
#4 82/91 50%
#5 79/91 52%

BTW< The heater is NOT in front of it, that was just in that picture, it is way off to the side....

I think #3 is messed up that it shows such high temps on the probe.


https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil.../rackTemps.jpg

Hot air rises ... Cold air sinks. Plus the floor itself will have temp fluctuations that will affect your bottom tubs.

You could have a bad piece of flexwatt that is heating it up (could also be in the wiring). Try putting the #3 probe in with one of your other probes ... this should tell you if its off or not ... if it isnt its time to look at the flexwatt.

Bryan

I agree about the hot air, cold air thing, but the bottom tubs are hotter than the higher tubs, I have to run the top thermostat at 4 degrees higher to maintain the same temps.

very nice! :)

Im out of town for the next 3 days so i will have to have my wife try a few things. These flexwatts are all from the same roll but i would interested if some can heat up faster than others (that would suck!)

I wired them all by soldering them directly to the edge, made sure plastic was melted, so that should be fairly consistent (though leave it to me to mess it up :P_

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Originally Posted by SnakeySnakeSnake

Nice! Pictures? Any explanation on how you did it, I kinda pulled mine out of nowhere, did some research and put it together. Im sure it could use some improvements.

Hrm, 28 tubs, is that thiing 8' wide? or 8' tall :) or is that 2 racks, for that many tubs total?

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Oops, I wrote 15qt/30qt tubs.
It's actually 12qt/28qt Sterilite tubs.

It's 4'X4', and I buy them pre-cut at Lowes in the closet organizer section.
No cutting!

7 stacks of 4 tubs = 28 tubs, it's the same as this one we built last year. As you can see by the 4th row, you can use two 28qt tubs in the place of four 12qt tubs as some of the snakes get older. I'll take some pics this evening of the new racks. We built two more of these racks to hold an extra 56 12qt tubs.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...s/IMG_1707.jpg

yup same tubs im using, 4 wide, or 2 wide depending. In my picture Im using the 28's

I originally wanted to make mine 8'x8' but I soon realized the folly of that lol

If I wasnt crazy like I am :( I would have done the same heh... they are 15" wide or 16"? I thought lidless was a good idea so i had to custom make everything, bleh :)

Lidless has it's advantages, but we preferred to keep the lids on for a number of reasons. We prefer the added security, added safety, it also avoids any humidity from possibly damaging the shelf above the tubs, etc, etc. It really comes down to preference.


We also originally thought of building a large one unit rack and quickly realized the drawbacks with that type of set up. We also built them to be taken apart easily when not in use and reassembled when needed.

Bryan this might sound goofy:rolleye2:, but it worked for me. I had to move things around to get the rack by an interior wall. Being close to an exterior wall messed me up for a bit (temps) before the "dim" bulb got brighter in my head LOL:D.

This time im actually awake when reading your post ... hopefully this will be a bit more specific.

I would think that the middle ones would be warmer than either top or bottom because they are being heated on 3 sides (top, bottom, and back). So 1 and 5 should be the coolest ... with 5 being even cooler. 3 should be the warmest as its closest to the middle.

If im not mistaken it looks like the ceiling is slanted in this room. That would imply that it is on the top level of your house. You may want to get a temp gun and get a temp on the ceiling right around the top of the rack. If you have a roof vent or soffit vent close by, it is cooling the ceiling of the room ... if the rack is touching the ceiling it will transfer the cold. Also depending on the temp of the ceiling it may be creating a "pillow" of cooling air. The hot air is rising hitting the constant cold of the ceiling and the then cold air is dropping.

Putting it against an interior wall may help in that that wall is already warmed by adjoining rooms. Again you could put a temp gun on a outside and interior wall ... Ive found my temps differ up to 10f (depends on which of the 6 additions im in when taking readings).

Bryan

I realize this thread is almost 2 weeks old, but I think I've found a flaw in your post. The only reason I noticed this is because I was going to "borrow" your design to build a rack of my own. After all, imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, no? BTW, that's one sweet looking rack! I'm just hoping mine will come out as nice looking!

Quote:

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Copied from another post on another forum i made:

Dimensions: 4' wide x 6' tall x 17" wide

Material: 1/2 Particle board for the shelves, 3/4 Particle board for the sides

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If you have 28qt Sterilite containers, which are 4 7/8" H, and you leave the customary 1/8" gap between the top of the container and the shelf above... You effectively have 5" per shelf space. That x11 shelf spaces, paired with the 1/2" of shelf material x12 shelves= 61" overall. This is 5'1", not 6' which would be 72". I've gone over it a few times and this still seems to be what has been done... Please correct me if I'm wrong somehow as I am still in the planning stages and would like to alleviate any headaches I might run across in the building process.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MARCUS ANTONIUS

I realize this thread is almost 2 weeks old, but I think I've found a flaw in your post. The only reason I noticed this is because I was going to "borrow" your design to build a rack of my own. After all, imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, no? BTW, that's one sweet looking rack! I'm just hoping mine will come out as nice looking!



If you have 28qt Sterilite containers, which are 4 7/8" H, and you leave the customary 1/8" gap between the top of the container and the shelf above... You effectively have 5" per shelf space. That x11 shelf spaces, paired with the 1/2" of shelf material x12 shelves= 61" overall. This is 5'1", not 6' which would be 72". I've gone over it a few times and this still seems to be what has been done... Please correct me if I'm wrong somehow as I am still in the planning stages and would like to alleviate any headaches I might run across in the building process.

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My 28 quart sterilite containers are 5 7/8.

So I leave 6" per shelf space x 11 = 66
Then 1/2 inch x 12 shelves = 6 inches
total = 72"


From the Sterilite Website:

1956 - 23"L x 16 3/4"W x 5 7/8"Hhttp://sterilite.com/textbox_right_sm.gif

28 quart tub


1954 - 16 3/8"L x 11 1/2"W x 5 7/8"H

12 quart tub


Just be precise on that 6" otherwise you will end up with larger than 1/8th inch gap and that is bad :) Ive had to adjust with cardboard shims because i didnt make it perfect perfect on every shelf.

Wow, I could've sworn that I saw 4 7/8"H! I'm really glad I posted that so you could get me cleared up!! Thanks a ton, and I'll be sure to be exact with the measurements! Kudos again on the sweet rack!