New Rack... FINALLY

All 300 or so pounds of it. Yay.

First being built:
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/6...0001tk6.th.jpg
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/4...0005bf1.th.jpg

Spacing used:
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/3...0006mv4.th.jpg

Third Shelf:
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/5...0007yo9.th.jpg

Heating being installed and parallel wired:
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/7...0009xl3.th.jpg

Parallel wiring warm side flexwatt:
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/8...0011lw2.th.jpg

Fully set up with snakes and heat:
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/3...0017wl2.th.jpg

The rack is heated by using 2ft strips of 11" flexwatt for the cool sides and a 1ft strip of 11' flexwatt for the warm side. It is controlled by a Herpstat 2, and by god, I haven't gotten shocked yet! :) Guess I wired everything ok being a girl and all.

Thanks for looking!

"Guess I wired everything ok being a girl and all"=:8:

Awesome rack Becky :clap:

Awesome Becky! Congrats. How hard was it to wire the flexwatt? I just have nightmares of burning my house down, if I even thought of attempting it.

How long did it take you?

It took... *sigh* around a month. It shouldn't have, but my crappy $3 soldering iron couldn't get hot enough to even melt solder(and THAT'S sad, as it has a very low melting point...). So I found my dad's heavy duty one and zipped through it all.

It's really not hard parallel wiring, you just have to think through it and make sure you connect the correct wires, LoL. It all heated up just fine, and the house is still standing, so... I guess it's ok! :)

Hey, it's still way better than I could do. I'm very impressed. It looks wonderful. :bow:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tigerlily

it's still way better than I could do.

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Don't sell yourself short..you could totally pull it off :clap:

Very nice! :sweeet: You're not kidding about that melamine weighing a ton, but at least you'll know that your snakes will be snug as a bug in a rug with all the work you put into that bad boy. Great job!

I hope that little girl coming from you Lawrence will enjoy the baby rack. I need to get building on it soon so she can come home! Thank god for metal clips...No more soldering! *chants* Down with soldering!

Anyway! Thanks for the compliments, I am very proud of that thing, the behemoth that it is.

Now it's time to fill it up :clap:

Yes well, I'll have one space left after Sullivan comes home. But then there's the baby rack! I have tons of room to fill that puppy up :)

Nice job, Becky! It looks great! I'm just curious how you were able to differentiate between the wiring on the warm and cool side. I guess, to be more specific, are there wires running down both sides (front and back)? Or how does that work. I couldn't really tell from the pics... It just looks like one set of wires.

EDIT: Ok, I just realized the pics blow up when you click them... :oops:
So now that I feel like an idiot, again nice job. And I really like the idea of having thermostat controllable heat on both sides, rather than just having a warm side and relying on ambient temps for the other. Was this your design?

Yeah, I have to rely on both sides being heated because our house is a bit cool and drafty(although it's usually 76-77 in my room where the snakes are). They're quite happy at their 83.5 and 94 degree temps :)

I now have the probes in the 2nd tub from the bottom, taped underneath the newspaper. Hopefully this yields better temps as the tubs couldn't slide over the probes when they were taped to the flexwatt itself.

I still need to get the back on and the kickplates on, but that can wait :) I just wanted to get it done and get the snakes in!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SatanicIntention

Yes well, I'll have one space left after Sullivan comes home. But then there's the baby rack! I have tons of room to fill that puppy up :)

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Sullivan can't WAIT to come test out that new rack! I told him he might even get lucky! ;)

Looks wonderful Becky! You did a great job on your first rack building!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cueball

Don't sell yourself short..you could totally pull it off :clap:

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You're sweet. :blowkiss: But waayyyy overestimating my abilities. (the flexwatt scares me the most)

Congrats on the wonderful looking rack Becky. I always get a sense of accomplishment when I get done building a new rack, and it saves me some money to put toward some more snakes. It looks great. Job well done.

I like how you have the HS2 and have heat tape on both sides, at least you won't have to heat the room.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tigerlily

You're sweet. :blowkiss: But waayyyy overestimating my abilities. (the flexwatt scares me the most)

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No way...you can totally handle it!! I would be happy to assist with helping hands, guidance and tools :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cueball

No way...you can totally handle it!! I would be happy to assist with helping hands, guidance and tools :)

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I may just have to take advantage of that in the near future. http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k1...e/yourock1.gif

Wow, Becky, that looks totally great! And thanks for the idea on spacing, I've been trying to figure something out :D