New Racks

With many thanks to Richard (Halfdawg) for the easiest melamine rack design in existance, here's a couple of shots of the new racks. We already had the black 15 qt Reptile Basics rack, which I love, but Mike and I managed to build two big melamine racks using Richard's design without once throwing a drill at each other LOL.

Please excuse the pictures. The way these big racks are set up in the room it's hard to get back far enough to get better shots of them.

Rack #1 - holds our 41 qt and some extra 15's.....

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...sing/Rack1.jpg

Rack #2 - has three slots of 28 qt's and three slots of big Iris tubs which hold our three biggest breeder female BP's.....

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...sing/Rack2.jpg

It is incredible how much easier daily husbandry is when we don't have to spend all that time fiddling with multiple black binder clips on each tub. Btw, I now have a lifetime supply of black binder clips laying around LOL. I love how the top of the rack has the three sides so I can store things and use it for a perfect large work suface - my back is much happier now! :)

This weekend I need to get busy and get the tub labels all done. :)

Looks good Jo. congrats on a job well done. :D I like the RBI hatchling rack too. I finally got a rack from RBI, now I'm just waiting for my thermostat so I can set it up.

:gj: Goog job Jo!

Reminds me I still need to finish my hatchling rack (42 days left :O)

So will your next project be a rat rack?

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Originally Posted by Ladydragon

Looks good Jo. congrats on a job well done. :D I like the RBI hatchling rack too. I finally got a rack from RBI, now I'm just waiting for my thermostat so I can set it up.

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Thanks Doris! You'll love that RBI rack once you have it all set up and ticking along nicely.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Deborah

:gj: Goog job Jo!

Reminds me I still need to finish my hatchling rack (42 days left :O)

So will your next project be a rat rack?

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Thanks Deb. Yep that's the plan. Since setting up these new racks the room looks so nice and tidy on the snake side that the rat bins are looking far less organized. With the extra feeder needs of the new hatchlings and moving more into the ASF's rat racks are a definite must have. You'll have to let me know how your ASF's are doing in your racks.

Those look great! Now( for the forth time) ive changed my rack to hold 41qs with the same desine almost, and its working out great!

I really like the 2 rack, is it huge? You say 28qs but my eyes want to disagree; it looks like 15qs!

Your eyes are wrong LOL. Those are 28 qt's. I actually wanted 32's but had a heck of a time finding any that weren't the buckle top which when you remove the lid leave a sort of cut out area. I just wasn't comfortable with that so went with these 28's that have a straight edge to them (snap on lid type).

The rack is made from pre-cut melamine shelving from Home Depot. The shelving measures about 24 x 48 so the rack isn't huge but it is big and it is heavy. Here's a couple of links....

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...=688939#688939

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...=725271#725271

What I loved about Halfdawg's idea was not having to do any exact cuts at home. Just pick up the stuff from Home Depot and off you go, easy as anything. Our Home Depot didn't have any of the 23 3/4 x 48 in stock but they did have the 23 3/4 x 96 shelving so we just had them cut them in half for us (wasn't impressed with a couple of the cuts to be honest so the 48 is the way to go if your store has it). The entire rack from start to finish including installing the flexwatt took about 4 hours.

It looks awesome, Jo! I know this has been a huge project for you and Mike over the past few weeks. Racks really do make life so much easier, and once you build your rat rack, you'll wonder how you ever did it any other way! :D

Looks like you guys did a great job Jo!

To help a guy on the other side of the Atlantic...could you please explain the sizes in inches (or cms.) of those Sterilite tubs...

6 qt=.." x .." x .."

15 qt=

28 qt=

32 qt=

Just to have an ideia of the sizes of the tubs where you keep your BP´s.

Thanks in advance

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

You'll have to let me know how your ASF's are doing in your racks.

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They are doing great this is their 3rd week and no issue at all.

No chewing (too busy with their wheel I guess) they eat through the hardware cloth just fine, seems to be working out.

I think one my next project will be to make a rack for them using the Rat rack design posted here, using 1/4 or 1/3 hardware cloth instead of the 1/2 used for regular rats.

The best with the tubs I am using is that I can put a small (4.5 inches) wheel in there to entertain them.

I'm still a die hard glass girl, but those do look like...

("Alright, I have rat racks, dangit!")

Any problems with bowing on this rack??

Nope nothing so far at all Mike. Some of the tubs are a tad harder to slide in or out but that's more about my less than perfect measuring skills than any issues with the rack design or the melamine.

So far these racks are working out beautifully. I absolutely love how, due to the design, the top of the rack ends up being a perfect flat working surface (with three enclosed sides). One of the issues in our snake room, likely in most home snake rooms, is the lack of a decent flat working surface. Having built two of these racks, Mike and I can work together in the room, both of us having space to do whatever needs done without bashing into each other LOL.