Best material to build a rack from

When I move I plan on making my own racks. Whats the best material to do this out of? I would love to do abs/pvc but cant find someone to sell me it by the sheet. I tried melomine but it ended up being so heavy I couldnt move it.

1x3 pine and 1/4 in plywood for the shelves the bottom part thats open to the tub cover with some cheap plastic, tile, or some cheap water proof stuff.

XPVC (http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/pro...uct%5Fid=10041)

Hollow core PVC

lucas, thats nice stuff. do you happen to know any that make black?

Fireball- know any good suppliers?

While making your own racks is rewarding and you can admire the finished product with a sense of accomplishment, I chucked all of mine out about 4 years ago and replaced all the wood, melamine, and aquariums with Reptile basics cages and racks - unbelievably easy to clean and my snake room now looks "civilized".

But if you want to go down the road of making them yourself, by all means.....
knock yourself out!

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Originally Posted by 771subliminal

1x3 pine and 1/4 in plywood for the shelves the bottom part thats open to the tub cover with some cheap plastic, tile, or some cheap water proof stuff.

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NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO don't use PINE repeat don't USE PINE!!!!!!!!:taz: If you use 2x4, 1x3, 4x4, 1x2, 1x1, etc.... spend the extra bucks and get hardwood. stuff like RED oak (looks very nice) or white Oak, popular wood is good and its not to expensive. maple or etc.... just not pine or cedar.

Repeat to your self NO PINE OR CEDAR

all you have to do is touch the pine then the vapors will get to your BP. the vapors alone will harm your BP with out touching the pine

i built my whole 4 tier rack out of birch and it came out amazing

day time lighting
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k3...IMG00316-1.jpg
and at night
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k3...IMG00334-1.jpg

if your building a rack with multiple levels and such just get 4x8 1/2 birch. its about 20 and change a sheet here in Houston, but not sure how much it is where you live.

here is some better stuff and it comes in black

http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/pro...uct%5Fid=10432

plastic is nice! how is it with humidity and heating????

I vote expanded PVC

Right now I have 2 Animal plastics racks with expanded PVC or abs, some kind of plastic and I love it. Thanks lucas! i'm going to weigh the costs and see if its cheaper to make it custom or buy more AP racks XD

imagine if my rack was made of plastic it would just fall over

lol yeah yours is nice, I just have to many to have show cages, I need a racking system

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Originally Posted by zombie&lemons

imagine if my rack was made of plastic it would just fall over

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with proper plans, a plastic anything will work. my abs cages are made out of 1/8 inch material and they are just butt glued together and are strong and light!! probably about 1/2 the weight as a wood cage, easy to clean, no sealing, and it will last way longer than any sealed wood cage.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lucas339

with proper plans, a plastic anything will work. my abs cages are made out of 1/8 inch material and they are just butt glued together and are strong and light!! probably about 1/2 the weight as a wood cage, easy to clean, no sealing, and it will last way longer than any sealed wood cage.

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I know i was just making a joke i have big future plans for a new cage in the future with a bunch of RBI setups cause I'M ADDICTED to buying or wanting new BP's i would like to have some morphs to breed but dont have the money right now. by time im on my own again ill be breeding my 2 pastels and hoping for a SUPER! by then ill have a new display cage setup for my 1 boa and 4 bp's (6x2x2 with a cabinet underneath then another cabinet/hood for the 2nd 2 cages which well be 3x2x1 side by side and then that one more time so a total of 3 levels, 5 cages and have more bps in rbi's.

sorry for the grammar and spelling. i know i s#ck

Lucas, do you have any pics of your cages?

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k3...IMG00316-1.jpg
night shot looking uphttp://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k3...IMG00334-1.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k3...c/IMG00286.jpg

the first one i built
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k3...c/IMG00157.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k3...c/IMG00099.jpg

the one i built for Blondie
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k3...c/IMG00210.jpg

these are made out of ABS which comes in any color

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q...CIMG0816-1.jpg


this one is made out of PVC which comes in white, black, and gray (i think)

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q...icture_009.jpg

no exposed screws, no painting, and best of all, they will last practically for ever!

those are nice, what do you use to connect it? how did you do the door.

the stack is 3 sperate cages. they are glued together with PVC cement. I holds great but takes a while to set up. Weldon makes a ABS glue that sets up faster. the bottom of each cage has a thin strip of material all the way around the cage and the tops of the cages have little squares attached to the top so they don't slide around. the door is 1/4" acrylic i had cut and the egdes are flamed treated so they are clear. the front of the tank is actually 3 layers thick. the first two are for support and the third layer is a bit larger, like 1/8" all the way around, to stop the door. i got those hinges from a friend. they are pricey but you can't see the screws and they are strong. they have little turn tabs like repti-racks uses for his cages. the doors have pull tabs to open them. i used spikes that you get at like hot topic.

the PVC cage was made by my friend who helped me with the ABS cages. that thing is crazy. the top, bottom, front and back are one piece and the sides are seperate. he has jigs for every part of that cage so every one he does is perfect.

hope this helped. feel free to ask if it didn't.