Rack system DIY

Ok, so Im new to this forum, but I wanted to share some info...Ive pondered over the last 3 weeks on building or buying my own rack system...I wanted about 7-8 tubs total..(for now),,lol...I priced this and looked at that and was about to give in to buying a pro made type deal...I almost walked out of home depot and there it was, the answer id been looking for....MELAMINE...now I know what youre thinking....yada yada...melamine, been there done that....heavy, chips, hard to get all the pieces cut perfect...Well, where I am in NC, the home depots here sell melamine shelving that is precut, its 3/4" thick X 15.5" x 36"...Its NOT the melamine shelving that they sell that is 8ft long...This stuff is somewhat new to depot and its PERFECT for building a rack for 28qt OR 41qt sterilites without having to do any alterations to the wood....ALL the sides are sealed except one edge...I took some ideas for this from MATTHEW at blueappleherps (I will post his PDF link here alittle further on) Youll notice that mine is similar, except my shelves are upsidedown from his....

COST?

each piece of melamine (already precut and ready to go) $6.74 I needed 8 of them for this rack...the rest is nothing but 1x2's and 1x4's....Matts instructions on wood cutting, and pieces needed are exactly what I used..Except he used sintra or cpvc type stuff...here locally thats almost 100 a sheet (5 pieces of this size max per 4x8 sheet) so I would have spent $200 on the plastic shelves alone...with these precut melamine pieces I spent about 55 bucks!...Im about 90% done with it...

8 tub rack about $110 in materials
8 41 qt tubs about $50
and Ill be ordering 11" flex from good ole rich....$160 for the rack in my guesstimation is pretty damn good....

Heres Matts link

http://www.blueappleherps.com/page13...structions.pdf

Maybe Im missing something here, but is there a way to add pics to my post? ive got some ready to go and noticed that I cant...LOL...oh well


If you would like some pics of mine, send me an email or PM...
Ouijaboid@usa.com

at that price you kinda wasted the money. i just built one that holds 12 6qt tubs and 8 41 qt tubs for 109.45+ $45 for flexwatt.

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showthread.php?t=86423

No I dont believe I wasted any money at all on this one...Yours looks like it came out nice, but I wonder if yours will show some sagging in time?

by time that 3/4 melamine starts sagging. hell have moved on to a different hobby haha. the melamine it self is really strong, alot stronger than the wood it self so i dont think hell have any worries. another thing they do make melamine strips that you can glue on to the sides of each sheet to make it where it looks like it was never cut.

If you wanna talk about saving money i have spent upwords of 5 or 6 bills on my cage. But its a vision cage

i wont have any sagging as the shelves are screwed with l brackets to the back of the 2x4s. this rack is sturdy and takes 2 guys to move it

And i will never move onto a diff hobby. im trying to breed snakes as a second type job on the side.

Im hoping this will work....8)

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The pics work fine, but just so you know for the future, if you want the image to appear in the post, use the IMG code from photobucket. Nice rack.

Looks nice, I am building a 41q 6 rack next

Thanks for your patience with this picture deal..lets try this...

http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/t...Picture053.jpg

http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/t...Picture054.jpg

http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/t...Picture055.jpg

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Inside of the rack looking out towards the front...Tubs fit nice and snug
http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/t...Picture057.jpg
Home depot bar code for those precut melamine pieces...
http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/t...Picture058.jpg

http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/t...Picture059.jpg

Im gonna work on it more this weekend...11" flexwatt for belly heat, also planning on closing in the sides and back with 1/4" luan, and 4 caster wheels, so I wont need a team of people to help me move it...

Looks very nice! Looks like you bought it straight from IKEA or something. Nice modification to make it more affordable.

Dude I love this design, I'm building one Tomorrow! This rack is worthy of my first post :D

hehe cool man....Im gonna try to get some step by step instructions on here, because unlike matts rack, I used melamine and there is a trick to the whole thing to put it together..trust me...LOL...Ill pm you my number, feel free to give me a call, its alot easier to explain via phone...especially if you're putting it together tomorrow.....

I've just finished my new rack... well, it still needs flex watt and some minor finishing touches, but it’s mostly done. I did it slightly different that George and did 2/32 quart shelves and 3/41 quart shelves. Here are some pics...
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...eat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...eat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...eat=directlink

Thanks to Geroge's advice, It took me about 3 hours to build. :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gandalfdagrey

I've just finished my new rack... well, it still needs flex watt and some minor finishing touches, but it’s mostly done. I did it slightly different that George and did 2/32 quart shelves and 3/41 quart shelves. Here are some pics...
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...eat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...eat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...eat=directlink

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I like how you did that... very cool

Looking good man....great job!!

8)

Well its done, working on it alittle at a time here and there. I decided to close up the sides and I used pegboard that has a "steel" paint color to it...Came from the store like that..I also redid the 4 vertical side pieces (had them in 3 inches from the end to start) I just moved them to the actual corners of the rack...Its running 11" flexwatt belly heat and is holding temps real nice...Ill add the tubs and snakes in tomorrow....Let me know what you think...





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very nice setup, i really like the siding. where were you able to find the really low sterilites?

They are standard 41QT sterilites...Here in NC they are everywhere (walmart, target, even some grocery stores) they are about $6.50 a piece