Heating/Building a DYI Rack

[martin82531]

So I'm in the process a building a rack, I ordered the tubs today, once they come in I will start building. I have a couple questions, the rack I'm building will using the below tubs (Iris CB70). I plan on doing four on one side and four on another side.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ls_o00_s00_i00

1) What would be the best way to run the flex watt? I'm going for belly heat with the least amount of wires. I have watched some you tube videos and it seem some people daisy chain? Any other ways?
2) I plan on using melamine for the construction, any concerns using this, like warping for example?

[BHReptiles]

You should be able to just do one chain of flexwatt (double check that your length is over the recommended maximum length per chain or else you'll need to wire it twice). I have two chains of about 8ft on my rack (would have done one but I have two species on my rack) and it works fine. Flexwatt should be fine for melamine. However, any wood-type rack will have problems warping due to the humidity. I have a plastic rack and have no warping

[Rat160]

This might help you. This is a rack a buddy and I just built. We used Freedom Breeder tubs but its the same concept. We have used melamine for years and have never had an issue with warping. We only had an issue with sagging when we did 4 tubs wide without a support in the middle. Anyway hope this thread I made will help you with your heat tape question.

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...m-Breeder-Tubs