I have purchased everything I need to build my sideways rack so far. I need to run by HD tomorrow to get some more screws and aluminum tape, but other then that, I am ready to go. My heat tape gets here tomorrow and I will be wiring that up

Here is my progress so far. I will be updating this as I get more and more done and maybe when I am done I will write up a whole How-to if anyone else wants to give it a shot.

This is my first ever rack build so bear with me

My main goals for this rack were to be economical with materials and for it to look like a piece of furniture rather than a snake rack. To do this I did a number of things. I found pre-finished black shelving that I am using to build my rack. Because the HD by me did not have the right size, I had to fudge it and buy a shelf that was a few inches smaller and then I cut 3 inch strips to glue to the backside. This worked pretty well and will be sturdy once I screw them into the sides. My only problem with this method is that the sides are not flush with the shelves, they will be overhanging by about 3 inches. Which I suppose isn't that big of a deal.

SUPPLIES!!
For those who haven't seen it, here is my shopping list:
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showthread.php?t=90125

The only difference is the wood material that I bought and the combination of tubs. I instead purchased the following:
(3) 48"x12"
(7) 24"x12"
(2) Mens shoebox tubs
(5) Boot Box tubs

Here are pictures of some of the materials and tools:











PROCESS!!

The first thing I did was fix the depth of the shelves. All I did was glue on some 3 inch pieces to the ends of the 12 inch shelves.

Tada! 15" shelves

Then I soldered the holes in my tubs (this took like an hour and it felt like a really long time). I made myself little template so the holes were evenly spaced.



Then I prepped my extension cords so I could solder the connections to my flexwatt which will be arriving tomorrow 4/30. There were like 5 tags on each of the extension cords, I don't know why they need so many..




For tomorrow I am going to (hopefully) solder all the flexwatt and possibly drill all of the shelves into place. Then I will be fastening the handles to the tubs and lastly I will be making a drawer for the bottom of the rack. Then my rack should be complete and I will be ready to move my crappy collection (2) of snakes in to their new snake condo!