The TRUTH about melamine racks...

[chromeitout]

I was thinking about building a rack out of melamine that will house ten 15 qt. tubs. Two side by side and five tall. The tubs are 10 3/4" wide x 16 3/4" long, so the shelves would have to be around 21 3/4" x 17". Do you think there would be any chance of warping with this size? And, is there any benefit to keeping the lids on?

Thanks,

Dave

This size is close to the dual 12qt racks I have (shelves are 24"w x 18"d). As I've posted above the lidless rack is beginning to warp a little. I am going to add a vertical divider in the center of each shelf and only use them for the 12qt (no more 28qts) as I have decided that I will not build another rack with a shelf wider than 18" unless it has a support under each shelf. If you build the rack you are speaking of and add the center dividers I don't think you'll ever have a problem. Some may see this as unnecessary, but without more replies, we'll never know. I just know that I'm sick of ANY sag.

I built a new rack today for 28qt's turned the other way (18"w x 24"d), so we'll see how this works out over the next few months.

I hoped to have a more responses to this thread about peoples diy rack configurations, so that we could all have better knowledge of what does and does not work (as I have seen MANY pics on here of warped racks). Maybe, people don't want to admit that their designs could use improvement?? As for me I think it would be highly beneficial to all of us because I hate to see guys (and gals) spend their valuble time and money on building a rack and excitedly post it on here and from my experiences just know from the first look that it's gonna warp (some badly).

Oh, almost forgot about your ? about benefits of using lids... I suppose this is a matter of opinion so you may get different answers, but I can't stand them. When I built my lidded rack (my first rack, and only lidded rack) I only had 8 snakes and didn't even notice the lids were a problem. Now I have around 100 and it just takes too much time to pull the tubs all the way out, sit them on a table, take off the lid, etc., etc., when without them you just pull them out a bit, spot clean, change water, whatever, and slide them back in.