fire safe homemade rack??

[brittani72]

I believe that he means that once the tubs are in there they are the weakest link that if you were to have a short from the flex watt the plastic would go.

I will say that I am just starting out keeping multiple snakes. And I have made my own rack which I did not spend much on. I used wood I had here and most that was spent was for the flex watt and the thermostat. I am working on another to hold 28qt since my little ones are getting bigger the thing with the flex watt is you want to put foil tape down and then put the flex watt on top it does two things. 1. It keeps the tape directly off the wood. 2. It projects the heat upward so that the heat is not wasted.

That being said as long as your flex watt is properly wired and connected to a thermostat there is about as much chance of it catching fire as your fridge or computer or any other electronics in your house. Can it happen? Yes any of those things I said could start a fire that's why you need to make sure that you check on anything that you think is out of the normal and have your smoke detectors in place just like you would if you didn't have the snakes.

I hope this helps and does not come across as anything else but trying to help.

what kind of wood did you use??

[brittani72]

Britt. You said that you only wanted to use this because you were worried about the heat tape directlly on the wood. Flexwatt itself doesnt get hot enough to start a fire. Paper catches fire at around 420 degrees or higher. Wood catches fire hotter then that. There is no way flexwatt can get that hot. You have nothing to worry about in that regard. Electrical malfunctions cause most fires.

awesome thanks!! so this being true what are the benefits of using melamine over particle board?? As of right now, I don't plan on using melamine if the only benefit of it vs regular particle board is that it's more fire resistant. It seems to me that if the flexwatt cannot catch the rack on fire, then it doesn't really matter whether the rack is flammable or not because if a fire were to start from a loose connection or something then fireproof rack or not my snakes would die.

I am sorry I did not see this before as I see now that so many of you were trying to tell me this. (when you were mentioning melting tubs I thought you meant from the flexwatt getting too hot) When looking at racks I kept coming across the fire resistant issue such as use melamine it's fire resistant, or use metal, or whatever. This is why I automatically assumed that the flexwatt could catch the rack on fire and a fire resistant rack was necessary to prevent this. Wow I feel like an idiot this whole post could've been avoided if I wasn't under the impression that the heat from flexwatt could catch my rack on fire.

So one more time why melamine??

[snake lab]

awesome thanks!! so this being true what are the benefits of using melamine over particle board?? As of right now, I don't plan on using melamine if the only benefit of it vs regular particle board is that it's more fire resistant. It seems to me that if the flexwatt cannot catch the rack on fire, then it doesn't really matter whether the rack is flammable or not because if a fire were to start from a loose connection or something then fireproof rack or not my snakes would die.

I am sorry I did not see this before as I see now that so many of you were trying to tell me this. (when you were mentioning melting tubs I thought you meant from the flexwatt getting too hot) When looking at racks I kept coming across the fire resistant issue such as use melamine it's fire resistant, or use metal, or whatever. This is why I automatically assumed that the flexwatt could catch the rack on fire and a fire resistant rack was necessary to prevent this. Wow I feel like an idiot this whole post could've been avoided if I wasn't under the impression that the heat from flexwatt could catch my rack on fire.

So one more time why melamine??

No need to feel like an idiot. This is why questions were invented lol. The reason melamine is the standard use of wood based racks is because its coated. It is a synthetic polymer coating that is fire resistant and tolerates heat. The benefit is that as humidity builds in your rack from the tubs it doesnt allow the humidity to affect the wood. It does hold up well but you have to be careful when screwing it together. But once you get it built it is solid. Its 3/4 inch and very sturdy. And its cheaper then buying a rack. The down side on melamine is it is very heavy so i advise caster wheels on the bottom so it can be moved around. Now you can find some pretty affordable racks out there too. I personally like vision racks. I also have freedom breeders but i got a good deal on them thats why i bought em. I do still have a couple melamine racks that ive had for years and they are still holdin up good. Depending on how many snakes you have and how many you plan to have its a good idea to have a rack big enough to handle what you plan on working with long term. The biggest most important part of your rack for sure is a good thermostat. I like helix myself but i also use johnsons on some of my racks.

[mattb]

what kind of wood did you use??

I am using 3/8 good one side plywood and 2x2 for my shelves and then 1/2 in good one side for the sides and back. The first rack I built that I am using right now is just parts from old cabinets that I had.

[PitOnTheProwl]

I realize that I cannot make a 100% fire proof rack, I was just trying to build a rack that is as equally fire safe as a professionally built rack.

I am not trying to be the southern end of a north bound donkey BUT............... I see you keep posting this and really there is no difference. Look wise yes but that is it and I have seen many home builts posted here that look way better.

[jbean7916]

why?

The particle board will soak up the water from the humidity in the air.It will warp, it will sag and your tubs will no longer fit correctly.

sent from my EVO

[coldbloodaddict]

The other problem I have with wood is you can't really disinfect it...I clean the insides (especially the ceiling) of my plastic racks with disinfectant when I clean tubs...

[HighVoltageRoyals]

The other problem I have with wood is you can't really disinfect it...I clean the insides (especially the ceiling) of my plastic racks with disinfectant when I clean tubs...

That's very true. Anything not "sealed" with a lineaments of some kind like melamine is would prove problematic to keep clean I would think, especially if you're not using lids on your tubs.