Custom Racking Questions

[QuidsBalls]

Hey guys
I have recently found some time on my hands so I have taken it upon myself to finally make myself a Racking system to house my 7 Ball Pythons, Plus I would like to have some extra tubs empty for future collection expansion.

I like to do things right the first time around, and use as little materials and money as possible, to save money for expanding my collection

I currently have eight 34 Qt. Sterilite tubs (With latches) found at wal-mart. These seem to be a good size for my current snakes, all being under 800 Grams

My first question - Should I upgrade to the 41 Qt Sterilite tub, also found at wal-mart, for Adults at 1,600+ Grams?
Or will the 34 Qt. Tubs be fine for adults?
If the 34 Qt. tubs are suitable for adults then I will be making these my primary tubs for my racks, If not then I will make a rack with these 34 Qt tubs and use it in for now, and make another rack in the future for adults, and use this rack as a Quarantine rack

Second Question - I am not very good at working with wood, I am planning on taking measurements from the tubs I am using and getting shelves pre-cut somewhere, and then stacking the tubs/shelves accordingly, then using some 1x6's or something similar to hold it all together, I want the tubs to be in the shelving nice and tight.. Anyone have suggestions on the types of material i should be using or where to get them (I live in the GTA in Ontario)

Third Question - I am planning on buying a VE-300 x2 Thermostat.. Would it be safe and efficient if I had approx 16 Lengths of Flexwatt, each one of them wired separately into a power bar, each of them approx 5 feet in length?
16 Lengths is for the future, if I add a second rack with another 8 shelves.
I figure 16x5 = 80 Feet of Flexwatt and is approx 800 Watts if I am using 10W flexwatt.. The Maximum the thermostat is capable of handling is 900W
If this will not work, how can I make it work?

Honestly I will probably have more questions in the future about this home made rack, I'll keep them all on this thread

Thanks guys

[kitedemon]

I might think on a design that will hold both. I think it may be possible the 32s are about 1/2 the size of the 41s. Double check but I think two 32 side by side and about the same width as the 41 sideways. Might work if the sizes jive.

Personally I would look at PVCx I believe proveer is in GTA they are great. They will cut it to size and it is easily screwed. Melamine too it is just really heavy.

Yes to the t-stat but I would look at the herpstat especially as it is a fair bit cheaper than the VEs in Canada and have more safety features. I have bought a number from spyder robotics direct, the shipping is fair and I have only paid tax no duty or handling.

One other point if you are planning on breeding professionally (legally selling) you may want to rethink the flexwatt. It is very very expensive as legally in a commercial venture it needs to be wired by an electrician. You can buy heat cable and it will work just as well it is pre wired and csa or ul approved and legal. It can be plugged into a bar but a custom wired cable with outlets every 6 inches or so might be easier.

[QuidsBalls]

So, just to be clear, Flexwatt tape is Legal, however it must be installed by a qualified electrician?

Just asking, as I have never read anything about it being illegal, probably because most of the sites I go to are american, haha

[kitedemon]

If you are a registered company. When you are a company and it is a company asset you are required to have any and all electrical installations inspected at least by an electrician. If it is home use you can do it your self just not commercial. The penalty is quite high, criminal negligence... jail possibly, it is a result of Westray mine accident. You are personally responsible if there is a fire no insurance you alone and if anyone is hurt it gets worse.

[QuidsBalls]

Ah, good to know

Well since this is all happening in my basement, I won't have to worry about anything like that
but
any extra safety measures I should be taking while I am using the flexwatt?

Since I will be making my own racks, I am looking for the easiest, and least expensive way to make the rack safe
I have read that lifting the racks up a little so there is air circulation between the flexwatt and the tub can make it a little more safe, increase the life of the tub as well as the tape, how would you suggest lifting it? or maybe there is another way of making the tape safer to use?

[kitedemon]

Don't need to the tubs have moulded feet. I would suggest either a herpstat with the over and under relay enabled or a tstat and a fail safe. I might put a failsafe on the herpstat but I don't think it is really required. On any other I personally do not see it as optional. The new generation of herpstats effectively have it built in.

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[SaintTawny]

I recently built a 7-high rack for 41qt tubs and including pre-wired heat tape, 3 sheets of pre-cut melamine, 7 tubs and the foil tape to cover the flexwatt, it cost me around $250. I borrowed a power drill from my boss and assembled it by myself in about 2 hours. I bought my tubs, measured HxLxW at the widest point of the tub and added a little to each for some wiggle room, drew the dimensions for each piece (8 shelves, 2 sides, 1 back) and played around with how they would fit on a 4'x8' sheet of melamine. There was a fair bit of scrap left over, but in the end I decided on 3 sheets of melamine, two cut identically with 1 side and 3 shelves each and one for the back and the other 2 shelves. The one thing that was not immediately apparent but I realized before I had the sheets cut was that the back piece needs to be as wide as the shelves, plus the thickness of the two sides so that it will be wide enough to be screwed into the sides. There was room on the third sheet for 2 extra shelves and I had the guy cut those for me in case I make another one later. I also ordered 6 feet of 11" flexwatt from RBI, and they kindly wired it all in 7x 10" pieces in parallel with 9 inches of lead cord between. They were very helpful in figuring out exactly what I would need to order to heat my particular rack, so if you end up working with different dimensions, shoot them an email.

To assemble the rack, I lay the back piece on the floor up against the frame of the closet to use as a flat working surface, and stood one side up on the back against the wall. I put down the first shelf, put a CD under each corner of the first tub on top of the first shelf, and one in the middle on each side, then lay the second shelf on top of the tub. Then I propped the second side piece up on the back piece against the two shelves to make a right angle, and I propped it in place while I pre-drilled my holes with a heavy pillar thing I found around the house. I left the first shelf unscrewed, pre-drilling and screwing the second shelf first, then I set the CDs and tub on top of that second shelf to place and screw in the third shelf, and so on until I had all but the first shelf in place. After the second and third shelves are screwed in, it becomes pretty easy because everything is fixed at the angle and position you've created. I saved the first shelf for last because having the second and third shelf in position first made more sense to me for stability.

Once all the shelves were on I drilled a divet into the back of each shelf for the power cords to run from one shelf to the next all the way up, I taped down the flexwatt with the foil tape, and I taped the cords into their slots so they wouldn't move and get pinched once I screwed on the back, which I did by turning the rack onto its front and putting a screw at each corner and one in the middle of each side.

There are definitely more professional ways to do this, and the second rack I built out of melamine I enlisted the boyfriend's help holding things, but the rack I built by myself is perfectly sturdy, no wobbling or wiggling. I decided I wanted more space than the CDs allowed so I found some cardboard that was a little thicker than the CDs and used that for spacing after the first shelf, and for the boyfriend's rack he wanted them even tighter than my first shelf, so we just dropped the tubs onto the shelves without spacers. I could see this being a problem with a large tub because of the inevitable sagging, but with his tiny 12qts it's a nice snug fit.

If you're interested, I can post some of the links and videos I checked out before I built my rack, and I can get the exact dimensions I used for my sterilite 41qt tubs later today. That rack now houses all 5 of my ball pythons, ranging from 150g to 1400g, I just have extra hides in for the little guys, and it's nice to know I won't have an extra rack laying around empty when my babies all grow up.

[QuidsBalls]

I love the helpful posts
Also, I'd love it if you posted some of the video's you watched before assembling your rack


After doing a lot of thinking, planning and researching today, I am still not 100% sure what thermostat will work best for me
I will be making 2 separate racks, in the end I will have 18 Feet of 11" (20W) Flexwatt in each rack, making the total wattage 720W, so the thermostat I choose must be able to handle this.
In case anyone wants to check my math
18 Feet Per Rack, 2 Racks
36 Feet of Flexwatt
36 x 20W = 720W.

Actually I won't be using the full 18" of flexwatt, it will be more like 16 but for simplicity I am doing the math using 18"

Anyways, If someone could suggest a thermostat I would love that!
Price range, Anything under $200, and does NOT NEED to have any settings for dipping temperature at night (For Breeding), but it could come in handy.

I have decided I am going to use the 8 tubs that I have already purchased, plus I am going to buy another 4 more.

Each Rack I am planning on having 7 shelves in total made, each one measuring 28x18
Also I am going to have 2 side panels put in measuring 48x28.
I am not going to have a back panel made to fit, as to make it easier to fit in the Flexwatt. However I will be asking for 48" pieces cut out for me if there is any wood left over after getting the shelves/sides cut out.
Oh, the reason I am getting 7 made is so that the bottom is covered and is laying on the floor, and so that the top is done and I have a shelf to keep paper towel, newspaper, extra water bowls etc.

Any idea's on what kind of wood I should use? or should NOT use?
I will be buying from Home Depot, So far I have only looked online for what they have available. I am leaning towards the 3/8 Sanded pine plywood.

In Short:

What type of thermostat for under $200, being used for 2 Racks at 720W ?
What type of wood should I use?

[kitedemon]

Why treat the racks as one? I would use a dual probe tstat. Racks vary in temp up and down typically anyway I would not add complication of rack a and b it is too difficult to make sure everything is exactly the same. If you have a single poor connection the temps on the rest of the string will be off. I personally would probe the middle of each rack and set each independently. A single run of 11" flexwatt should not be longer than 25 feet, or 24 panels. I would also not use the 20w 11 if anything goes wrong it generates a huge amount of heat. most racks I have seen and my personal one all use 4 inch it also allows a max run of 60 feet.


Personally I would highly recommend the herpstat 2 (195) it has dual probes and a relay (500w per probe) . The VE 300x2 is 265$ (canadian supplier the manufacturer does not ship to Canada) it has the same power specs.

Many use melamine, I think it is ok, I am not a huge fan myself. I would suggest sealing any exposed edges as formaldehyde is used in the composition of the core and it off gasses. What the long term health effects are unknown. I would still lean to PVCx as it is easier to clean and in my experience racks are difficult to clean anyway. There are a lot of surfaces, 10 per snake. PVCx also is a fire retardant... Most softwoods are fine but need to be sealed and same for most plywood again it needs to be sealed. I would not use MDF. Depending of the design I would look at 3/8 baltic birch ply it is no more expensive and massively better quality (robert bury if there is one by you...)

[QuidsBalls]

ah yes now I see my flaw, thank you for pointing that out!
actually there will only be a total of 18'
When I did my math is multiplied my total amount by 2 twice
each shelf is 18" which is only 9' per rack.
I should be safe with 18' between 2 probes and 1 thermostat

If I choose the 4" flexwatt, how should I change the wiring to accommodate for 2 rows of flexwatt per shelf?
I am planning on having each shelf on their own wire, being connected to a power bar. The power bar would be connected to the thermostat.
This way if I am not using a shelf I can just unplug it. (unless my probe is on it, haha)

I have seen the VE-300 x2 pretty often in Canada, I can buy one easily at my pet store, so it looks like I will be going with this.

As for PVCx I love the look of it and I like the comfort of how safe it is to use with my Balls, however I don't know how to work with it, or even where to get it from.. Having a look at the home depot site, I can't find it in their store but they might have it on location
I'll be looking up some how-to video's for working with PVCx, and looking for somewhere to buy it too

Thanks