Custom Racking Questions

[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.