I have to admit I have read and loved your Articles on the T-8 and Animal Plastics in general.

The main thing I would like to do is change the doors and build it with a heat panel on the top center line to help keep ambient temperatures in line. Being in Texas and and person who likes his AC this is a must as I don't think I will have the ability to have a dedicated reptile room for at least the next 6 to 8 months. I have never really liked sliding doors and while I have not seen any good pictures of their swing doors they don't seem to be very secure or sturdy from the limited pictures I can find so was planning on doing my own swing doors.

Another factor in all this is I do have access to a full shop so I have all the tools and most of the hardware ( glass, appropriate screws,nuts, bolts, ect) to build it myself for hopefully cheaper. I was really wanting to stick with the 1/2" thickness as to keep it sturdy enough to stack a second one on similar to how the AP enclosures can be stacked. While I understand the use behind the racks I just would rather lean more towards giving all my snakes a bit more room and have my eventual snake room look more like a home for them than a warehouse for me so aside from one or two eventual hatchling racks I plan on using full enclosures for all my snakes ( luckily I only have one at the moment and not planning on increasing that number too fast). So using full size enclosures I need to make the most of the space I have and stack them at least 2 high.

But again if it comes down to costing about the same as a complete T-8 setup ( actually already had your suggested setup as my price point thanks to your thread) then I will just end up buying a T-8 or T-10 from AP and doing the conversion work on it.