New Rack

[elusivereptiles]

So I just built a new rack, and thouht I would share my building plans with everyone.

Everything here can be bought at Lowes (minus heat tape and thermostat)

Materials:

8 - 1/2inx20Wx48L sanded pine boards
4 - 8ft 2x4's
2 - 1/4inx24Wx48L sanded pine boards

1/4 inch wood screws
1/2 inch wood screws
2 1/2 inch wood screws
24 metal "L" brackets - 3 inch variety

4 - 65qt. Rubbermaid tubs 43x19.5x6.7
4 - 31qt. Rubbermaid tubs 24x16.5x6.3

Tools Needed:

Circular or Table saw
Drill - with a variety of drill bits
measuring tape
chalk line

First things first. Lets make all of our cuts, so that we don't have to keep coming back to make the next one each time.

Lets start with 2x4's:

4 - cut 52 1/2 inches
8 - cut 19 7/8 inches

And we also need to cut the 2 - 1/4inchx24x48 sanded pine boards down as well. All you need to do to those is take 8 inches off the 48" end of both of them (i'll explain this last).

ALWAYS REMEMBER TO PRE-DRILL YOUR HOLES!!!

Now that we've made our cuts take the smaller 8 2x4's and screw them into the top and bottom (on both sides and making sure they are flush on the edges) on 2 of our 1/2 inchx20x48 sanded pine board using your 2 1/2 inch wood screws.

Next take the longer 4 2x4s and screw them onto the outside of the top and bottom (on both sides making sure that they are flush on the edges) into the smaller 2x4's.

Next grab 1 of the 1/2 inchx20x48 sanded pine board and lay it on the inside of our new semi-shelf looking thing. It should sit flush against the edges and be held up by the inner 2 smaller 2x4's. Screw it down to the 2x4's using your 2 1/2 inch wood screws. Now we have a bottom shelf... HURRAY!

Now the easy part comes. take one of the rubbermaid 65qt. tubs and sit it on the shelf. I know the shelf is just a little big, but better safe than sorry I always say. Now take your measuring tape and measure how tall that tub is sitting on your shelf. It should be 6 3/16ths. Next mark that measurement on each side of the shelving walls and pop a line crossing each side with your chalk line.

Now take 4 of your metal "L" brackets and flush them up to the edge on 1 of your 1/2 inchx20x48 sanded pine boards. Put one of them at each corner on the board. Once you have that done you are ready to put that shelf in. You now want to flush the top of the metal "L" bracket to the line you popped (NOT THE TOP OF THE BOARD). All you have to do now is screw that into the side through the metal "L" bracket using your 1/4 inch wood screws. Use your tub for support while doing this so you don't have to find help.

Basically at this point you just wash rinse and repeat until you have all your shelves in. And make sure you remeasure your 31qt. tubs for the top 2 shelves because they are a little taller than the 65qt. tubs.

Ok so now we have all our shelves in. Now it's time to put the back on your new rack. That is what the 2 1/4 inchx24x48 sanded pine boards are for. We cut them down in the beginning and the reason why is so that they would fit between the 2x4's screwed to the outside of the top and bottom of the shelves. You also need to apply a heat source to them. So lets put some flexwatt on them. Just add the correct amount of flexwatt to the outter most edge of both of them. Wire the flexwatt however you prefer, but make sure you got cord long enough to reach your thermostat. Tape that down with 2" industrial foil tape. Now that you have that done you are ready to put the back on. Just flush that to the bottom (should be a small gap at the top so that you can get your cords through) screw that into the top and bottom shelves using 4 of your 1/2 inch wood screws per board (put 1 in each corner).

Now your new rack is complete. You have heat on both the left and right back sides with a decent space in the middle with no heat to help with ambient temps. This provides you with 4 adult tubs, and 4 yearling / sub-adult tubs. All the tubs sit in sideways and all have sufficient heat and you should have no problems with humidity.


Sorry I don't have pics for all this guys and gals, but my camera is on the fritz right now.

Thanks for looking, and hope everyone enjoys.

Matt

[AVALover5498]

Thanx for the great writeup! I hope you get your camera all fixed, can't wait to see what this looks like.

-Chris-

[elusivereptiles]

Here are some pictures of the exact same rack, only with a modified base, and not as many shelves, because I wanted a "work bench" area, which is now taken up by a 20gL. And also on this rack, I didn't use heat tape, I used heat cable that I ran verticle and just taped over with 2" Industrial foil tape.

[Gloryhound]

Looking good! Did you finish the pine in any way shape or form? If you didn't you may want to think about it as that pine will suck the humidity out of the tubs and cause it to eventually warp. Also I know pine is not a good substrate for ball pythons, I wonder if a pine roof over their heads could have any similar affects?

[elusivereptiles]

So far I haven't had any problems. They still eat on schedule, and the ones that have shed have full shed. Only time will tell.