Agreed. Building one is pretty easy with some knowledge of basic tools.

I built this one last month and put it in the bedroom, and I have made some changes to it lately, like straightening up lol. For example, I am now using "nothing" as my substrate since the leos loved to kick the newspaper around (that took about 5 minutes to figure out lol), I also adjusted the temps with a timer and some heat tape (the rope light wasn't giving off enough heat here in WI, you can see in the pic I was still adjusting), and I bought a $10 labeler for the boxes and I label it with who's inside, weight, parents, ect, rather than keeping it on paper. It works pretty well now. I'll post some new pics when I can get some (probably monday).



For building I used melamine (sp?) shelves bought at Menards (Like a home depot or lowes), that were 4 feet long for the main shelves, and one 6 foot piece cut in half for the sizes. I also used a router and cuts grooves for theshelves for more support, but looking back I probably didn't have to. The sterlite boxes I just picked up at Target. I got the heat tape and connectors though beanfarm.com, and just a cheap repti-temp 500 thermostat for $12.99 from LLLReptile. Assembly took about 3 hours, but only should have taken 1-2 if I didn't cut those grooves.

Overall, I'd say it cost about $100 by the time you figure in all of the sterlite boxes, heat tape, thermostat, and shelves. Feel free to e-mail if you have any questions. Sorry if it sounds like I'm all over the place tonight.
-----
Brian Skibinski
Milwaukee Reptiles
Brian@MilwaukeeReptiles.com

[ Show Entire Thread ]