I think you could go ten levels tall.

The depth of the Sterilites is less than 23" (I have built several racks around this box, although I don't have any here to double check). If you took a 97" tall sheet of melamine and cut 23" off that would leave you with 74" of sheet which could be ripped in half to make the sides.

Each level ends up being 6.375" to leave room for the box plus the proper gap. 6.375 x 10 equals 63.75" - with me so far?

Then you need 11 horizontal shelves at 3/4" each or 8.25".

63.75" plus 8.25" equals 72" - this would leave you with room for a 2" toe-kick which also acts as an air-space (a good thing).

You could build this rack and have it hold 30 boxes and only use 3.5" sheets. But you'll need to buy 4 sheets, obviously, and only use 3 and a half.

But I do have another recommendation. Don't make a rack that is 50" wide, 23" deep, and 74" tall. It will be heavy, hard to move around corners, may sag and will likely put pressure on the joints. If you do make it that big, I'd suggest looking into hollow-core doors like you can see at RioBravoReptiles.com.

If you want to stick with melamine, I think you need to look closely at different designs and see how efficiently they use material.

I would also consider a design where the 1756 slides in width-wise. That way you can also use the 15 qt. version of the same series and have it slide in length-wise. That way you can mix and match boxes for grow-off, etc. Also, the rack is not as bulky as it is only a bit over 16" deep.

Let me think about this and see if I have any ideas.






>>each shelf will be 2'x4' and 3/4" thick. i think that is the right size to hold three sterilite 1756? sweater boxes. the deminsions are something like 23 1/4" x 16" and hieght i'm not sure of between 7 and 8" i think. with four full sheets i can build my rack. two sheets will be for eight shelves then take one two foot section off the other two sheets. leaving them 6' by 4'. one of those will be cut down the middle for each side. Being that melamine sheet runs an inch larger it makes up for the cuts. also the shelves will actually be a little less than two feet to allow for the back to sit in between the sides. let me know if you have any other suggestions or ideas. the rack should hold 24 to 27 boxes. i'm not sure how many of the shelves will fit. havent done the math yet.

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