Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My husband and I are looking into building (or buying) a good rack system. I am thinking we will end up building since we have tons of resources and no money! LOL If you can referr me to an affordable rack system, please let me know, if not... maybe you can help me with some building info.

Here are some factors that might help you in some way to help me. Please make any comments and/or suggestions as you would like.

We live in SE Michigan
For Ball Pythons only
Plan is to use flexwatt and a reliable thermostat
About 10 adult tubs (suggest 5h 2w or just 10tall?)

I know there is more I just can't get my brain working today LOL. Let me know if there is anything else that could help.

Chris H. I know you have helped me numerious times when it comes to cage building, I gave up on cages now that I am back into this full force with a husband who is as addicted to herps (and animals of all natures) as I am, we filled a room and you can only have so many 4' long enclosures in a trailer before you run out of space! LOL (not to mention the rats, dwarf hamsters, fish, dogs, etc... LOL)

THANKS!!!
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"Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are." - Kurt Cobain

"You laugh at me because I am different; I laugh at you because you are all the same."

~~ Krystal ~~

Hi Krystal,

Good to hear from you again and congrats on getting married. I also married since we last exchanged posts.

First, I recommend the CB-70 box from Iris. That should be very easy to track down in SE Michigan as the guys from Reptiletubs.com do a lot of shows in that area.

For larger boxes like you'll use in a BP rack I really like to use hollow core doors for building racks. Here is a picture of one I built for the Iris CB-80 tub.

In my case I was able to get away without cutting the door blanks as my snake room is in my garage. If I had to move this rack through multipe doors, up and down stairs, etc., I'd have built had to cut down the doors. That is totally doable but does take more steps than building a typical melamine rack.

If you do use HC door blanks I recommend you get decent quality ones. I have used a couple of different types. The ones I liked best had a frame made of finger-jointed pine. The doors with a MDF frame were not nearly as good.

What I like about the HC door blanks:

1) Waste a lot less material compared to melamine. At least when building a rack around larger boxes like you'll use.

2) If you're patient you can find scratch and dent doors for about $10. Even at full price they are cheap.

3) Very light.

4) The air space in HC doors offers a surprising amount of insulative effect.

Regarding what sized rack to build, that really depends on where you are living or where my MIGHT be living. A rack that holds two CB-70's per level will be quite large. But there are some plans for such a rack, albeit with smaller boxes, at RioBravoReptiles.com.

If you use HC doors to make a rack that is only a single tub wide that will make for a lot of cutting, but it can be done.

Another idea is to make a rack that can be disassembled. That way you can build some side and back panels with dados or cleats that the doors fit into. Just unscrew everything when you need to move the rack. Just leave the doors uncut.

For the CB-70 box you should probably buy 32" door blanks and then put a trim piece of the edge of each door to bring them up to the size of the CB-70 - about 33".

>>For Ball Pythons only
>>Plan is to use flexwatt and a reliable thermostat
>>About 10 adult tubs (suggest 5h 2w or just 10tall?)

Thanks! I can always count on you, you always give me detailed information in incredible time! LOL

If you have any other info on different materials also, please let me know.

We do live in a small 3 bedroom trailer now, we haven't decided yet where we are going from here, but either way, we will be moving in the next couple years and this will come with us, and it's a little hard to get much through our narrow halls/doorways, so I would LOVE it if it were easy to disassemble. We were thinking sealed ply just because we could get it for practically nothing, not sure about the HC doors, I'll have to see if we can get our hands on some for cheap. Malamine is pretty much out because of the weight and I just hate looking at it frankly LOL. I wish I could afford a nice plastic rack, but the prices are insane for our budget (or lack there of) and I don't even want to try to make one!

Congrats on the marriage! When did you get married? We just married Dec. 10th. It's funny, I found an old binder when we were unpacking and I was looking through it and I have probably 30 E-mails from you printed out just so I could go back and absorb your knowledge! LOL Hubby sat down and read nearly the whole binder (full of breeding tips and general care for BPs too, he's fairly new to the herp scene) and I coulden't help but go back and remember all the help you have given me! Just wanted to say thanks again, you're AWESOME!
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"Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are." - Kurt Cobain

"You laugh at me because I am different; I laugh at you because you are all the same."

~~ Krystal ~~

We got married Sept. 3'd.

I don't like the idea of sealed plywood instead of melamine. Melamine is not that much heavier, is flatter/straighter at the same price point, and the melamine coating is nice for racks.

But if you can get it for practically nothing, then it may be worth trying. I have used good quality plywood for racks and it worked okay.

I would still prefer HC door blanks and if you want a rack you can disassemble I think they are the best choice. Especially for big boxes. But I say that assuming you'll have the wall space for a rack that long.

Also, if you build your racks to about 77" high or less you can put casters on them and the weight is not as much of an issue. Just roll them under doors, which I assume are still 80" in a trailer.

Sounds good, I'll ask my friend if her husband can get his hands on some HC doors for me. NOT worried about wall space, I have 5 ball pythons and a kingsnake and there all in 4' enclosures, not stackable! LOL takes up the WHOLE room (can't even open the closet without moving a cage)! Any rack that holds less than 50 med-large animals would take up CONSIDERABLY less room! LOL I've got about 9'x8' to work with here and our doors are 80", but there about an inch and 1/2 off the floor LOL, so the door way is even higher (makes for me having to shove things under the door to keep the herp room heated, sucks).

Thanks again!
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"Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are." - Kurt Cobain

"You laugh at me because I am different; I laugh at you because you are all the same."

~~ Krystal ~~

re: (makes for me having to shove things under the door to keep the herp room heated, sucks).

You could add a piece of wood to the bottom of the snakeroom door to help seal it off?
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Thanks,

Dave "Rainbows-R-Us"

0.1 Wife (WC)
0.2 kids (CBB)
4.12 Brazilian Rainbow Boa
2.1 Hypomelanistic BRB
0.1 Het for Hypomelanistic BRB
0.1 BCI "Elvira" normal from 1989
1.0 BCI albino / het-anery
0.1 BCI Hypo / het-albino
0.1 BCI Anery / het-albino
0.1 BCI Hypo (possible super)
1.0 BCI albino het stripe
1.0 BCI salmon hypo
0.1 BCI ghost

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Hey, LOL Thanks for the idea, we might try that if we're here much longer! LOL Hopefully we can get out of here before it causes too much of a problem.
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"Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are." - Kurt Cobain

"You laugh at me because I am different; I laugh at you because you are all the same."

~~ Krystal ~~