Reptile & Amphibian Forums

ok so i want two sets of racks each one having five clear tubs in each and the tubs to only be eh 2'X16" somewhere round there a inbetween type cage from baby rack to adult cage ya know? but problem is i dont have alot of tools and im kinda broke at the moment from recent move and unexpected bills. anybody have any good ideas on either A) very cheap reptile rack dealer or B) how to make a good cheap rack with instructions and without many tools lol

idea, he seems to be the carpenter around here!!

I like AP racks & vision racks, both kinda pricey
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Thanks,

Frank Roberts
Roberts' Realm Of Reptile Research

yeah right now i have the boaphile stack pack of the 3'X2'X1' three boaphile 3'X2'X18" boaphile 30 baby racks and freedom breeders 7 stack thingy lol and a few glass cages for various reptiles and man was that a nice lil pretty penny

Not sure on building with limited tools. The racks need to be built with fairly tight tolerances, so the tubs do not bind and also so the gaps are not too big (and an animal gets away).

I travel a ton for work and time is short, although I have the tools. Thus, I just purchased two 5 slot sideways blanket racks from Boaphile. They take 5 blanket tubs (23x16X6) OR 10 sweater boxes (11x16x6). I can not wait to get these delivered.

The flexibilty these will provide will be very useful. If you build, I would recommend to build it to handle both size tubs. I believe that Dave recently built one and had posted pics.
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Mike

2.4 BRB
1.2 Spotted Python
1.0 Cal. King

Q-room rack

I could walk you through it and you coud even order/purchase precut panels from a cabinet shop?

Gotta run around, be back on later this morning.
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
21.29 BRB
19.19 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

One idea I've had but never followed through on is using a pre-fab melamine closet organizer. I installed them in three of our bedroom closets and the shelves seem to hold two of the smaller sweaterbox tub with lids very nicely!! Not sure if they would fit the double sized blanket boox tub or not. Never wnet forward with the idea for several reasons.

They are designed to be attached to the closet wall for stability.

You'd lose some vertical space to dividers and non optimal shelf spacing. Along with a probable space too short for a tub.

I can design and build my own for optimal usage of space and strong enough to move around.

One of the 10 high racks I built for my closet, each shelf can hold 2 sweaterbox or 1 blanket box tub:

IMO lidless is the way to go, is way easier to tend to. If I were building those 10 high racks now, I'd make them slightly deeper so they could be lidless. They do work fine lidless with the larger sideways box.
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
21.29 BRB
19.19 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

These pictures are both a couple of years old and my designs have changed somewhat since they were taken, but here are the two racks set ups that I build for myself.
The first, I use for rosys and it is a little more detailed and harder to build but for them I needed to have a rack system with an open top for more airflow. I purchased plans for this one from the caging classifieds and just made a few modification for stability and looks.
The second pic is what I call my "Budget Rack" mainly because when I started to build these I wanted something cheap to make and light enough for me to pick up and move around by myself. I use 2x4's for the legs and router 1/2 inch deep grooves for the shelves which are 1/4 inch melamine spaced to fit whatever size tub I am using. I also router the 1 1/2 side of the 2x4's longways at 1/2 inch in to fit in the side panels. I use 1/4 pegboard for the back and can get 2 backs out of one sheet. Everything is then clamped and siliconed together, this minimizes screws and helps with cost and weight too. This size rack used 2 sheets of melamine at about $15 a sheet, 1 sheet of pegboard at $10, 4 2x4's at about $2.30 apiece and I tube of silicone, about $4. This one is for the tubs that are about 16" wide and 24" deep and 6" tall. They are all heated with flexwatt.
It's not the prettiest rack by any means but has proven to be very functional and met my standards of being cheap and light. The main changes that I made to this one is I now build them with wheels and build them to fit nine tubs instead of 8 to minimize the waste on the materials.
Nice looking hypo harley pictured below by the way. My pair bred this year but it doesn't look like she took. I was really hoping for some supers and the outside chance at a patternless.
Milo

Ahhh!! I just typed a huge response, but accidentaly hit a link and now it is gone... I hate that!!

Anyway... I make my racks out of melamine and the only power tools that you need are a drill and a powered hand saw.

Other things you'll need are screws, a T-square, and of course the bins you are making it for. Oh, and all the electric stuff too, when you get to that point, lol. Flexwatt, thermostat, cords, etc.

I base my racks on the methods used on this helpful website:

http://www.arbreptiles.com/cages/rack.shtml

All you have to do is adjust the measurements for the bins you are using. One thing that I don't think is mentioned on that site is using something to lay down on top of the bins to give a little tolerance between bin and melamine. Thickness of this tolerance would depend on the size of snake you plan to keep in there.

I wire my Flexwatt as belly heat rather than back heat shown on the website, and it works great.

I have since built three racks using this method, and it works pretty well. They aren't very pretty, but they hold snakes!

Anyway, hope this helps.
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