Im planning on building a rack for my adult ball pythons. My question is if im going to use back heat do I need to have a solid floor for the tubs to sit on. Im planning on using 3/4" MDF and leaving the lids on the five tubs at all times. I want to try and keep the weight and material costs down. I was planning on running 3" runners down the sides to support the tubs. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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Building first reptile rack
dajman
Jul 20, 2008 12:29 AM
Replies (4)
Chris_Harper2
Jul 20, 2008 07:26 AM
Do you mean your rack will look like this with open sides?
If so, I would not use 3" strips of MDF for the vertical supports. It might work but I'm not sure I'd want to try it. Strips of plywood would be much better. Avoid 1x4's or any sort of solid wood due to the expansion and contraction.
MDF should work for the shelves.
Also, this design does not work well with back heat as there is a lot less mass for the heat tape to come in contact with which makes the heat tape less efficient.
Also, I do recommend wrapping this style of rack with Reflectix insulation but that adds as much cost as making it with full sides and back. But it's a lot lighter.
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Currently keeping:
6.10 Gonyosoma oxycephala (Javan, mixed colors)
1.1 Philodryas baroni
1.0 Rhodesian Ridgeback
dajman
Jul 20, 2008 01:35 PM
I think i did a bad job of explaining my idea. The top, bottom and sides and back would be solid and only the shelves would be the 3" strips to hold up the tubs.
Chris_Harper2
Jul 20, 2008 09:27 PM
Okay, that makes sense.
Is there a reason you want to use this design and keep the lids on the boxes? I have heard from several people who have built racks this way and they have regretted not building lidless. Of course there are probably several more who have not had any complaints but you never hear from them.
My thoughts are you could build a lidless rack with solid shelves and narrow strips for the sides and use about the same amount of material and have the advantage of a lidless rack.
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Currently keeping:
6.10 Gonyosoma oxycephala (Javan, mixed colors)
1.1 Philodryas baroni
1.0 Rhodesian Ridgeback
dajman
Jul 20, 2008 05:16 PM
No. The sides would be solid and the shelves that ran from front to back would be open in the center.
