Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok I'm sure this has been posted before but I have a awful time trying to do a search on here. Does anyone know of a site to build your own rack system with heat tape?

Also any opinions on heat tape? I'm not handy and don't want to set my house on fire. Thanks in advance to any who respond

Ronnie

reptile basics is pretty cheap and the racks come with heat tape.
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www.Bluerosy.com

One thing I will say though, and that is make SURE you research this VERY well first!. I fully agree with you in that any small nominal amount of money saved is certainly not worth burning your house down over..LOL!

This wouldn't be the first time this very thing has happened. I've heard many horrible stories recarding this very thing.

Good luck with your investigating into a good affordable rack system, there are many different ways to do this.

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

DMong saying I'm not handy is an understatement and I'm hesitant to do it myself. The problem is the racks I've seen at th show basically run aroudn 250 without the thermastat. It's a small price to pay for piece of mind but depending on how difficult I may want to attempt myself if I'm saving half.

Rainer thanks I'll look into it

Man, do I hear ya there..LOL!

Very fortunately for me, I am a professional carpenter by trade, and have been in the building trade since 1977, so building these types of projects comes quite easy for me. It's all really about priorities, and about a combination of weighing the cost of material, time spent, tools needed, mess made, and convenience when considering stuff like this, and of course, ability to do things like this. Sometimes things just aren't worth building yourself when all this is considered, even if one is very capable and could build an entire house or anything else for that matter, yet many times it can be WELL worth it.It really depends on many different factors to the individual, as everyone has many different situations going on in their lives.

I wish I would have just went ahead and bought a few good rack systems at the expo in 2007 when I had the huge coin,.....now I could kick myself square in the rumpus for not doing so..LOL!....oh well!, can't win'em all..hahaha!

Good luck with whatever way you choose to consider here.

best regards, ~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

I had a housefire once because I tried to cheap out on heating...never again. Lost a wonderful African bullfrog and the tegu whose cage burned. Did damage to a 6' vision that made it unusable too (the vision was right over the cage that start fire and began to get runny). Not to mention the carpet, damage to the walls, and the sheer scare of waking up to the fire alarm and being unable to breath.

Wow!, sorry to hear about that. What a nasty way to learn a valuable lesson.

I'm sure later on you thought about the fact that the scenario could have even been even WAY worse than it was(and more deadly), and that was certainly bad enough.

Something very similar happened to a guy with a truly rare albino Scarlet king(L.t.elapsoides) a good while back. Since then, there are one, MAYBE two known to exist.

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

Right here at Kingsnake.com there is a Cage and Habitat Design forum. Look under the General Topics A-G
I used to be quite a regular there, I’ve posted a bunch of build posts.
Racks are very simple and with a little digging you can get all the info you would need to wire heat tape, thermostats and much more yourself. Once you get the hang of it, you can post a build post of your own, too.
A lot of times these things do end up costing more in the end, but you can build a little at a time so it’s like making payments, or at least you get something exact to your liking. There is some satisfaction doing it yourself that, for some, has value too. Like hatching your own versus buying a hatchling. Same thing, but one is a little more special.

Cage and Habitat Design

If you're not handy, don't waste the time. I did try once and it was an unmitigated disaster So now I'm waiting on the rack I should have ordered from the start! Not to mention, that after getting all the lumber and heating stuff it was like 80 or 90 bucks already. And of course it went to waste :-/

i am sure it is a great feeling to build it yourself,,,,but the worries of maybe making a mistake and not knowing are scary,,,
i am not handy at all,,i mean i can MacGyver many things, but heat tape i would not,,,look at the cost/time and compare to sites,,,all the rack builders have come up with so mant options,,,i love my animal pastics rack,,and i know reptile basics makes great ones also,,i use their cages
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Ball Python
Jungle Carpet Python 1.0
Eastern King 0.1
Mexican Black King
Great Basin Gopher
Hypo Brooks 1.0
White Sided Bull 1.0 (Envy)
Striped Pacific Gopher (Envy)
Axanthic Brooksi 0.1 (Mark Kenderdine)
Goini King 1.0 (Mark Kenderdine)
Northern Pine 1.0 (Nick Puder)
Arizona Mtn. King 1.0 (AAM Snakes)
1.0 Pastel Red Tail Boa

I love the smell of aspen shavings in the morning...lol

"To serve man..it's...it's a cookbook!"