Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok so I have been building a new rack. It is somewhat done. The animals are on it, but the rack needs some painting/finishing up to do. Also have to make the shelves slide in and out. Well here are the pics of it.

The frame, 4 levels 4 bins each in the end

The lights, each bin has a halogen for heat and a compact flouro for light intensity

The electronics, there are 2 timers 2 levels each and 4 dimmers one per level they control the power into the halogens so I can control heat at the turn of a knob.

The blood spilled in construction, I stepped on a screw barefoot silly me

The rack with lights on only 3 levels full I need some new dragons. LOL!!!

A couple of pics of some babies enjoying the new rack

And now onto the tour.

The rack for the 75s that the female breeders live in. NO I don't support flukers the bins are old and are nice for my current gutload and cricket water.

A boa rack that I built.

The torti and a workbench area

The meal/superworm breeding rack, it is still small but will be growing rapidly.

Here is a stray freedom breeder level for snakes and 2 55 gallon tanks. One is empty the other if you look close contains Tarzan the German beardie from Cheri. boy is He spoiled 55 grams and a 55 gallon tank all to himself.

Missing from the pics is the ig and a few matrix racks that house the ball pythons. Hope you all enjoy. think the room is packed enough. Now for a list of the animals that I can remeber.

5.2 Nice 4-5 month old dragons from sandfire stock
6.8 Dragons of various size
0.0.17 normal beardies babies
0.0.1 water dragon
0.1 Sideneck turtle
1.0 mean green tree
1.0 Nosy be Cham
1.1 Russian Tort
0.1 Bell's hinge back tort
1.0 green ig
2.5 Ball pythons
0.4 BCI
0.1 Eyeless BRB
0.0.2 western hog nose snakes

I am crazy. The ones not pictured or mentioned are in the rest of the house because they are pretty or in pretty displays. Oh and the currently empty terrarium that my wife built. Will house poison darts in time.

Hope you all enjoy. The rack was alot of work but made the reptile room alot more organized.

thanks for looking
Derek & Kelly Affonce
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Derek Affonce
DeKeAff Exotics
dekeaffexotics.com

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Derek Affonce
DeKeAff Exotics
dekeaffexotics.com

terrarium looks awesome too.. you guys wanna come over? comon, nice california vacation, sun, beach, ocean, blue skys .....................working on enclosures

i gotta get to building my new melamine stacking enclosures, mattman gave me all the plans, just gotta get to it.. soon.. hoping by the end of october.. i need to build at least 6.. 2 stacks of 3.. im actually looking forward to it.. just need to buy the materials and get started
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reiko
photos

It is nice. Plan it out and Home depot will cut the melamine for you if you don't have a table saw, like us for instance.
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Derek Affonce
DeKeAff Exotics
dekeaffexotics.com

i think i can.. i think? ill be alright, you are right just need to plan it out, they are realy gonna be great when tehy are done.. really looking forward to it.. i think i need to make a trip just to find materials and list them etc.. then go home and plan and then go back and buy.. if i just go and get the stuff i know ill buy all kindsa stuff i dont need and get all kindsa crazy ideas while im there and then things are gonna get difficult.. need to stick to the plan
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reiko
photos

A tip from building the boa rack, instead of using screws to put pieces together try drilling holes then glueing in wood dowls or metal rods. It is as strong but easier all in all, I couldn't drop a 2" screw straight to save my life.
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Derek Affonce
DeKeAff Exotics
dekeaffexotics.com

np
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reiko
photos

If you want I could take pics of the electrical stuff I would recomend and how to put them together. Let me know what you want to put in there and I will give you some ideas if interested.
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Derek Affonce
DeKeAff Exotics
dekeaffexotics.com

ill get back to you on that for certian.. once i have it all worked out with what i want
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reiko
photos

I didn't have a table saw either when I did mine. They were really nice at the home depot and cut everything to exact size for me. Which is a huge help cause cutting it with a circular saw would have been a nightmare. I tried to tip them for it and they are not even allowed to accept a tip. Grimdog I was wondering what the dimensions are for that baby rack, and what size bins did you pick? It looks great. I was going to buy a pre made shelf rack, but haven't been able to find an ideal one yet. Just wanted to attach ceramic fixtures on the bottom of each shelf with a 4 foot fluorescent running the length. Only thing I'm not to sure about is the wiring for it, Gotta read something about that.
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Mystical Dragons

Hey matt, I will draw up the diagrams. The bins are 96 qt ones. They measure 34X17X12 I think. I house a few lone male adults in them they seem to like it. home depot sells a metal rack 5ft long X 1.5 ft deep X 6 ft high you can make 3 levels of three each out of that but for jsut as much can make one like I did out of wood. The brackets were a huge help.
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Derek Affonce
DeKeAff Exotics
dekeaffexotics.com

Awesome Derek that would be a huge help, and really apprecaited. The one part you said your good at I'm terrible at. The wirring. Not sure how you wire all those lights too one plug. Gotta read up a bit on that before I fry myself more then I already am Cool I gotta check the other Home Depot by me. The one I went too onle had a four foot shelf rack, and it was not as wide. That one you saw would be perfect. Where the shelves wood? Thanks for the help. Matt
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Mystical Dragons

Once I am back from TN I will draw up a wiring diagram for heat lamp spots and strip lights. I will put some pictures in it also and a little explanation of why you do it the way I do it.
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Derek Affonce
DeKeAff Exotics
dekeaffexotics.com

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Derek Affonce
DeKeAff Exotics
dekeaffexotics.com

posted pics of your handywork...
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reiko
photos

.

Nice! You have lot's of herps. I could never find room for that many at my house! Nice work, and yes I have spilled blood during construction too. A carpenter knife in my index finger. Didn't feel pain, but it sure did bleed.

I need to do something like this too... can not find racks that I can use the heat/UVB with, but I am thinking about changing over to a different set up than we have used in the past.

Gives me some great ideas........... AXE? got something for you to do!!!! LOL

Cheri In the metal rack that I had before I wired it all up, and I used merc vapors in it. I could draw up a wiring diagram on how to do it. All those years of engineering school have taught me something. Let me know what you want and could draw something up. Home depot has some pretty cool stuff in it. It isn't hard to do merc vapors or heat/tube lights. Although timers and regular tube lights could be strange. That is why I went compact they are also neater.
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Derek Affonce
DeKeAff Exotics
dekeaffexotics.com

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Derek Affonce
DeKeAff Exotics
dekeaffexotics.com

Cheri hasn't let me near the tools since I nearly put the chop saw through my hand, heh

Actually, I've been wanting to build a rack up for a while, for nocturnal species (leos & corn snakes)... Just, I don't have enough adult leos to start a breeding project, and Cheri won't let me have any snakes, lol...

Now I've got an excuse to build a nice big rack
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Axe
The Reptile Rooms

ate salads and crickets........ that's not saying you could not have snakes

Hmm... Dumerils Boas & Burms eat crickets right?
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Axe
The Reptile Rooms

so you are in luck!

hrmm.. perhaps you could freeze some crickets in rat and bunny shapes..
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reiko
photos

All of ours eat veggies (in the tummies of mice and rats...). Snakes are very nice, and not as bad to feed if you get ones that eat frozen/thawed rodents. Almost all of ours do (even the babies). I love rats (I've had them as pets), so I feel really bad when we have to feed them to our other pets. But, I don't feel so bad when they come out of the freezer... It's just like a pork chop!

I highly recommend snakes as pets.

How can you resist this face... (This is Artemis - our first)

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Kelly Affonce
DeKeaff Exotics
www.dekeaffexotics.com
AIM: DekeaffGrrl

Snakes are actually much easier than dragons. Can feed them weekly just check cages daily to look for poop and water level. They like to be kept in drawers and most will eat frozen mice or rats. My wife sets the rules on how big of snakes I can have. No burm, rocks, retics, condas, or venomous but that is cool by me i like my balls and boas. Oh and snakes have much less medical needs than do beardies if husbandry is right parasites are much less troublesome. No bloody coccidia.
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Derek Affonce
DeKeAff Exotics
dekeaffexotics.com

Wow, great job! I'm planning on building a set of modular cages that I can stack in the near future. A friend of mine just got a job overseeing a lumber yard. He has built pet stores and was contracted by some rich guy up north to build a whole reptile room so he should be invaluable. Do you have all your lights on dimmers? I would think it would get hot in that room...it sure does in my garage.

Peter

All halogens are on dimmers. The compact fluoros are not. They cant be dimmded. I ran into a little problem with the timer/dimmer set up. No dimmers on timers, well i worked that one out. No compact fluoro on dimers fixed taht one also. The wiring is the hardest thing to do.
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Derek Affonce
DeKeAff Exotics
dekeaffexotics.com

Well...don't hold back with the secrets =). How did you bypass those problems?

Peter

I will draw up plans and post them when I get back from TN. I am kinda busy to draw them up now. That is why the rack isn't completely finished need to get ready for the trip.
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Derek Affonce
DeKeAff Exotics
dekeaffexotics.com

...did a bunch of colorful adjectives come flourishing out your mouth like when I did the same thing? LOL!

You've got a wonderful skill & talent that shows in your hard work!
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God Bless, Beardie Dreams, & Peace!
Pogoniacs

Me use colorful words never. LOL!!! I think more came out of my mouth when I tipped the frame over and it crashed through my BRB cage. She was fine but I was pissed.
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Derek Affonce
DeKeAff Exotics
dekeaffexotics.com

Super job, just awsome.
My husband just hates when I make him come to the computer and say.... "Look what this guy built"
YOU could do that too, honey!! *batting eyes*
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TheClassyLizard

No I am actually horrible at wood work. The only reason why the frame was so good is because home depot makes nice predrilled metal pieces to make shelves. Without those the rack would have been a mess. With them I didn't even have to cut anything exact which I seem unable to do. One are I think I am handi is working the electrical stuff. 9 years of engineering schooling I think I know how circuits work. Will post pics of the wiring diagram when I get back from tenessee.
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Derek Affonce
DeKeAff Exotics
dekeaffexotics.com

5.2 Nice 4-5 month old dragons from sandfire stock
6.8 Dragons of various size
0.0.17 normal beardies babies

You better modify that.. Tarzan's gonna be pissed if he finds out he ain't got his own private spot on your list
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Axe
The Reptile Rooms

Well, we count him as one of the HUMANS... he'll probably end up just as big. If you'll notice, Tarzan is the only beardie (other than the breeder female groups) that is living in a big tank. He's SPOILED ROTTEN! My darling husband also forgot to mention the DOGS! (1 greyhound and 1 chihuahua). Silly man.
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Kelly Affonce
DeKeaff Exotics
www.dekeaffexotics.com
AIM: DekeaffGrrl

n/p
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TheClassyLizard

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Derek Affonce
DeKeAff Exotics
dekeaffexotics.com

Derek
On the front of your cages is that glass or plexi. How did you attach hinges and locks.

Thanks
Kevin N.

It is plexi, so I could drill it. it is 3/8" go to a glass shop they will cut it for you. The hinges I bought from home depot drilled holes in the plexi and screwed them on. The top was trickier. If you look there are lots of holes. Because i tried a few things. Right now I have eye pins screwed into the melamine on the top. They are screwed in so there is just a little opening beyond the plexi. I put a cotter pin in there to keep them shut. It works this way. The thickness of the plexi makes keeping the doors shut difficult but the worked.
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Derek Affonce
DeKeAff Exotics
dekeaffexotics.com