Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i was thinking of buying a rack, before i started looking at price tags

I know my own capabilities, and i am sure i could build a good one within the 100$ price range..

The question is... where do i start? Does anyone know of specific "cabinet/shelving systems" that are the needed size for rubbermaid/comparable other shoe boxes?

I know those plastic containers are very cheap, perhaps only a few dollars for one... so i would think 20$ could cover that part of it, with 50$ or so going into the body.. and 30$ for heattape/wireing

anyone ever attempt this, have instrucitons, pointers or other?

thanks
AK

welll.. drop some opinions. the rack below is only $35.00 at staples. if you drilled a ton of holes in the drawers for ventilation, and added heat tape.. woudln't you be saving a ton of money?? i dont know, im working on turning the rack-system into a cheaper endeavor

thanks
AK

I thought about using the same thing as a box system. What I found about that type of office depot rack system is that the lids arent very secure. Well I guess to put it bluntly, their is no lid and a pritty decent crack along top where the snakes can get out.

I commend you for your efforts to find a cheaper rack system. They are quite the racket. I chose to build my own as well. If you have the basic hand saw and power drill it should'nt be too hard. When I built mine, I bought 4, 8 foot sheets of melamine which cost me a total of $100.00 at home depot. I then decided to perminently put it ontop of big industrial wheels for easy movement ( I totally recommend doing this , which cost a total of $30.00. Then I went ahead and installed my own heat tape. It also hols 12 of the 32 quart sterlite boxs.

After all was spent and done, I must have spent close to two hundred dollars on a shelf system that I can move around with no problem and can also heat the different shelves at different temps. If you bild it yourself you can take care of all your needs.

Home done is the best way to go if you have basic carpentry skills. Here is a picture of mine and I wish you luck at finding the cheaper rack system.

Jason McElroy

I used to use a small one like that to feed in. If I left them in their too long they would start getting out...and its just a small crack...so it took some time and patience to get them little buggers out.....I suggest not using...

I've looked at the various racks like that and the 2-3 drawer stackables lately and in the past. I haven't found any that I actually felt were escape proof.

I guess the only way to tell is to buy some and put some colubrids in there and find out. Let us know how it goes, because mine are staying in their cages. lol

Anyway, it wouldn't be hard for Serlite/Rubbermaid to improve their shelf racks and make them compatible with our needs. However, I don't think that we as a community would create enough demand for them to care. However, with minor improvements---they could sell a few more to people like us, and the other folks wouldn't care or even realize that the improvements were made.

If anybody is looking for a community improvement project with a major manufacturer---here it is.

Just some thoughts......

Building racks is pretty easy. Biggest problem nowadays is the availability of boxes. Both rubbermaid and sterilite are pushing slightly different sweater boxes, neither of which work well in racks.

I don't have my rack building links saved on this computer. I don't think you'd have to go back very many pages on this forum to find them.

The rack below was build with less than $40 worth of wood and screws. Tape on some cheap styrene insulation for a back and use rope light for heat and it could be done for well under $100.

If you built it from MDF and used rubberized contact paper to seal the wood you could probably build the whole thing for less than $50. There is red rope light so you can still use it at night for heat. That's been the main knock against rope light for heat - it has to be shut off at night.

Oh yeah, I'm not including the cost of boxes in my estimates.

These arent mine, I just found them in the gecko forum. I was impressed with the time the fella put into writing it all out. Check it out, its very informative.

Link to slider box building

Here's a rack of mine I made a couple of weeks ago. I used 3/4" inch melamine sheets ( 48"x16" ) with 6.5 qt and 32 qt Sterilite tubs. I ran 6 strips of 4-inch flexwatt down the back of the rack (which is pegboard). So far this rack is working perfectly. I'm housing hatchling, juvenile, yearling and a few small adult ball pythons in them. Total cost for the melamine, tubs and flexwatt was a little around $225 and well worth it in my opinion. The only negative thing was the weight...but I don't plan on moving it around so that's really not an issue.

Hope you enjoy the pics!

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Michael