Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was wondering is it cheaper to buy or make rack systems.

Thanks Derek

Depends on what you want out of it.

If you don't mind melamine and you're only building a sweaterbox rack you can save a lot of money.

When you're building plastic or metal racks the savings aren't as great.

When using larger boxes the savings really start to diminish. Why? Because using typical 4'x8' sheet material wastes a lot more material that the bulk oversized sheets that even a small cage company can justify buying.

So as bighurt said, it really depends.
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Current snakes:

0.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Silver/Yellow)

3.3 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Green)

2.1 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black)

3.3 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black & Tan)

To clarify my point about larger boxes.

The ever so popular CB-70 box is something like 33"x17".

From a typical 4'x8' piece of material you can only cut 5 shelves.

But from a 5'x10' piece of material you can cut at least ten shelves.

And since 5'x10' sheets don't cost anywhere near twice as much as 4'x8' sheets, especially when ordered in bulk, cage companies have an advantage.

Now take a sweater box which is normally 22"x17". You can't get twice the shelves from a 5'x10' piece as a 4'x8' piece so it's a bit easier for us DIY-ers.
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Current snakes:

0.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Silver/Yellow)

3.3 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Green)

2.1 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black)

3.3 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black & Tan)

First let me appologize I was in a rush but wanted to start your discussion but dinner is over so let me expand. While in my absents I was sure Chris would give plenty of info like he did. But the first point I was going to make was not really over materials although that is an excellent point I will come back to but more important.

Tooling do you have the appropriate tooling? When it comes down to it, thats really the difference. Having a nice table saw gives me the edge but if I was stuck with just a circular saw I might pass up on whole project. And the tools are going to detemine material as well cause even a nice saw is worthless without the right blade I would never dream of cutting melamine (probally the easiest to work with) with a 24 tooth blade it would look like crap. And if you went the PVCX route a plastics blade would be the better blade. Also consider router bits and dado blades a routed joint is by far more easy to seal then a butt joint and is stronger.

Another thing to consider is time and space does one have time to complete the project and is your time worth more than the ease of purchase?

Space do you have the space to complete the project? Personally haveing to move things over and over to get the job done is a burden I personally have a 4'x8' project table (that I think is to small). It helps out a lot.

What do you want it to do? Type of heat? (Chris can help out here) Size? Species contained within? Location? Dimensions? (Chris talked a little about this) But more important is the characteristics boaphile, AP and vision offer nearly the same product (not going to get into which is better). But what do you want it to do a plastic behemoth may not look good in a wood furniture bedroom. I think it should look like it belongs so that may be another reason one should build vs buy.

I guess your origional question was cheaper, and the answer is yes it can be cheaper to build. A wise man once once said you get what you pay for.

There is enough people her that will give you opinions I just wanted to give ideas. Any further questions just ask somebody is always here.
My 2 Cents
Jeremy

I am wanting something to house corn snakes in for one rack and crested geckos in another I know ACreptiles has crested racks that i like and are fairly cheap but they only hold 2 bins (which are not included in there price) and I would want something that held around 8-10 bins. As for corns your basic rack system heat tape in the back and big enough for singles and breeding like 2 bins in each shelf for singles and one bin in each for breeding do you know whati mean.

Hope this Helps
Thanks,
Derek

Derek,

Pick out boxes and then let us know if melamine is okay. We can help you determine the most $$ efficient way to build your rack. I assume you'll use different boxes for both?

How tall do you want these racks?

BTW, Bighurt made some good comments re tools. However, I just use a circular saw run along a straight-edge for all of my projects. So it can be done. It does add a lot of time to a project, no doubt.

For years I built cages with nothing other than my cheap circular saw, which I still have, and a cheap cordless drill. I always used a very high dollar blade on the saw, though, and I have since upgraded the drill.

Not only did the expensive blade make better cuts in melamine and laminated plywood, it also lasted a very long time.
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Current snakes:

0.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Silver/Yellow)

3.3 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Green)

2.1 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black)

3.3 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black & Tan)

Malemine is fine. I would use 8 58 qt. tubs for the cresteds as for the corns I would use 24x36x6 inch. tubs for the singles and 48x36x6 inch tubs for the breeder tubs. bothh dimensions are (lxdxh) and i would want 8 breeder tubs and 15 single tubs

Derek

>>I would use 8 58 qt. tubs for the cresteds

Those sound about right...

>>... as for the corns I would use 24x36x6 inch tubs for the singles and 48x36x6 inch tubs for the breeder tubs.

I have never heard of boxes that big. Neither size, in fact.

Unless you mean centimeters, but then the boxes would be less than 2.5" tall.
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Current snakes:

0.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Silver/Yellow)

3.3 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Green)

2.1 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black)

3.3 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black & Tan)

Maybe he "wants" tubs that big.

Largest I found was the Iris VE 175 and CB 110 neither are that large.

There are some plastic mixing tubs at Home Depot that are 45gal cap they are close but I don't think he wants those.

I mostly make things for the home cabients and the such so I am baised when it comes to tools. Sorry for the influence I didn't mean it couldn't be done just I wouldn't do it.

I mostly make things for the home cabients and the such so I am baised when it comes to tools. Sorry for the influence I didn't mean it couldn't be done just I wouldn't do it.

No need to appologize, I can totally relate. I'm at the point where I really don't care to build anything unless I can borrow a table saw. At my last job there was a really nice table saw that I would borrow evenings and weekends.

Heck, I don't even want to pre-drill and counter-sink screws anymore.

I guess a table saw, compressor, and pneumatic nailer are in my future?

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Current snakes:

0.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Silver/Yellow)

3.3 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Green)

2.1 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black)

3.3 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black & Tan)

I keep my snakes in glass cages now so i don't have to much knowledge with racks and just assumed you could have racks any size you want i want a good size tub for my snakes (not to cramped) what do you think a good size tub would be I also want something that is see-through kinda

Thanks

Derek

Well the CB-70 and CB-80 are probally the most veristile sizes in the iris tubs.

www.reptiletubs.com

But you can get sterilite 41qt tubs at target walmart and big lots I use those for my ball pythons. I would take a gander at tubs and see what will work best for you then we can help build you that rack. Also rubbermaid makes some nice sweater boxs that a lot of people use, good luck finding them!

I agree that the CB-70 is about as good as it gets for racks. Any bigger and you start to have isses with how the boxes slide, etc. Beyond that point you need to consider a stack of cages instead of a rack.

Another important note. The Iris boxes have a heavy lip around the top and the sides slope like all boxes. What this means it you don't have a floor area of 33"x17", or whatever the listed dimensions of the box are.

I use the CB-80, for example, which is listed at 17 3/4"W x 31 1/2"L x 13"H.

But the actual floor area is actually less than 14"x27".

If the same held true for the CB-70 the floor area would only be 29"x13" or so.

That's nowhere near what you indicated you want so I'd lean towards a cage stack instead of a rack.

Many people will tell you a cornsnake only needs XX amount of space, but I'd suggest you to build a cage that fits your peace of mind.
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Current snakes:

0.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Silver/Yellow)

3.3 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Green)

2.1 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black)

3.3 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black & Tan)

...........vast acreage to feel comfortable.most people keep adult corns in blanket boxes (27-35qt. depending on model) i keep all my corn,king and milk breeders in 27qt. boxes,except one 5ft. plus king in a 41qt. box (30" of floor space).racks are the most econmical way to house these species,if you start to build large cages for each corn it will get very costly and take up a lot of room,something to think about.have fun!

I was looking at that website and was thinking about just getting some of those CB 75's for the breeder tubs and the CB 30 for the singles. Let me know what you think.

Thanks Derek

Derek,

So are you saying your want a rack for the CB-75 tub only for those times you'll be pairing cornsnakes up?

Why not just introduce them in single tubs? I mean with cornsnakes they don't need much time at all.

But if that's what you really want...

That CB-75 is a bit bigger than 22"x37" so you're only going to get 4 shelves out of a single sheet of melamine.

You wanted 8 breeder tubs so that means 9 shelves.

Since the box is about 6.5" tall the rack will be about 66" tall, or about 5'6".

It will save material and weight if you have the boxes slide in width-wise.

So from my calculations you'll need one sheet of melamine for two sides at 23" x 68".

Then two more sheets of melamine for the other eight shelves. I'd cut the shelves at 23" x 38".

Now, if you want to use a lighter material for the sides or want the boxes to slide in length-wise then things will change a bit.

Or, you may not want a rack that is so tall?

Let me know.

The CB-30 will be a lot more straight forward to build a rack from.
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Current snakes:

0.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Silver/Yellow)

3.3 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Green)

2.1 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black)

3.3 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black & Tan)

I am thinking about just the crested rack with the 58 qt. tubs and a single tub rack i will probably just have a couple of those HUGE tubs on the floor stacked without a rack

Thanks
Derek