Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i live in south florida so winter cools wont be a problem. i was also wondering what materials to use and what sizes. it would be for a hatchling redtailboa rack system. heating? home dopot? lowes? sears?
cheers

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1.2 leopard geckos1.0 jungle carpet python
1.1 columbian BCI

What sized boxes do you plan to use and how many boxes do you want the rack to hold?

Also, what's most important to you -- 1) light weight? or 2) cheapest overall cost?

What tools do you have access to? Are you comfortable with their use?

well i'd probably end up ordering boaphiles plastic containers that he puts in his baaby boa racks. not sure what sizes those are but i know they would work. i'd ike to have a 12-20 piece rack. i'm gonna be breeding a first time boa this season soooo....
i really don't care about wieght too much as long as it's not 500lbs or anything. price is more important.
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1.2 leopard geckos1.0 jungle carpet python
1.1 columbian BCI

If price is most important I'd recommend just using a locally available sweater box. A few products come in both 28 qt. and 12 qt. sizes and these will be much cheaper than ordering those acrylic boxes. But those are an option if you want the clear container.

One nice thing about the 12 qt. boxes is that if you design your rack right you can still use the occasional 28 qt. box in the rack. This is nice if you have a real nice specimen in your clutch that you want to keep and grow up.

Here's a rack that I build for under $40 (not including boxes and heat) using 1/2" AC plywood for the sides and melamine shelving for the shelves. When I took this picture I was only using the rack to store supplies and mealworms, in case you're wondering. Regardless, you can see that the thrid level up from the bottom holds two, 12 qt. boxes while the rest of the levels each hold one, 28 qt. box. So it could hold 14 boxes suitable for baby boas or 7 boxes for subadults.

I would recommend melamine shelving for this project, unless it ends up being cheaper to use full melamine sheets. Sometimes the pre-cut shelving is so close to the final size you need it's hard to pass up.

could you possibly give me the dimentions of the overall rack, shelves, and sides? and how would u mount those wheels? that looks like the perfect rack!
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1.2 leopard geckos1.0 jungle carpet python
1.1 columbian BCI

That rack is 24" x 18" x 48". I forgot I had wheels on it and they make it a bit taller.

Each shelf was 3/4" bull-nosed melamine shelving that I buy at Menards. Not the most durable melamine, but more than adequate for a rack. I buy it in 23" x 96" pieces for about $12 each, although I'm sure it's gone up. I used two for that rack. Each shelf was 23" x 18".

The sides were crosscut from a piece of 1/2" AC plywood that I bought for about $18, although I suspect it's now considerable higher. Each side was about 18" x 48" so that's less than $8 worth of plywood. Again, more by today's prices.

There is no back to this rack. Instead I just have simple wooden cleats that keep the boxes from sliding off the back. When in use, the back of this rack was covered with Reflectix insulation, a fire-rated radiant barrier.

The wheels were just screwed directly to the bottom of the lowest shelf. I think I used 3/4" sheet metal screws. I did not count those in my price.

One important note about this rack is that it uses the Rubbermaid 28 and 12 qt. boxes. These are well made and are very cheap. But they are also just short enough that you can fit 7 levels into a 4' tall rack. This is important since most lumber comes in 4' increments. With other brands of boxes you can sometimes only fit six levels into a 4' tall rack.

I no longer know for sure which boxes allow this.

I probably just used cheap drywall screws to attach the sides to the shelves. I lost this rack in a flood so I can't check.

Here's a side view.