Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just build a rack for my steralites out of MDF board and 2x4s. It was working fine the first day but now the boxes sweeze in really tight. It is really hard to get them in there. One of them also has a lot of clearance on either side, but the middle is so tight it barely gets all the way on the shelf. What can I do to correct these problems?

Nick
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1.1 Cal Kings
1.1 Northern Pines
1.2 Honduran Boas
0.1 Tangerine Honduran Milks
1.2 Pueblan Milks
1.2 Blue Beauties
1.1 Irian Jaya Carpet Pythons

Construction grade 2x4's are very unstable and move a lot with climatic changes. Chances are if you built this thing out in a garge and they brought it into a warm snake room the 2x4's are only going to continue to shrink and warp/check over time.

In a nutshell, you need to take the 2x4's off and save them for another project. They are just not suitable for the tolerances needed in a rack. If you really must use them, let them acclimate in your herp room for several weeks and they rebuild the rack.

But I vote you use something else for the sides.

Ah, thank you. Good call. We were wondering if it was the MDF or if the steralites were bowing, never thought about the 2x4s.

I just found some online racks made of PVC foam board, maybe I should give that a try.

Thanks Chris
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1.1 Cal Kings
1.1 Northern Pines
1.2 Honduran Boas
0.1 Tangerine Honduran Milks
1.2 Pueblan Milks
1.2 Blue Beauties
1.1 Irian Jaya Carpet Pythons

>>I just found some online racks made of PVC foam board, maybe I should give that a try.

PVC foam board is not terribly difficult to work with. The main issue is that it gets very expensive in the 1/2" thickness', which is what I'd recommend for the first timer using it on a rack. 1/4" is pretty cheap but just a bit too flimsy for a rack, IMO.

melamine work just fine. Its heavy but how often are you packing your racks around. The plastic ones are nice also but in my opinion not worth the price they are being sold for. Melamine does just as good of a job at keeping snakes in as the plastic does.

I generally agree, although if I were to fork over my money for a rack I'd go ahead and make weight a criteria. And in fact I did when I purchased my Vision racks, which are not only light, but can also be taken completely apart. That will be a nice feature once they are being used only as quarantine racks.

But in the meantime I see no reason not to build any other rack I need. For my non-quarantine racks, weight has never been a huge issue.

On the other hand, I do prefer cages to be light. It's nice to be able to easily move then out into the yard for the occasional blast with the hose.