Reptile & Amphibian Forums

first you go to homedepot and buy yourself two feet of semi thick glass, the size or your shelf.... cut out two pieces of heavy duty alumiun foil the size of the area of the heat tape..... then like a glass sandwich you lay your glass on the shelf.... the piece of tin foil in the area you want to lay your heat tape..... then put the heat tape on top of that.... then another piece of tin foil the same size... and lay the last piece of glass on top.... you can use perhaps a little duct tape on the edges to keep all the layers together properly and tight.... then just slide your bin over the whole glass area....this will keep the heat tape from touching anything flamable and will disperse the heat evenly amoung the foil and radiate through the glass.... this is what we are thinking about building....in our "super enviroment cabinet"....
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Under a dead ohio sky,
Eleven has been and will be waiting,
Defending his light,
And wondering...
Where the hell have I been?
Sleeping, lost, and numb.
So glad that I have found you.
I am wide awake and heading home.
TOOL

the glass is as close to the size of the your shelf that you can find... glass is cheap.... any thoughts?
-----
Under a dead ohio sky,
Eleven has been and will be waiting,
Defending his light,
And wondering...
Where the hell have I been?
Sleeping, lost, and numb.
So glad that I have found you.
I am wide awake and heading home.
TOOL

the glass will crack from the heat... Ron
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The Crawl Space

you need to let the heat tape breathe a little or it will overheat and catch on fire. Check the caging forum but I am almost sure that the heat tape needs to have at least one side that gets a little air flow.
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Tosha

"Nihil facimus sed id bene facimus"

7.33.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and gang)
1.0.0 Angolan Python (Anakin Skywalker)
0.0.1 Green Tree Python (Verdi - yeah I know but my kids love the book)
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Desert Tortoise (Pope John Paul aka JP )
2.2.1 Fish (1,2,3,4)
0.0.2 frogs rescued from pool skimmer

If that is true because I have a couple homemade melamine racks that I just taped flexwatt directly to with aluminum tape. Neither side can get airflow, it's like I sealed it in completely. If anyone knows please let me know. I don't want to have a fire risk! Thanks!! Andy.

Glass is not really cheap... Or I am really cheap, grin, either way it is an insulator not a conductor and its heavy.

How would flexwatt catch on fire? Are you running it wide open, without a thermostat? I have mine taped to wood with foil tape and run it 102 degrees to get a 95 degree floor temp inside.

Cheers,
Al

i found this post, cause you people really know your snakes. thank you for the helpful tips on the heat tape idea. it was just a thought that came to mind. i wont be doing that.
-----
Under a dead ohio sky,
Eleven has been and will be waiting,
Defending his light,
And wondering...
Where the hell have I been?
Sleeping, lost, and numb.
So glad that I have found you.
I am wide awake and heading home.
TOOL