Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all,

I've been thinking about building a rack for a while, and after reading though old post I am going to go with the hollow core door design (http://www.riobravoreptiles.com/howto_easyrack.htm). Has anyone built this style of rack before? I was wondering what suggestions people might have.

I am going to build it to fit 3 sterilite 1956 (23"L x 16 3/4"W x 5 7/8"H) conatiners or 3 Reptile Tubs MCB L (24 3/16"L x 16 1/8"W x 6 5/16"H) per row. With this size I can also have one 1956 (or MCB L) and one larger tub/row.

Thanks
Vinny
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“There is a grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that whilst this planet has gone on cycling according to the fixed laws of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.” -C. Darwin, 1859

I do have a hollow-core door rack and like it a lot. Great compromise between cost and weight. My suggestions:

1) Go with the Reptiletubs.com (Iris) boxes if they are indeed all the same height.

2) Shop around for scratch and dent HC doors. I have found them for $10.

3) Not all HC doors are created equally. Look for doors where the interior frame is made from finger-jointed solid wood rather than pressboard. Take a carpenter's square and check the edges for any bevels or for corners that are out of square. You'd be surprised at how bad they can be.

4) To fill the gaps of the cut doors I used 3/4" birch plywood that I laminated together. I just took two scrap pieces and glued/screwed them together overnight. Then I took the screws out and cut my fill strips from that.

5) Seal the doors with something. Paint, polyurethane, vinyl film, or whatever. I used vinyl film. Where the boxes slide is just bare wood, however.