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i did an internet search but found nothing

>>i did an internet search but found nothing

Google is not the best for what you want the yellow pages are. Look for Cabinet makers or suppliers they will be able to get what you need. In my case it took a bit or searching around but I found what I wanted.

Good Luck
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thanks i'll try that

Melamine is a very common item. The big-box stores should carry the cheaper melamine-foil stuff which is good enough for racks.

However, if you follow Bighurt's suggestion of cabinet or cabinet supply shops you can get a higher quality melamine (as described in my previous post) but they can also cut it for you if you don't have the ability, tools or time to do it yourself. The quality of their cuts are very good and it makes assembly a breeze. Home Depot or Lowes simply can't match the quality of cuts with their panel saws.

You just need to come up with a good cut list. If you post the size of your boxes and the desired size of your rack we can help you with that if you don't already have it figured out.

each shelf will be 2'x4' and 3/4" thick. i think that is the right size to hold three sterilite 1756? sweater boxes. the deminsions are something like 23 1/4" x 16" and hieght i'm not sure of between 7 and 8" i think. with four full sheets i can build my rack. two sheets will be for eight shelves then take one two foot section off the other two sheets. leaving them 6' by 4'. one of those will be cut down the middle for each side. Being that melamine sheet runs an inch larger it makes up for the cuts. also the shelves will actually be a little less than two feet to allow for the back to sit in between the sides. let me know if you have any other suggestions or ideas. the rack should hold 24 to 27 boxes. i'm not sure how many of the shelves will fit. havent done the math yet.

I think you could go ten levels tall.

The depth of the Sterilites is less than 23" (I have built several racks around this box, although I don't have any here to double check). If you took a 97" tall sheet of melamine and cut 23" off that would leave you with 74" of sheet which could be ripped in half to make the sides.

Each level ends up being 6.375" to leave room for the box plus the proper gap. 6.375 x 10 equals 63.75" - with me so far?

Then you need 11 horizontal shelves at 3/4" each or 8.25".

63.75" plus 8.25" equals 72" - this would leave you with room for a 2" toe-kick which also acts as an air-space (a good thing).

You could build this rack and have it hold 30 boxes and only use 3.5" sheets. But you'll need to buy 4 sheets, obviously, and only use 3 and a half.

But I do have another recommendation. Don't make a rack that is 50" wide, 23" deep, and 74" tall. It will be heavy, hard to move around corners, may sag and will likely put pressure on the joints. If you do make it that big, I'd suggest looking into hollow-core doors like you can see at RioBravoReptiles.com.

If you want to stick with melamine, I think you need to look closely at different designs and see how efficiently they use material.

I would also consider a design where the 1756 slides in width-wise. That way you can also use the 15 qt. version of the same series and have it slide in length-wise. That way you can mix and match boxes for grow-off, etc. Also, the rack is not as bulky as it is only a bit over 16" deep.

Let me think about this and see if I have any ideas.

>>each shelf will be 2'x4' and 3/4" thick. i think that is the right size to hold three sterilite 1756? sweater boxes. the deminsions are something like 23 1/4" x 16" and hieght i'm not sure of between 7 and 8" i think. with four full sheets i can build my rack. two sheets will be for eight shelves then take one two foot section off the other two sheets. leaving them 6' by 4'. one of those will be cut down the middle for each side. Being that melamine sheet runs an inch larger it makes up for the cuts. also the shelves will actually be a little less than two feet to allow for the back to sit in between the sides. let me know if you have any other suggestions or ideas. the rack should hold 24 to 27 boxes. i'm not sure how many of the shelves will fit. havent done the math yet.

i already have the animal plastics rack that allow the other boxes and i am going to use it as a grow out rack. what i need is a rack that can hold my adult breeders. i just thought that my design would use the wood efficiently. also i am putting it on rollers to move it. i will weld a small metal frame with castors for it to sit on.

With your design I do believe you'll need a solid back. It will keep it from "racking" (pun not intended) and also support the back edge of the shelves, minimizing sagging.

Again, consider the hollow core door design if you have access to the required tools.

I've given it some thought and decided that if you build the 51" x 23" x 74" rack you'll really need to include a solid back. That means more than 4 sheets for the 30 box rack instead of 3.5.

Instead, if you made your racks so that each level only held one 1756 (32 qt) or two 1754's (15 qt), you'd end up with a much more sturdy and easy to move rack. This would be with the 1756's sliding in widthwise, the 1754's would slide in lengthwise.

Each rack would be a hair under 80" tall so they would fit under standard doorways. The footprint of each rack would be about 25" x 17" which is very easy to move. You also would have the racks only sticking 17" or so out from the wall, vs. 23" with the previous design.

Each rackwould hold 11 of the 1756 or 22 of the 1754.

The use of material is slightly less efficient but you'd get the other advantages over your previous design, which I think are well worth it.

The advantages would be:

1) Racks don't stick out as far from the wall.

2) Racks hold two different sized boxes (this is a very nice feature unless you just don't need the 1754's).

3) Each rack is lighter and less bulky - easier to move.

4) The racks will be more durable and less likely to sag.

5) The racks could be built without a solid back, allowing greater access to heat sources, etc.

You should double check my math.

with my original design the extra piece would have been the back. all the math works out with very minimal waste. saging was my only concern and i figure 3/4" with the backing would support three boxes with a couple inches of aspen, a plastic dog bowl for water/hide and another plastic hide. not much wait to cause saging. my heavest snakes are around 700grams. but i think i might make them smaller just because it will be easier. it won't cost to much more either. should i go with heat tape or cable? currently all but one of my racks use heat cable and it works pretty good. i also have the tools to rotor the grove.

>>with my original design the extra piece would have been the back. all the math works out with very minimal waste.

Sorry, I overlooked that part. I think it can work and since you have a router suggest a combination of dados and rabbets for the rack. I'm sure you already planned that.

I like heat cable and suspect it would work well in a rack. What I really like about it for a tall rack would be that as much or as little could be run underneat the boxes to achieve any temperatures from top to bottom.

To be fair, I have never used heat cable in a melamine rack. I suspect it would work but have no first hand experience to back it up. It works very well in my Vision rack.

thanks for the help. now i just need to find melamine. i'll start calling around after work.