Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Thanks for all help and input. I like how it came out. Only took about three hours to build alone. That includes letting the glue dry. Also it only cost $110 for the rack. I already had the boxes. But i bought more anyway just to have extra.

How are you heating it? What size tubs did you use? Good luck.
-----
Louis Kirkland
Game Balls
The Morph Factory

The tubs are sterilite 1756s. They are 23"x16". I am going to keep my 2x het for ghost alterna in them. I havent heated it yet but i was thinking about using heat tape. but untill i get the money i think i'm going to try some rope light mounted behind the boxes. i think it will look cool plus i don't need much heat since my room is around 78-82 degrees.

What did you end up using? To me it looks like melamine sides and HC doors but I can't tell for sure.

the shelves are hollow core doors and the sides are just pine. it was really easy to build. the thing that took the longest was letting the glue on the doors dry. i'm probably going to make another. after i get this one heated.

What kind of HC doors did you use? Did you paint them or were they pre-primed?

Regarding the pine you used for the sides, I should warn you that the stuff can expand and contract a lot with changes in the seasons. This is not good with a rack. I learned this the hard way when the boxes in my racks seized up once. I had not let the wood acclimate to the conditions in my room first and the pine shrunk in the warm/dry conditions. Fortunately I had not glued the shelves to the sides and I was able to disassemble the rack and put it back together. It has since held tubs for the last ten years or more.

i noticed that shelves got a little closer. but i started with a decent size gap because i like to get as much air flow as possible and i didn't want to drill a lot of holes. so everything still slides in good just has a little smaller gap now. and my room is always 72-82 so there shouldn't be much more change. and i don't think there is any worry about it spliting since no heat source will come in contact with it.

the doors were primed not sure what kind they were. i haven't painted them yet. i will also stain the pine sides later on. everyones brumating now so i can take my time.

You should paint and stain asap. The offgas time is alot longer than you think. In fact, you may not want or need to stain the pine on the inside of the rack.

yea i know. i don't like to paint cages at all because of that. i think i might leave it as is. should the doors be ok since they have a primer?