candyraver69
11-19-10, 03:41 PM
Okay so I have been brainstorming non-stop about how I want to build my rack how to do my heat tape and came up with a plan but I would like some feedback before I go for it. The biggest problem with deciding what I want to do is that I want something that I can expand or change on as my collection grows and I think I found a solution.
For my rack I am going to build each shelf separately, two sides, a back and a top (no bottom) and to where the top piece has a small gap between the back piece so cords can run down through. there will be a single bottom piece just like the shelf pieces but shorter so that the bottom tub isn't directly on the floor. This way I can stack them differently if I like (1x6, 2x3, 3x2 or whatever) if I want to, and moving them to a room is easy and not like carrying one huge melamine shelf. The only drawback to this I can think of is that with enough force (someone bumping into the side) the shelfs could slide off of each other, but I'm not too worried about that happening since they will be in a low traffic area of my house.
To fit the theme of modular shelving I came up with a modular heat tape design as well. If you look at this picture http://www.beanfarm.com/heating/Flexwatt_parallel.pdf but imagine instead of wiring directly from one heat tape to another you wire the wires coming out of the heat tape to the female end of an extension cord. This would make each heat tape like an extension cord, and you could plug one into the next, adding and removing as you see fit.
I could add different sized shelves and heat tapes also if I like, just stacking the larger ones at the bottom and smaller ones on the top. I will probably have to have separate thermostats for different sized enclosures depending how accurate my guess at the amount of heat tape I need is- or I can make the shelves slightly wider than the tubs so that the tubs could be moved on or off the heat tape slightly until I get the right balance between them all.
To anyone that has built racks and used heat tape, does this sound like it will work okay?
For my rack I am going to build each shelf separately, two sides, a back and a top (no bottom) and to where the top piece has a small gap between the back piece so cords can run down through. there will be a single bottom piece just like the shelf pieces but shorter so that the bottom tub isn't directly on the floor. This way I can stack them differently if I like (1x6, 2x3, 3x2 or whatever) if I want to, and moving them to a room is easy and not like carrying one huge melamine shelf. The only drawback to this I can think of is that with enough force (someone bumping into the side) the shelfs could slide off of each other, but I'm not too worried about that happening since they will be in a low traffic area of my house.
To fit the theme of modular shelving I came up with a modular heat tape design as well. If you look at this picture http://www.beanfarm.com/heating/Flexwatt_parallel.pdf but imagine instead of wiring directly from one heat tape to another you wire the wires coming out of the heat tape to the female end of an extension cord. This would make each heat tape like an extension cord, and you could plug one into the next, adding and removing as you see fit.
I could add different sized shelves and heat tapes also if I like, just stacking the larger ones at the bottom and smaller ones on the top. I will probably have to have separate thermostats for different sized enclosures depending how accurate my guess at the amount of heat tape I need is- or I can make the shelves slightly wider than the tubs so that the tubs could be moved on or off the heat tape slightly until I get the right balance between them all.
To anyone that has built racks and used heat tape, does this sound like it will work okay?