Making a rack (hatchling)

[DeesBalls]

i am going to be making a hatchling rack..

right now im thinking 48'' high, x 27'' wide and 14'' deep.

this is give me room for 3 rows of 9 tubs... 27 slots.

as said, this will be a hatchling rack, i will be using this for the babies i just got until they get bigger to move up a tub...

it will house 27 6qt tubs with back heat provided by either 3'' or 4'' flexwatt, with a thermostat.

my thing is, i know the shelves need to be melamine, i dont want to use lids so that will help with humidity..

is there any other materials i can use for back and sides, like 2x4's or ply wood... even maybe aspen wood i used for my 1st rack. just throwing around some ideas here guys. let me konw what you all think.

[DeesBalls]

actually, i dont think i need it to be THIS big now.. i will only have about 14 babies now to start raising to breed, so scratch that idea... lol


only will need to be lik 7x2, or 4x5 (tubs)

[Norm66]

If your herp room is heated to about 80 then I'd say you could do 2x4s for the sides and the Flexwatt would keep your warm spot at 90 no problem. I opted for melamine sides because my house isn't that warm. But when I build in my closet for a herp area (small herp room) I'll probably heat it and use open sided racks.

[DeesBalls]

If your herp room is heated to about 80 then I'd say you could do 2x4s for the sides and the Flexwatt would keep your warm spot at 90 no problem. I opted for melamine sides because my house isn't that warm. But when I build in my closet for a herp area (small herp room) I'll probably heat it and use open sided racks.

my room is usually around 80... once i get my room built in the basement, it will be at a consistant 82-83. im leaning towards melamine sides, or aspen wood sides, just since i think it looks nicer.

[Norm66]

Yea, I agree that solid sides will look better. If you use melamime sides the whole thing will match. It depends on your application. I wanted mine to look as neat as possible so I went all melamime. If it was in a dedicated herp room that probably wouldn't have been as large a factor in my reasoning.

[DeesBalls]

Yea, I agree that solid sides will look better. If you use melamime sides the whole thing will match. It depends on your application. I wanted mine to look as neat as possible so I went all melamime. If it was in a dedicated herp room that probably wouldn't have been as large a factor in my reasoning.

mine will be in a room just for snakes... ill be the only one in there so appearance isnt really important.

right now im leaning towards 2x4 sides and back, melemine shelves.

[Norm66]

Actually, you could make the frame out of 2x4s, install the shelves using the tubs plus 3 cds for clearance then skin the sides in some thin plywood and paint it. It wouldn't look too bad IMO.

[DeesBalls]

i just ordered 15 foot of 3'' heat tape, so hopfully i can get this built soon.