Just Finished My First Rack

[Nahph1]

Well I just finished building my first rack system. I used 3/4 mel. which were purchased precut at 24x48. I live in an apartment and dont have power tools to cut wood. It worked out very well though. It can hold 21 28qt. tubs although I'm using the top row for my baby corns right now, the rest are all geckos. With 3" flexwatt (belly heat) wired in series and installed through the side. In all it cost about 125 bucks with heat. what do you think?

 

[Ipsl]

I'm so lost as to where the heat cable is going? So its IN the wood?

 

[Carolina Geckos]

Wow, I like it! I am thinking of building my own as well and like you don't have the power tools. I want to use 15qts and 6qts. But worried about the heat tape part of it...but hear it's not that hard to install.

 

[Carolina Geckos]

Oh, what did you use on the back pegboard?

 

[Nahph1]

rack stuff

When I said I installed the heat tape through the side I meant that I cut slots in the side to slide the heat tape through, its still foil taped down on each shelf. I'll take a pic of the side to better explain.
And I'm sure you can make one for any size tubs. Just measure the height of the tub, plus a little gap, and divide it into 48 for how many rows will fit. Remember to figure in the 3/4" shelfs. You can get the wood at home depot in 24x48, 16x36 , and 12x48. I'm gonna use the 16x36 pcs. to make a shoebox rack next. And on the back of the rack I used a 1/4" partical board. It's like a peg board without the holes.

 

[paulnj]

You can purchase full sheets of melamine for $28 at home depot and have them cut it to size for free.

I have no problem helping anyone design a rack if you PM me. You need 1 sheet to make a 24 ct 6qt rack that is 2 foot tall and 4 foot wide for instance I built 3 just like that and stacked them. 1 sheet also makes a 2 foot tall X 4 foot wide 12 CT 15qt rack.

The next time I make a rack, I will be sure to make a tutorial as to how I made it exactly.


BTW, Great looking first rack!

 

[Leopardbreeder]

Great rack! I love to see people homemade racks!

 

[Nahph1]

side image

Here a pic of the side of the rack in case you wanted to see. There are some extra holes, cause I had to expand it, and changed the tub size I was using.

 

[paulnj]

One question. How exactly did you make the slots for the heat tape. I couldn't find a way to do it without buying a jigsaw.

 

[Leopardbreeder]

I would do it by drilling a hole and using a jigsaw. I dont see whats wrong with that. You can pick up a craftsman kit for $110 with 2 battery and charger.

 

[paulnj]

Matt buy one and I will borrow it. Hey next time you need a branch cut off a tree buy a Stihl chainsaw for $689

See my point? I am not spending $100 to make a few racks , them let it collect dust

 

[Leopardbreeder]

I barrow my grandpas He has 2 saws

 

[mrcsk8ter44445]

Woo that looks great you definately have a PM

 

[paulnj]

3 people and counting

 

[Leopardbreeder]

lol......

 

[DanTheFireman]

Nice job, Nick. The wiring looks very neat, did you solder it? You guys are full of ideas. The shiny white backing's inexpensive also. Are you going to do the iron-on edging to the front? (nag, nag, nag - sorry)

 

[Nahph1]

yep soldered

Yeah I did solder the wire directly to the heat tape. It was easy and I know that it can't come unwired. I just melted the plastic over the metal strip with the soldering iron and soldered the wire on. Plus found some cool splicing nuts and tied them all together on 1 cord.
I didnt know there was a iron on edging, sounds cool, where can I get it? I was planning on painting the wood edges white sometime but it's too cold out to open windows now.

 

[ts1a]

Very Nice!

So everything is 48", rows are 48" and OK w/o supports OR do I see some supports between the boxes?

Did you think of putting seperate dimmer switches on each level to give yourself the ability to have different temps on each row?

Also, has anyone tried to run a divider inside the boxes so that the same box can be used to house an individual on each side?

I would guess since the corners of the boxes are rounded you have to make a template first then cut plexiglass to get this done?


Really great job.

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

Great job!!!!!!!

 

[ARgeckos]

Looks great! Iron on edging is available at home depot also in the lumber dept. It also comes in different wood grains too.