Many people asked me to post plans, or pictures of the process of making my rack. Unfortunately I have none of those but my splendid, wonderful sketches are just as good :main_laugh:
First, I decided which size I wanted my cages to be. I wanted them to be around 60 cm long, 30 cm high and 40 cm deep. According to that I decided the size of the whole rack.
After I extracted how many pieces would I need of each kind and which size would all of them be, taking into account the thickness of the wood.
They cut the melamine in the same place I bought it, so no info on that part. I also bought four wheels to be able to move the rack easily, screws of two sizes (one 1,5 cm long, to use when I don't want the screw to pass trought the wood; and one 3 cm long to use when I want to assemble two different pieces of wood, so it needs to pass across its thickness).
The first thing I did was attach the wheels to the base with 1,5 cm long screws. Remember to leave some space to the border, because after you will need to assemble the back and the sides to the base and you don't want the screws to interfere with the others.
With help of an assembling square, I started to assemble the back, dividers and shelves, using 3cm long screws.
The last thing to assemble were the sides, and you should get something like this.
I made everything calculating and measuring at first, but in the end I found that sometimes I did things better drilling just where I thought I should, because most of the time things weren't exactly when they should and that messed up my calculations. I guess that if you are good at these things you won't have this problem...
Once lifted up from the ground (not an easy task), I made 25 holes at each side of the cages for ventilation, and also two bigger holes in the lower part (for the probe of the thermostat and the heat cable).
I hid the ventilation holes with grills.
I inserted a heat cable in each one of the holes and stuck with sellotape the position I wanted the cable to be.
I nailed the cable to the wood, with the resulting amount of noise for the neightbors hearing pleasure.
For nailing the cable I used these kind of nails, that I don't know how are called in Spanish much less in English, lol.
Now I needed slides for the glass doors. I bought PVC slides to be able to cut them easily, but aluminium slides look way better.
I glued the slides to the wood using a silicone pipe.
I had an horrible experience with this. I let some drops of hot silicone fall on my arm and couldn't get it off while it was liquid, so I had to let it burn my arm until it went solid and then pull it off along with some of my skin. It left a scar in my arm and hurt horribly. So be careful.
I ordered the glass doors so no info on that part either. Just make sure that the width is a little more than half the total with and the height is a little less than the total height. I can't think of an exact formula to get the height right. Just leave enough space so you can take the doors in and out, not so much that the upper slide won't hold it.
Pics an more info:
http://www.geckoforums.net/showthread.php?t=13552
http://www.geckoforums.net/showthread.php?t=16270
I know it's not too detailed but I hope at least it gives some ideas.
First, I decided which size I wanted my cages to be. I wanted them to be around 60 cm long, 30 cm high and 40 cm deep. According to that I decided the size of the whole rack.
After I extracted how many pieces would I need of each kind and which size would all of them be, taking into account the thickness of the wood.
They cut the melamine in the same place I bought it, so no info on that part. I also bought four wheels to be able to move the rack easily, screws of two sizes (one 1,5 cm long, to use when I don't want the screw to pass trought the wood; and one 3 cm long to use when I want to assemble two different pieces of wood, so it needs to pass across its thickness).
The first thing I did was attach the wheels to the base with 1,5 cm long screws. Remember to leave some space to the border, because after you will need to assemble the back and the sides to the base and you don't want the screws to interfere with the others.
With help of an assembling square, I started to assemble the back, dividers and shelves, using 3cm long screws.
The last thing to assemble were the sides, and you should get something like this.
I made everything calculating and measuring at first, but in the end I found that sometimes I did things better drilling just where I thought I should, because most of the time things weren't exactly when they should and that messed up my calculations. I guess that if you are good at these things you won't have this problem...
Once lifted up from the ground (not an easy task), I made 25 holes at each side of the cages for ventilation, and also two bigger holes in the lower part (for the probe of the thermostat and the heat cable).
I hid the ventilation holes with grills.
I inserted a heat cable in each one of the holes and stuck with sellotape the position I wanted the cable to be.
I nailed the cable to the wood, with the resulting amount of noise for the neightbors hearing pleasure.
For nailing the cable I used these kind of nails, that I don't know how are called in Spanish much less in English, lol.
Now I needed slides for the glass doors. I bought PVC slides to be able to cut them easily, but aluminium slides look way better.
I glued the slides to the wood using a silicone pipe.
I had an horrible experience with this. I let some drops of hot silicone fall on my arm and couldn't get it off while it was liquid, so I had to let it burn my arm until it went solid and then pull it off along with some of my skin. It left a scar in my arm and hurt horribly. So be careful.
I ordered the glass doors so no info on that part either. Just make sure that the width is a little more than half the total with and the height is a little less than the total height. I can't think of an exact formula to get the height right. Just leave enough space so you can take the doors in and out, not so much that the upper slide won't hold it.
Pics an more info:
http://www.geckoforums.net/showthread.php?t=13552
http://www.geckoforums.net/showthread.php?t=16270
I know it's not too detailed but I hope at least it gives some ideas.
