Rack building, shelving!

[Ravenessa]

So I am finally sitting down and building my rack, I have done a drawing, and then I started finageling in my brain.. Mine will be 33 snakes 35 quarts. That will be able to house all my pets it will be approx 205 cm (with the wheels high), and 61 cm deep, and 140 cm long. (sorry about the CM I am European). NOW here is my though, am I better off making four 200 boards, two ends and two middle dividers and plug each shelf and now have 30 smaller shelves with individual weight bearing, or do 10 full size shelves for the whole lenght and just use small dividers instead. What is better for stability and weight bearing?! Someone told me to skip the two middle and just line up the racks next to each other but I feel that it will soon start bending since a heavy duty water bowl is like a pound, a big snake minimum half a pound, so now each shelf will hold 7-8 pounds (think hides, substrate, water) in total. Which doesn't sound much but with time?! Opinions please! Right now I am putting together all the measurements so I can pay someone to Ikea the pieces for me so I can just put them together with screws and plugs.

 

[backafter30]

This depends on a lot of factors. What are the shelves made of? What is the unsupported span width? Will it be supporting by a back board? Nearly everything will sag at some point, and sagging will ruin your project. Tubs will either be too loose and offer a means of escape, or more likely will be too tight and you will have to fight to open/close them, spilling the water bowl, and stressing the animal out over the sticking vibrations and your foul language. I speak from experience. I will probably be rebuilding all my racks this year because I tried to save a few bucks and I have the above issues. I built a 96-slot baby rack last year, and it weighs as much as my car. I had to cut it into sections just to make it moveable. You'd be surprised just how heavy it will be unless you make it out of expanded polystyrene sheets, which are very expensive. To reduce weight and sagging both, I recommend you build narrow single-wide racks that you can place side by side like townhomes. I use wood at the corners, then fill in the sides and backs with 1" styrofoam insulation sheets. This keeps weight down and makes it easier to heat them. I think melamine is a great shelf material, as it is waterproof and tubs slide easily on it. It is very heavy though, so use it only for the shelves themselves. Just my 2 cents...

 

[Ravenessa]

hey that was worth at least 25 Cents <3 thank you! It would also be easier to make singles and if I make singles it will be maybe 50 bucks more in material but the stability and duration of them if so would be better and yes there will be a back board as i will use back heat not belly heat.

Thank you again!!