# Bank Enclosures Made From Boltless Rack



## saximus (Jan 8, 2014)

I finally finished this off yesterday and I thought it might be nice to share. It’s nothing special but it’s been a veeery long time in the making because I bought the racking and all of the melamine months ago and then got busy/lazy and never actually started it. Since yesterday and Monday were my last days of holidays I figured it would be time to get stuck into it. 
The racking is from Bunnings and, with evenly spaces shelves, each enclosure is about 1200mm x 600mm x 450mm (4’ x 2’ x 1.5’). This fits the new NSW regulations for any snake other than Olives and Scrubbys, though I’d be hesitant to put a large climber in them with that height. The rack made it slightly less cost effective than just using melamine but it’s much sturdier and it made it very simple to get nice straight lines. 

The way the shelf rails are shaped meant it would have been tricky to glue the top glass tracks on so I used aluminium angle and riveted it. I’ve always found gluing them to be a pain in the butt anyway so I’m really happy with this and I know it will never come unstuck over the years. The bottom tracks are also fastened using tiny tack nails (thank you to members of this forum for that idea).

After a little bit of experience with the Proherp heat panels, I’ve found that they actually produce a reasonable amount of heat upwards as well. I’ve used this to my advantage here so I only need two for all four enclosures. I don’t have the glass yet but I tested them without thermostats and the surface temperatures from top to bottom at each basking spot were 39°C, 37°C, 35°C and 35°C. I thought it was interesting that there was such a difference at the top two. Obviously heat rises but I didn’t expect the single heat emitter below to affect the upper one so much. I’ll have to take that into consideration if I decide to use a single thermostat for the whole rack.
Final cost once the glass doors are made is expected to be about $350-400 (excluding heat panels). So a little more expensive than I would have liked but that is still not bad considering professional ones are about that for a single enclosure.

Like I said, I know it’s nothing special but if anyone would like to see pictures of any particular parts, I’ll be happy to take some this afternoon. 

Dan


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## reptalica (Jan 8, 2014)

[MENTION=21544]saximus[/MENTION] - Love ya work Dan. I'm with you, it doesn't need to look special, it just needs to be IMHO practical and suitable for its inhabitants.


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## Rob (Jan 8, 2014)

Good stuff. The fact that you only need two panels to heat four banks is pretty neat, too.


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## Chris1 (Jan 8, 2014)

great idea!! It looks awesome!!


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## Umbral (Jan 8, 2014)

Way to think outside the tool box....see what I did there!

Looks good mate, well done.


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## saximus (Jan 8, 2014)

Rob72 said:


> Good stuff. The fact that you only need two panels to heat four banks is pretty neat, too.



Yeah I think a lot of people would be surprised if you told them you could house four adult snakes with a total of 80W worth of heating. That's why I love these panels.

Thanks for the nice comments everyone


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## andynic07 (Jan 8, 2014)

If you wanted to keep the enclosures a little more even temperature you could maybe place a sheet of fibrous cement between the middle two. Not sure if it is worth the trouble on this one but maybe something to consider if you build another.
Great rack by the way, I didn't ever think that I would be saying that to a guy.


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## Senator358 (Jan 8, 2014)

It's funny because every time I'm at Bunnings I look at those racks and think about what could be done with them. Love your work and I'll be looking at stealing an idea or two of you.


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## Porkbones (Jan 8, 2014)

Looks good.im going to use a heat panel to heat my bredli in the bottom half of a cabinet, while heating the shelf it's mounted too to give my spotted enough heat


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## DarwinBrianT (Jan 8, 2014)

Great idea! Well done.


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## jacques92 (Jan 8, 2014)

Looks good
do you have pictures from start to finish


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## saximus (Jan 8, 2014)

jacques92 said:


> Looks good
> do you have pictures from start to finish



I don't sorry. I realised at the end I should have though


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## reptalica (Jan 8, 2014)

Build another one then Dan and this time take pics.


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