Small 24 bay Hatchie Rack (snake)

[The_Dreaded_Pets]

This is my 24 bay hatchie rack it should house 24 hatchies (obviiously ) for upto 6-12mnths in 5lt tubs,
I have used 2x 9m 90wt heat cord (routed groves to feed them) 2 strips on the bottom of the shelves and 1 along the back of ea shelf, have used aluminium heat tape to tape everything down and make a 3" strip on the shelf to help spread the heat evenly.
useing a habistat pulse proportional thermostat to controll the 2 heatcords.

the 9m cords are big enough that i could have just run the triditional 2 rows of heatcord on a rack double the size of this one

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if im not lazy before my hatchies arrive ill dismantle the rack add little more routing and will be able to run the whole rack on 2 rows per shelf with just the 1x 9m cord

 

[Pythonlovers]

very nice! what are the dimensions? and how much did all the melamine cost?

 

[The_Dreaded_Pets]

shelves are 16mm Malamine 1230mm X 320mm,
ends are 16mm malamine 490mm X 320mm
backing is 3mm ply wood cut to fit 1230mm X 490mm

cant remember the exact cost but including heating eq & thermostat was under $300
the malamine is 1 shelf to many to be 1 sheet so had to buy a 2nd full sheet (plenty leftover wood for projects) and that includes the 2nd heatcord not needed

 

[Pythonlovers]

haha, thats sucks! stupid shelf.
that wasnt too costly, might have to re think my idea of building one!
cheers.

 

[The_Dreaded_Pets]

heating itself costs 110 for the pp thermostat & about $25 for 1x 9m heatcord (will be big enough for 2 lines per row on this size rack) plus postage i think was $10
malamine i think offhand is about $35 sheet at bunnings then $1 per cut i got it all precut there so i just had to wack it together when i got home & the ply was about $9 a sheet...
Small Roll of Aluminum heat tape was about $8 i think
other then that only thing i bought was a huge pack of screws as i have alot more projects in the works

I made it upside down put the roof on the put a tub at ea end, added the next shelf marked it out predrilled holes in the sides & then screwed in the shelf, rince & repeat my bottom shelf is a very tight fit but a friend told me next time i do it to put a dvd ontop of the tub for an extra 2mm of play which will make the tubs easier to move in & out.

The length of my shelves leaved about 10mm play inbetween each tub so there is some wiggle room move them in & out with about 1" over on the ends to reduce chance of escapee's (problem a friend had when his tubs were level with the edges)

I used a 6mm router piece to run the heatcords you could probably get away with a 3/4mm pce but i dont have one that small,

My temps are running pretty stable averaging 34-35.5c hot end & 24c cold end (temps taken inside tubs)

With everything precut this was knocked up in under an hr without rushing
hope this helps out more

 

[Jande]

Looks great, well done! And thanks for sharing the info on how you went about making it.