NOt home made, but new racks!

**Dionythicus** · 04-01-07, 03:49 PM

I'm trading in my Ikea racks for steel shelving called the Muscle Rack, from Lowe's. The large one is 48" wide, 24" deep and 72" tall. On the Ikea racks I could get one adult tub and a juvie tub on each shelf = 10 shelves. On the Muscle Rack, I can put three adult tubs side by side and stack them two high on each shelf (if I get the same size Rubber maid tubs) with the very top shelf for storage. I've been able to fit about forty snakes (adults and juvies) onto four shelves on this rack. It cost $80 and goes together in about 15 mins, with no screws or headaches (watch out for metal slivers, though). It's completely sturdy, made to go in a garage and hold up to 5000 lbs. It can also be assembled horizontally as a workbench with three shelves underneath (which I'm also going to do with one of them). Heating is a bit tricky with them all mismashed as they are right now, but my snake room never gets below 72 so I'm not too worried for now. I'll organise it better here soon, I've only installed one at the moment and wanted to see how much I could fit on it. I'll post pics once we get the others put up.

**CornCrazy** · 04-01-07, 05:08 PM

I've been thinking about getting some adjustable metal shelves to use as racks but wasn't sure how they would work. I look forward to seeing pics!

**hana** · 04-01-07, 05:12 PM

Yeah, I'll be excited to see the pictures too. That would be really awesome to have. I guess I'll have to add 'trip to Lowe's' to my list of things to do.

hana

**Dionythicus** · 04-01-07, 06:40 PM

For the money, ease of installation and the space it gives, these are a big thumbs up!! There are actually 48 tubs on this thing.

**CornCrazy** · 04-01-07, 07:55 PM

So can one buy additional shelves? I am always afraid to stack tubs (unless they have binder clips on them). I would like to have them basically like a regular rack...with one shelf to each layer of tubs.

**EeekSnakes** · 04-01-07, 08:28 PM

I have oodles of those shelves around here

( not for snakes though.... storage/tools/etc) I always found the heating to be an issue... I'm not a big fan of heat up the back of the unit, because there's too much wasted heat and I'm a penny pincher as far as the hydro goes. BUT, that said.... if my room was warm enough that I could do no supplementry heat, my life would be sooooo much easier.. these shelves are awesome.

The only issue we've found, and we may have a slightly different version.... ours join together every two shelves. ( ex. a 4 shelved unit, the top half can be lifted off to make 2 units of 2 shelves) Anyways, where it joins, needs a little reinforcing. It's quite wobbly. Dunno if that's the same as yours.

Just looked again at your pics, it doesn't appear like they are the same as mine.... same style and all, but yours seems to be one length high ( whereas mine is 2 lengths joined together).

**Dionythicus** · 04-01-07, 09:09 PM

I haven't seen the shelves on their own, but I haven't really looked. I don't plan to keep them this tightly packed, I'm putting in three more. It just looks kinda cool to see that many in one rack.