• Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

  • IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed

    =====================
    Posted 08/15/2025
    =====================


    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

    =====================
    Addendum: 01/10/2026
    =====================


    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

Pull-out rack for VE175 tubs

liquidleaf

liquidleaf

New member
Joined
Aug 13, 2004
Messages
800
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Age
48
Location
Buffalo, NY, USA
Here's the weekend project my husband and I just finished.
It's a new rack for our snake room. It houses two Iris VE175 tubs from Reptiletubs.com and will have a 5x2x2 homebuilt cage (which we got when we adopted our BCCs) that sits on the top.

The two tubs hang in 2x4 frames. There are support tabs on the rim of the lids that support it very nicely. Each frame has rail slides on it, and can be pulled out of the main stand just like drawers.

We still have to move the big cage (probably tomorrow), so I'll have to take more photos when the whole setup is all ready. I can provide dimensions for anyone who is interested in doing something similar. You could probably build a tall rack that could house probably 5 of these tubs, they are big enough each for an adult boa.

Photos (my new kitten got in a few shots):

Front view-
stand_front.jpg


Front view, top drawer pulled out-
stand_drawer_out_01.jpg


Side view, top drawer pulled out -
stand_drawer_out_02.jpg


Side view-
stand_side_01.jpg


One side looking down-
stand_above_01.jpg


Diagonal view-
stand_diag.jpg


Detail of front of drawer-
stand_drawer_detail.jpg
 
That looks great! My only concern would be the strain on the sliders with a water and bowl and snake added to the tub... Do you already have a solution for that?
 
Each drawers slide is rated for 75 lbs load, so it should be fine. We didn't get the flimsier slides for that exact reason.
 
Good deal. I hope it works well for you. Please post an update after a while with the pros and cons.
 
Lauren, It looks nice,I like the theory, and yes keep us updated with the pros and cons. But I do have to ask have you tried those draws with weight in them yet ? sorta kinda like a stress test ?
 
Yep, we have putting weight in them. They slide pretty smoothly. The only issue we had was getting the clearance of the drawer slides just right (not too tight so the rollers wouldn't bind, or too loose so the track would pop off on one side), you really have to get it within an eighth of an inch, but once the clearance is right, all is good. We didn't get the cheapo rails because we knew it'd have to support quite a bit of weight. These aren't industrial-sized as well, 75lb load capacity for each "drawer" seemed good since with snake, water, hide and bin, the weight of each drawer shouldn't be more than 40 or 50lbs. The one monster female I have will reside in the homemade cage that will sit on top of the rack (the bins will be for smaller adult males).

It seems that the frame helps evenly distribute the weight in the bin (since the bin hangs on the frame). The bin's bottom has a plastic support grid underneath, and didn't deform downward when we put weight in it, either.

The only difficulty might be attaching flexwatt to the bottom of the bin, but that's what tape is for :) - and I left 2" of space between each bin, and the top and bottom of the stack.

I'll let you know how it works when I actually have snakes in the rack - I still have to move the monster homebuilt cage to that room and wire up the Flexwatt.
 
liquidleaf said:
Yep, we have putting weight in them. They slide pretty smoothly. The only issue we had was getting the clearance of the drawer slides just right (not too tight so the rollers wouldn't bind, or too loose so the track would pop off on one side), you really have to get it within an eighth of an inch, but once the clearance is right, all is good. We didn't get the cheapo rails because we knew it'd have to support quite a bit of weight. These aren't industrial-sized as well, 75lb load capacity for each "drawer" seemed good since with snake, water, hide and bin, the weight of each drawer shouldn't be more than 40 or 50lbs. The one monster female I have will reside in the homemade cage that will sit on top of the rack (the bins will be for smaller adult males).

It seems that the frame helps evenly distribute the weight in the bin (since the bin hangs on the frame). The bin's bottom has a plastic support grid underneath, and didn't deform downward when we put weight in it, either.

The only difficulty might be attaching flexwatt to the bottom of the bin, but that's what tape is for :) - and I left 2" of space between each bin, and the top and bottom of the stack.

I'll let you know how it works when I actually have snakes in the rack - I still have to move the monster homebuilt cage to that room and wire up the Flexwatt.
Click to expand...
OK This was well thought out, That was my concern the bin distorting,Looking Good. :)
 
dimensions

Could you PM me the dimensions. I was just about to buy ply sheet and cut it down to build a rack 4 high - 5 is a little too tall for easy access. Its been a few weeks, have you had any problems with warping or slipping off the framework? Any updates would be appreciated.
 
Sorry for the delay. I will put dimensions here tonight.

I do finally have snakes in the rack. I did see ONE issue when I put my heaviest female (8.5foot suri) in the upper drawer when it was fully extended - I had to support the front of the "drawer" frame because it tilted downward a bit (since all the weight was on just 3" or so of extended drawer rail). This female is extremely heavy and she is just in this rack temporarily (until I move her larger cage into the same room).

The drawer is completely stable when pushed in even a few inches. Just seems a bit wobbly at FULL extension with heavy weight. I might make a temporary fold-down leg or support to put under the outward edge of the drawer when it's fully extended if I have to do maintenance or keep it open for more than a few moments, though I will not be keeping such heavy snakes in the rack long-term. The drawer didn't fail, just tilted downward at the most extended edge.

The lower drawer, which I put the lighter 7.5' male suri into, did not tilt forward in this way. I think that this design rack, if not used with a temporary drawer support (or support from the person opening the drawer), wouldn't be ideal for heavy-bodied snakes larger than 7.5'. I'm not sure of the exact weight of the female (nor did I want to mess with her TOO much, she was in full blue when I moved her), but I can hardly lift her on my own. She, with the weight of the frame and the tub, is probably pushing the upper end of the drawer's weight limit. :) It didn't break, so I'm happy. Just got to think of how to make the "open" support. Heh heh - she wasn't supposed to even BE in the 'tub' part of the rack at all, but it turns out the door into that room is narrower than the big girl's cage, so I have to modify her cage a little before she can go back to her normal "home" :).
 
I should note - if the more heavy-duty (or industrial) drawer slides were used (ie ones with 150+ lb capacities), this frame would probably still work.

I won't be changing the drawer slides, since I will just be keeping adult males in the tub drawers. Good to know the limits of the design though.
 
Ok, really, last post for now. Even with the heavy female - I still didn't see any downward deformation or sagging in the plastic tub. So the only weak point is the drawer at full extension that I can see so far.
 
Does the rack show any tendancy towards tipping with the top drawer pulled out? I know filing cabinets have this very problem and I immediately thought that your design could possibly have this issue as well. Just a thought.

Griz
 
Nope. The rest of the rack was fine with the top drawer pulled out (except that flexing issue on the drawer).... there are enough 2x4s in the frame so that it's quite heavy. 1/2 of the back also has particleboard on it to stiffen it up, so that weight probably helps counteract the drawer. I think we overbuilt it, but overbuilding is always better than the reverse.

I have an idea for a support leg, I'll post pics after I rig it up, though I hope the drawer won't need it when the chunkybutt female is moved to her proper home.
 
Finally got around to taking more photos. Here's the rack with the wooden cage on top. I put reflectix on the sides of the rack to hold in heat (also taped reflectix on the underside of the tubs, so the heat from Flexwatt gets reflected up into each tub).

2_stand_with_cage_on_top_1.jpg


I stapled an old curtain over half of the front of the rack. My (hopefully) pregnant female hog island is in there, and she got a bit cranky after breeding and was striking the sides of the tub every time a shadow crossed in front of it, so I figured I'd give her even more privacy. It also helps hold heat in a little more on one side.

The male suriname will eventually go back into one of the tubs (right now he's in with the female in the wooden cage and doesn't seem to want to stop breeding)... Here's a closeup of the snakepile.

2_surinams_Jan07_1.jpg


I shall eventually post dimensions. I always seem to forget when I go in the snake room.
 
Wow, awesome rack! Love this idea. I've used these VE175 tubs and they take up a ton of space... Really cool to build a rack like that. If I ever have a use for such big tubs again I'll have to pick your brain ;)

ReptiRound-up said:
where did you get the tubs from
Click to expand...

You can get these tubs from http://www.reptiletubs.com or at Wal-Mart around Xmas. They are sold as Christmas Tree storage tubs for around $25-30 around Xmas.
 
Back
Top