How To: Simple melamine rack w/ heat [DU nono]

So this is a how-to to make a simple melamine rack.


I use ¾” melamine

White peg board
1 drill
1 electric screwdriver
a box of 1 ¼” gold screws

Drill bits that are slightly smaller then the diameter of the screw. 3/32 was too small, a step up would be better. Buy multiples because you WILL snap them while drilling.

Pre-drilling is a MUST or else the wood will just fall apart.

The racks I have pictured are roughly 2’ W x 6’ T x 1’ D and are made to hold 6 qt sterylite tubs. Each rack has 12 shelves, and holds 3 boxes per shelf = 24 boxes total.
Each rack has 2 side pieces that measure 8” x 6’, and 13 shelve pieces that measure 24.5” x 12”


I make a variation of this that has 9 shelves, and is made to hold [1x] 32 qt tub, or [2x] 15/16qt tubs PER shelf. It has 2 side pieces that measure 12” x 6’, and 10 shelf pieces that measure 24.5” x 16”


*You may notice that there is a 4” difference between the width of the sides, and depth of the shelves, this is to make installing the heat tape on the rack easier. I use 3” flexwatt, and that gives me ~ 1” of area to play with. I will add that step to this later.


So you start with your 2 side pieces and one end on the floor.


You pre-drill and screw in the sides to the bottom piece, line the shelf up to the bottom of the side piece [which will eventually be the front of your rack] . You then repeat it on the other end. At this point the rack is very unstable, and hard to work with in its current position. So I add a second shelf on each side before I tip it up vertical.



I use a box to measure how tall I want the space between the shelves to be. I make these racks for the tubs to be used WITH their lids. For this I used a 32 qt tub [w/o its lid]


** for the bigger rack, I use a 32qt tub [minus its lid] with an extra shelf piece stacked on top to give me the vertical space I want.

I use 3 screws per side of each shelf. I drill the first and the last hole [I can see where they need to be compared to the shelf] then I use a piece of paper or card board or a ruler to line up the middle hole.


Then you just fill the rest of the space up with shelves. Always remember to line up the shelf to the front of the side piece so you get an even front and back.

After the shelves are made, carefully drop the rack back onto the floor, face down. Place the peg board face down [so the white will show when you are looking straight on to the rack] and start screwing on the pegboard. No pre-drilling required. I use 3 screws per shelf here as well.






So Heating the rack! I designed the rack so this part is pretty idiot proof. You will need 1 solid piece of heat tape, that you will just zig zag back and forth over the shelves ad that you can wire either at the top or at the bottom.

First is attaching the tape to the rack.

Second is wiring the end. Everyone may have their own opinions on how to do this. We get our heat tape from The Bean Farm and they come with directions if this isn’t good enough.

You will need:
Flex watt / heat tape.
Wire Strippers [if you don’t have these, scissors can be used [carefully]
Pliers
Extension cord
Scissors
Aluminum tape
Metal & plastic clip sets.


Tear the aluminum foil into usable strips. You want 2 pieces per shelf that are as wide as each shelf, and 2 pieces per shelf that are ~ 6” long.


Start lacing the heat tape back and forth over the shelves. Start at the point where you will be plugging in the heat tape.


**Leave an additional 4” so if at some point you tear the clips off or something messes up, you can just cut off the end and re-wire it, w/o taking the tape off the whole thing and re-doing it from scratch.

Hold the heat tape in place so that it is taught. I pull it foreward so it is resting against the side piece, so I have area to tape it down to the shelf in the back. Start at the side that is attached to the shelf above, so you don’t end up with wonky tape, and you can flatten out any bubbles.

I peel back the first 2” of the long piece of heat tape hold it over the tape where I want it, and apply the sticky side down. I then move one hand under the tape and grasp the white paper back and slowly peel the tape off, and follow with my other hand pressing it into place. A Paint scraper also works wonder for this purpose. Repeat on the other side of the heat tape, starting on the same side.




Tape the 6” pieces perpendicular on the ends of the shelf.

Repeat on every shelf. You should end up with something that looks like this:


Cut the end off of the extension cord.


Separate the 2 sides of the cord ~ 4”,


strip the last ~1/4” [you want it long enough so that it is touching the metal on the inside, but not so long that it is sticking out the end!]



Clamp the metal clip onto the exposed wires of the cord, overlapping the plastic slightly. Do this on both sides.





Note: clamp them in a way that there is a “left” and a “right”


Clamp the other side of the metal clip till it pierces the sliver part of the heat tape. Do this on both sides.




Now, plug the heat tape in to test that you have wired the tape correctly and that it heats up quickly. DO NOT TOUCH THE METAL PART WHILE IT IS PLUGGED IN. If the heat tape heats up, then you have wired it correctly. Unplug it and snap on the plastic clip covers.



The plastic clip covers are usually a 1 time thing, you almost always have to break them to get them off, so you want to make sure that it works before you put them on. Order extras just incase you mess up.

Now plug the cord into a dimmer or thermostat. Now you have a totally rad rack with heat. Woot.