# where to buy a bakers rack?



## derangedjester (May 25, 2006)

howdy all,
where can i buy a good quality metal bakers rack atleast 48" wide??
thanks!


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## nyfrogs (May 1, 2005)

target!


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## Lancejr (Mar 25, 2006)

Costco


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## DartMan (Nov 29, 2005)

Lowes


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## sbreland (May 4, 2006)

I just did the price check rounds as I bought several of these racks, and target has the cheapest ones at about $55. The shelves hold 350 lbs I think.


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## DartMan (Nov 29, 2005)

The racks from Target:

How wide are the shelves?
How many shelves come with it?
Are they available in Black?


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

I got mine from BJs, a local variation of Costco. Most wholesale food clubs seem to sell them for around $60-70. As for the ones from Walmart and Target... make sure to inspect them closely. You're looking for an industrial kictchen rack that can hold around 600 lbs a SHELF - most of the chrome wire racks at Walmart and Target I've seen are just nice look alikes with weight ratings of only around 100 lbs a shelf - not heavy duty enough for what you need. 

With my rack, I've got 4 10gs across each shelf... I use LECA and false bottoms to make the tanks light weight so I can pick them up and move them but my rack is actually rated to take the weight of the tanks even if they were completely filled and set up fishtanks. With a shelf rated at 100 lbs only, you'd be lucky to have it handle the weight of the "light weight" frog tanks...

Here is a link to the same shelves I use ()


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## kyle1745 (Feb 15, 2004)

Just a note that the ones from SAMs club are a bit better quality than the ones from lowes or home depot and the exact same cost. They also hold 600lbs a shelf compared to the 300 of the ones from lowes.

http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/navigate.do?dest=5&item=168602


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## pigface (Apr 28, 2006)

The sams club ones are nice and sturdy , I just bought one last weekend . The shelfs are adjustable up-down like every inch . Alhough there is just not enough for 4 12" wide verticals per shelf it comes out about 2" short on the 4th tank because of the black framing on the tanks .


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

That's because the 48" is the outside dimention.

I get the ones at Target cause they're 60 bucks and I can get them in black. I can't think of an application where I'd need more than 300lbs per shelf, so they work for me.


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## Dancing frogs (Feb 20, 2004)

Well, those pound ratings are kind of bs, like the pound ratings on cardboard boxes.


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

Why do you say that? I'm just curious cause I was seriously going to go and measure the wire diameter on each kind of rack and look at the welds. If the welds on the ones Kyle posted anything like all of the other racks I've seen, that rating is only for a static load - may as well take those wheels off. The instant you try to move a fully loaded rack it'd fail. 

Aren't the edge crush rating on boxes though a real life regulated rating system?


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## topherlove (Jul 14, 2006)

Bj's 600lbs a shelf bout 70$


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## Dancing frogs (Feb 20, 2004)

defaced said:


> Why do you say that? I'm just curious cause I was seriously going to go and measure the wire diameter on each kind of rack and look at the welds. If the welds on the ones Kyle posted anything like all of the other racks I've seen, that rating is only for a static load - may as well take those wheels off. The instant you try to move a fully loaded rack it'd fail.
> 
> Aren't the edge crush rating on boxes though a real life regulated rating system?


Yeah, I would imagine so, what I'm saying is that the products rarely meet the test situations, example, can you stand on a 200 lb rated box without crushing it? I could be reading that rating wrong, so I'll go back to the shelf...

Years ago, I bought a rack that was supposed to hold (x) amount of weight per shelf...one of the items I wanted to rack was a heavy subwoofer box, which probably weighed less than half of (x), though it only took up one third the space on the shelf...I put the box on the center of the shelf, and it almost instantly failed...I'm glad it was the bottom shelf!


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

> which probably weighed less than half of (x), though it only took up one third the space on the shelf...I put the box on the center of the shelf, and it almost instantly failed...I'm glad it was the bottom shelf!


Welcome to the difference between a point load and a distributed load. Those shelves, and any shelf you buy, is rated for an equally distributed load. I wouldn't be suprised if it was rated using a rigid load (the difference between a steel slab and a bag of sand). X load distributed across the area of the shelf exerts a completely different set of stresses on the shelf than X load placed at a point on the shelf. 

A rigid load will also distribute it's weight differently than a deformable load. This difference in loading could easily make the difference between the 300 and 600 lb rating on our racks. 

When you placed the sub in the center of the rack, you exceeded the maximum bending moment of the shelf. This caused the shelf to fail in the center. 

I can't think of a simple way of describing bending moments right now, so if you're interested here's the nitty gritty of it: Statics was a PITA in school. I still can't draw V and M diagrams.

The rating I'm thinking of is the edge crush rating that's printed on the bottom of the box. I don't know the details of how it's tested, but my guess is that they take a length of cardboard and stand it up on end (with the ribs running up and down), then place a load directly over the center of the cardboard (as if viewing the length of cardboard from the end). They could also take a standard sized box that's loaded a particular way until it fails. These are just guesses though.


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## MikeL (Jun 13, 2006)

To put some numbers to the max bending moment commet:

A 300 lb point load in the center of a 4 ft shelf would result in a moment of 600 lb*ft. While a 300 lb distributed load would result in only 150 lb*ft in the same location. Pretty dramatic difference. 

* note: my quicky math assumes that the shelf is perfectly rigid and static.


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## sbreland (May 4, 2006)

DartMan said:


> The racks from Target:
> 
> How wide are the shelves?
> How many shelves come with it?
> Are they available in Black?


They have both silver and black racks, they have 36 and 48 inch racks, and I think they have 5 shelves (I only use 3).


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## sbreland (May 4, 2006)

By the way, what kind of vivs are you all making that need a 600lb shelf?? I have 4 10 verts on one rack and 2 33 cubes on the other and never have had a problem with the 350 rack. If you guys are making more than 350 lbs worth of viv in a 4 ft area, might be time to think of a more productive method.


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

The 4' racks come with 5 shelves, the 3' ones come with 4 shelves.


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## kyle1745 (Feb 15, 2004)

Just to backup up my point I bought 1 of each the lowes, and the SAMs, and the SAMs build quality is just a ton better. The lowes one shelf dips a bit from 4 10gal verts...

Ok back to your weight talk...


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## sports_doc (Nov 15, 2004)

kyle1745 said:


> Just a note that the ones from SAMs club are a bit better quality than the ones from lowes or home depot and the exact same cost. They also hold 600lbs a shelf compared to the 300 of the ones from lowes.
> 
> http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/navigate.do?dest=5&item=168602


Kyle
do you use all those shelves, or can you remove some, say to have 3 shelves. 

I ask b/c I need to change my application soon as I am moving and these racks are what I was going to try, but....I have a lot of 20H verts.

Would they fit on your Sam's Club racks? along with 10verts?

How many?

Thanks 

Shawn


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## kyle1745 (Feb 15, 2004)

Yes, and then you can order more poles so you can make more out of your extras. I think you could get 6 20gal verts on one, as the height gets used up fast with the vert tanks.

If you have a lot of verts you could look into larger shelves, but they run a bit more money.

I've been thinking about building some racks to better utilize space as 2x4s are cheap. I have a odd corner that I could use if I build them.


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## kyle1745 (Feb 15, 2004)

You can see my mess here:
http://www.kylesphotos.com/frogs/album45/Picture+001+copy.jpg.html


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## Dancing frogs (Feb 20, 2004)

kyle1745 said:


> Yes, and then you can order more poles so you can make more out of your extras. I think you could get 6 20gal verts on one, as the height gets used up fast with the vert tanks.
> 
> If you have a lot of verts you could look into larger shelves, but they run a bit more money.
> 
> I've been thinking about building some racks to better utilize space as 2x4s are cheap. I have a odd corner that I could use if I build them.


You're not the lone ranger...my "frog closet" is a little over 7'x7', ever try to find a 7' shelving unit :x ?


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## Lancejr (Mar 25, 2006)

As Mike stated earlier the 48" wide shelves are out to out, yielding 46" clear. So, Shawn you could get 3 20 verts per shelf, two shelves per rack would give you 6 20"s per rack. With the 10gal verts you can get 4 across and maybe three shelves worth if you don't mind the bottom shelf of verts kinda low. So that would be 8 or 12 per rack for the 10 gal. verts. I leave about 4" clear above each vert. for hooking up misters and hanging lights.


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## kyle1745 (Feb 15, 2004)

Bust out the hammer and nails...



> kyle1745 said:
> 
> 
> > Yes, and then you can order more poles so you can make more out of your extras. I think you could get 6 20gal verts on one, as the height gets used up fast with the vert tanks.
> ...


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