DIY Equipment Racks

From: William Donzelli <aw288_at_osfn.org>
Date: Sun Dec 29 20:53:00 2002

> While thinking about racks to use for mounting my PDP-11/44
> components, as well as other equipment from test equipment to audio
> and synth equipment, something just occured to me: why bother with
> hunting down steel racks when some 2x4s and lag bolts may suffice just
> as well?

This is an old ham trick. In theory, it works, but it really is not very
practical, with the work involved. It is much easier to just find a rack,
or just find the rack rails and attach them to the wood.

> Lastly, has anyone on this list tried retrofitting non-rack-mount
> equipment into racks? E.g., welding (or "JB Weld"ing) rack-mount tabs
> onto systems like PCs and Kaypros, as well as making rack-mountable
> shelves to hold the Macintoshes, etc.?

Shelves are easy to make. At just about every hamfest, there is usually
some hunk of junk rackmount dofunny sitting in the dumpster at the end of
the show (act fast, as the vultures are out). If you examine how many are
made, you can generally find a pair of metal brackets that will do the
job. These brackets, somewhat triangular and always in pairs, were a very
common way to attach off-the-shelf chassis to rack panels. If you can't
bolt these directly to the thing you want to mount, try cutting a square
of plywood with a few screws, and perhaps some aluminum angle stock.

William Donzelli
aw288_at_osfn.org
Received on Sun Dec 29 2002 - 20:53:00 GMT