>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? I was thinking that one can just run 2x4s from the basement
>floor up to the heavy wooden rafters, attach them to the rafters, and
>then add horizontal supports at the bottom to space the vertical 2x4s
>apart properly. Any thoughts on this? I guess the museum-type
>equipment purists won't like the idea, but it would be a cheap and
>functional solution for many of us. :-) Has anyone else here tried
>this?
Well, I'm sitting here typing this with a wooden rack on either side of the
desk. They're prefab "shelving units" that you put together. Of equipment
that's normally rack mounted I've currenly got a PDP-8/m in one and a
storageworks shelf in the other. Up until a few days ago, I also had a
High-Speed papertape reader in the one, so far that's the only rackmount
that I've tried that's been a tight fit. I've been buying them at "Fred
Meyer's", they're basically 4 boards that are about 5'3" high, with shelves
that are about 32"x18". I've found it best to buy 3 sets at a time to have
enough shelves for making up two. I also use them in my one storage unit,
and have a pair that are 3 sections long, and another that is 2 sections
long.
>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.? Just trying to think of ways
>to save space. Stacking system on top of system, helter skelter, as
>systems are added, tends to result in rather annoying, space hogging,
>piles of systems after a while, making some systems difficult to get
>to at times.
I'd recommend building shelves for your rack rather than trying to make a
non-rack mounted system a rack mount. That's what I do, and it's also what
we do at work. For example Sun Pizza boxes fit great on the shelf of a 19"
rack.
Zane
--
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh_at_aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast |
| | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |
Received on Sun Dec 29 2002 - 22:49:00 GMT