On Nov 18, 22:18, Ian Primus wrote:
> The Fujitsu
> Eagle is another story entirely. I have looked at the rails some
more,
> and they do appear to be safety rails, and they are missing the rear
> right angle flange that would allow me to screw them into the rack.
> Also, even if I did have this flange I do not know how I am to get
this
> drive into the rack at all. I need to somehow lift the drive up far
> enough so I can screw the rails in place.
No, if they''re the normal Eagle rails, they *do* come apart. The
normal method is to separate the outer (main) assembly, fit it, with
the back bracket, to the rack, and get two people (or possibly the
industry-standard pile of books or wood) to lift the unit to the
correct height, while you guide first one side and then the other into
the fixed part of the rails. It's often easier to get the drive lined
up, close the front of the cab, then slide the rails onto the drive,
rather than wiggle a 200lb drive onto a moving (sliding!) target.
Are these rails made of what looks like brushed aluminium alloy, about
3" high? Slide the outer part back; it will stick out about half the
drive length. You should have an inner (actually, it's the middle)
layer of slide, with round-bottomed grooves on top and bottom edges
(where the ball-bearings run), probably still more-or-less aligned with
the front and back of the drive. This slides backwards (it's much
stiffer to slide than the outer section, and goes "click" as the safety
button engages in a round hole (abut 3/4" diameter) near the front of
this middle layer. At this piont, the amount of rail extending out
behind the drive is just a little more than the depth of the drive
itself. Press the button in, push back some more, and the whole
middle+outer of the slide will come off the drive.
> But, there I face another snag. The Digital rack I am installing this
> in is not threaded. Also, the spacing between the front and the back
is
> different than the other rack I have, and I noticed that some of the
> rails I had didn't fit as easily as they could have. Are there really
> different depths for racks?
Yes, there are. Some racks have the verticals closer to the front,
some (comms racks) have them set further back ( to allow for a door
closing over cables plugged in to patch panels. And there are shallow
racks, instrument racks, deep racks, ...
Add to that, different methods of ixing. As you look at the rack from
the front, you see a flange with the mounting holes in it (one on each
side of the rack, obviously). Some things are meant to fasten to the
front surfuce of this, some to the rear. Many types of rails fit to
the rear surface, otherwise they'd be too thick to get standard-width
equipment between the rails. The standard rails for things like an
RX02, a PDP/8E, modern Intel 2U servers, etc fit to the rear surfaces
for this reason.
> Another little snag I
> encountered with the Digital rack is that I _can't_ use the Tinnerman
> nuts that clip onto the rails. The problem is that in the Digital
rack,
> the rails screw in from the _back_ of the front part, instead of the
> front.
I think that's what I've just described, and you've obviously
discovered for yourself.
> I found a couple appropriate sized bolts
> with locking nuts that I was able to use, I'm going to get some more
at
> the hardware store tomorrow though.
Usually, the way is have a strip of steel, about 3/8" wide, and about
1/8" thick, with three of four tapped (threaded) holes in it, spaced to
suit the rack's mounting holes. If the front bracket (or flange) of
the rail has slots instead of holes (they usually do), you pick the
holes you need, put a couple of screws through the rack, and screw them
just a few turns into the metal strip. Do this front and back. Then
adjust the back bracket to about the right length, slip the rail's
flange between rack and metal strip, hold in place with one hand and
tighten up the screws (you want Philips head screws, not slotted :-))
with the other. Same at other end, then add more screws as required.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
Received on Wed Nov 19 2003 - 06:03:37 GMT