DIY 40(ish)U Rack Fun

[Ishar]

Posting this in Show Off because tis mostly that. However, its also a bit of a guide, but only because I decided to document my erm...adventure. Anyway...

Motivation:

Got the idea rather shamelessly from the guys at Deadly Computer. Also, it would be kinda cool, and theoretically cheaper, and gives you options for mounting non-rack equipment. (Just add real shelves)

Costs/Materials:
[spoiler]Rack mountable cases:
6 in my case. 300 Bucks. (50 bucks each) Ouch.

Metal:
(Wood is ALOT cheaper)
6' Steel Box Tube x4. 22.41 each, and about 11 bucks to ship. (shipping isn't itemized, so a guess).
3' Angle iron x22. 3.85 each, and again, about 11 bucks to ship.
3' Rectangular bar x25. 3.09, and again, about 11 bucks to ship.

This totals to about 300 bucks. 77.25 for the rectangular bars(cross braces), 84.7 for the angle iron, and 82.64 for the tubes, + shipping. Total: 244.59, and about 30 bucks (for me) to ship it. Mainly cause I bought it in two separate orders: angle iron + tubes, then rectangular bars. Cause I forgot (didn't realize?) I needed them. Believe it or not, I checked the local home depot (local=45 min drive away) and it was all more expensive (although available) there. Also, all that metal is of course, perforated, or slotted. (Mcmaster-Car calls it perforated, home depot called it slotted).

The tubes form the 4 'posts.' the angle iron connects the posts to each other, and form the 'shelving'. So far, it seems like It will support computers just fine. (I did test it, but didn't picture it, oh well, will get pictures after the paint dries).

The rectangular bars are just braces, to stop the pieces from rotating. Plus, they give it kinda a cool look. I can't be bothered to measure anything, so my braces are not symmetric or fancy. Oh, and its probably not a perfect rectangle. Maybe more of a oddball parallelogram? lol.


1/4-20 Bolts, nuts, lock washers, and flat washers:
I got 1 100 piece boxes of all those, and 2 boxes of nuts. (I messed up some of the nuts, you could probably get by with 1 box.) Mainly, I just do not like to do much math, and figured, 'the hell, I'll grab a 100 box and i wont have to think, or come back. Heh. (I also tried 2 inch bolts, which are way too long and have to be sawed off. I'm too lazy, so went back and got 1&3/4 after about the 10th bolt. ) You probably want 3/4 inch bolts if you intend to use washers on all the bolts...I left the washers off the majority of 1/2 inch bolts. Laziness, mainly, and length considerations. Really, it depends on how thick the metal you are bolting together is. Anyway, I didn't pay too much attention to the prices on this stuff, but the 1&3/4 inch bolts were 11 dollars a box, and the rest was less than 5. So probably in the neighborhood of 20-30 dollars. (Bought them, over the course of several 'trial and error' trips, at the local hardware store, so lost receipts). I have some bolts/nuts/etc left over, but not alot. So was probably worth the money buying the 100 piece boxes.

Casters:
I got really cheap really small ones, they fizzled totally, so went back and got monster ones that were 8 bucks each. the 4 of them seem to work pretty good for now, but its not fully loaded yet, so we will see. This adds another 30 dollars to the total. If your keeping score, thats about 350 bucks, + 300 dollars for the cases. Wheels are not absolutely necessary, but, its gonna be so heavy, theres no way I wouldn't put wheels on it!

Paint:
Spray paint for the win, I spent about 25 bucks, but could have gotton by with 4 cans. Oh well, now I have touch up paint on hand.

Zip ties:
For the wires, DOH! can get at walmart =0. In the automotive section, of all places. (I actually do have zip ties on like 3 pieces of metal, where holes didn't line up perfectly. It was like the last 3 pieces of metal I attached, and their 'function' was to stop the 'braces' from rattling against each other when they moved from side to side.(by attaching them to each other, doh!)

Wood screws + washers:
So far, 7 bucks and some change. Wood itself was free (scrap wood FTW!)

I don't think its actually possible to make a table of this in a post, so will just have to live with wall of text for now.[/spoiler]

Progress:
Constructed, Painted, Drying
Shelves painted and added.

Current 'pic':


Still to be done:
Done, except maybe sides/doors., one day. Sides would hide 99% of the internal wiring (Ps/2 cables and the like). but would also make removing the cases from the rack a MAJOR pita...unless I didn't extend them all the way back, or put some kind of door thing on the back section to make it accessible. (ponders cabinet style doors giving rear access). Maybe later. I think it turned out really well, actually.

Ishar

[Ishar]

Construction/Pictures:

Start through Painting
[spoiler]
Angle iron and tubes in Kitchen right after arriving:


Bolting the 6' pieces together:




The trick is to use a short screw, put the screwdriver inside the tube, and hold it in place and put the bolt on the outside.

"Front" done:


Putting the 'connectors' between the front and back on:



MWAHAHA, A BOX!


Corner closeup:


Box sitting up. its taller than me:


See, at this point, i was just discovering that 1 bolt holding each piece of angle iron to the tubes = WOBBLY BOX. and this is where I went back to the drawing board and bought a bunch of rectangular iron =0.

But first, I was to experiment with the 'rail'/shelf system:


I actually decided reversing them looked better, later.

See, this is after I discovered a oopsie: I cut the front and back pieces to be 19 inches. Sigh, they needed to be a little longer, due to my case not actually fitting in between them. Oops. So i used the scrap to extend them about an inch. Object Lesson: Before bolt first, cut later, then re-tighten bolts! (and in between, make sure that whats supposed to fit, fits!


At this point, I was basically just annoyed with the wobbly-factor and said, forget it, I'm gonna stick on my totally inadequate yet cheap casters, and roll it into a corner till my braces get here:


Several days later, the day my 'braces' were to arrive in the mail, I remember, HEY, i still have to install the shelving! (I also went back and added washers/swapped 2 inch bolts for 1 & 3/4 inch bolts)


As you can see, I actually forgot about the whole photo documentary until after bolting most of the shelving on..oops. Uh, the only caveat is that I made sure the nuts were facing outward, because cases are gonna be sliding into that space, y'know. Their approximately 8 inches apart. So, ultimately, there will be about an inch between each case. At this point, I was smart, and as i was bolting on shelving, I stuck my 'test case' in there several times make sure it worked. (Also, scratched it a few times, but hey, i have this handy black paint.

Close up of the "much bigger 8 dollar caster":


Label of the caster, cause I was feeling silly:


As an aside, my local hardware store doesn't actually use the bar codes. There's bar codes on everything in the store, but they just have this, ancient calculator with a ticker tape thing attached and they total up your purchase that way. LOL. Blast from the past, yo! He said they've been talking about getting a POS system for 12 years or so. hehehe.

My new metal arrived, yippy! (This package was pretty heavy, actually)


Bracing one side:


Bracing the top:


yeah, sue me, theres no symmetry or art to it. Its actually quite haphazard. I like it.

Bracing the bottom, all 4 casters attached:


Getting excited at this point, almost done!
Not really sure what I was taking a picture of here...Guess just the whole thing.


Oh, and yes, I sit in that chair while bolting in things. Am lazor! (actually, bending over that thing and squatting gets pretty old. I spent better part of the day working on this thing. maybe I'm just slow. Another shot of the beached tower:


My last few pieces of metal being used to stop the side braces from rattling against the side. This is where I resorted to a few zip ties. (They are not exactly structural, and If i have to, I do have a drill motor. It was getting dark outside, and I was in a hurry to start painting it!) Also, inquisitive cat supervises.



It LIVES! and does not wobble. At all. But a few pieces of metal are not attached yet...



All done, now to paint it!: Actually, at this point I went back and made sure practically every nut was still there and still tight, because at some point in here, I sawed off a few jagged edges. By far, the worst part of this project was using a hack saw to cut through metal. Bleh.


Front view:


My workbench:


Notice all the pretty boxes of bolts and crap. I sorta took over the very very messy utility room for my project here. Please Ignore clutter/dirtyness.

As you can see, at this point it is dark, and I have moved it into my cousins as-yet-unpainted car port to begin painting it. Cause, painting a rack black in the dark would kinda suck. LOL. Cousin is pictured turning on a fan for ventilation.


First coat of wet painted applied. Went back later and applied a second coast/touch ups. Will post pictures of it tomorrow. This was at like 10pm. I think I started at like noon? Bleh. Long day.
[/spoiler]

Shelving:
[spoiler]
First, a picture of one of the cases sitting in the painted rack. Illustrates function of thingie. Also, kitty is sniffing box. (Hmm, intmeresting paint smell?) Bleh, looks like I missed a spot too.



Ok, I have to confess, I grabbed Athena and sat her on this for the photo opp.


So, I couldn't find a truck to use to purchase my 1 peice of plywood. bleh. But I found enough scrap wood to cut into suitably sized chunks. I skipped picturing that part, heres the wood being painted!



Dry wall Screws + washers = mounting system, yay! (attaching painted shelves to bigboxthing)



Meh, a random shot of my tools. High tech stuff!



3 shelves and counting!



Skip to the end, with a case sitting in the bottom, also skips my 'oops' moment of having to move the 'vetra' shelf higher so the top case would fit (hard to see the 'top shelf' from this angle:


[/spoiler]

[Ishar]

Hah, hit 10k char limit on 2nd post too. mwahaha. Good thing i reserved this post too...anyway.

fixing wheels/finishing up:

[spoiler]
The Problem Wheels: (This whele-mounting idea (only 2 holes fastened) did not work. bummer.


New wheel solution: Mount 2 by 4 scraps to the metal, then attach wheels to that! Brillient! (it worked, actually)


Kittah sleeps on weird things, like, drill motor cases. Quasi surprised that she wasnt fleeing from all the horrible grinding noises and crap the grill motor was making.


Didn't picture it, but I put a peice of 3/4 inch plywood between all 4 2x4's. I am not sure if it adds anything structurally, but it did make the wood 'base' more attached to the metal frame.

Standing, 6 comps, no warping/twisting. yay!


It took the better part of 2 days to 'wire it', but i was OCD about neatness and overkill on zip ties. Pic of ps/2 cable from the KM sorted, but just laying over the top of the rack waiting for me to do something w/ it.


Apparantly, Artemis trusts my construction enough to play under it. Kinda scared me at first, but pretty sure if it was gonna collaspe it would have by now. Athena is apparantly either fatter, or not quite as sure of my abilities.


Mounting my vetra with molding tape (aka double sided tape, mounting tape, whatever. can get it at walmart in automotive. I think its officially for putting on siding and crap to cars. I like it tho. Best thing evah. mounted 2 vetra, a switch, a usb hub, 5 external HDD, 6 UPSs, 1 y-Keys an d a couple of USB to PS/2 splitters to the wood on my rack with it =0.


Everything wired, rear view.


Side


otehr side:


behind my desk is like, the only place in my room it would fit, lol.


Front view, everythings on, but flash ya cant tell.


meh, lights off, no flash. camera wasnt perfectly still, so some exposure. white thing is a cabinet it was sitting on. teh green 'bars' are the vetra, lol. none of that is quite that bright. the red glow is a red 'power on' light on the back of eth PSU of one of the machines, the blue light is one of my external hard drives.

[/spoiler]

[Meathead]

what is it? lol

[Ishar]

Err, its a metal frame for mounting computer cases into. =0. Like servers and stuff. Tho in this case, for mounting my 6 computers vertically.

Google it =0. Im too lazy to go drag up a picture of one right now. tomorrow(ish) i will post more pictures illustrating the use to which its gonna be put if ya just wanna wait lol.

[Biomehanikka]

i see now that its a diamond pattern on the side, at first glance i thought that u had purchased some metal, threw it in a pile, and started adding screws and bolts, but from the shot after u painted i gotta say it looks great!

[Vyndree]

I <3 your cat!

Bengal?

[Ishar]

About kitty:
Athena (pictured overseeing Project Babel (as in, tower of) is a Bengal hehe. Brown spotted, almost a year old. Got her from Legacie Bengals. She flew on a plane! Actually, she's my second Bengal, my first was Artemis, a silver marble, who is almost 2. She's pictured sniffing the 'big box thing' at some point too. I might not have uploaded that picture yet. hmm. Athena is a lot more, uh, in the middle of things generally. She breaks things. hehe. Real laid back tho. Err, im a big cat person, lol, if it wasn't obvious.

@fur

well, initially, I *thought* I could build it for 200ish bucks. Now is over 300 and approaching 400. Meh, but I didn't exactly blueprint the thing, so i can't complain. I really like the whole, 'hey i built it' feeling, hehe. Except when its like, oh gee, its wrong, well, hey, I built it!

Honestly, the coolest thing about it for me is that I got to make it extra long, and stick shelving behind each case. I plan to sit (well, mount) my 6 UPS's behind each case, and chain them off of each other so i only have 1 power cord for the thing. That would be the idea, anyway. Also built a 'shelf' to sit above the comps, and I'm gonna mount my Vetra, KM, and Switch to it. All this is more or less possible with a commerical rack, just, i dunno. I like my way lol.

Oh, another money thing, and deciding factor: I couldn't find remotely affordable rails!? All the rails I found were in the 100 dollar price range. (course, as you say, if you are in an urban center and a company is offloading, meh.) I happen to be pretty rural.

Hehe, and yeah, the cat watched pretty much the whole process. She stalks me about half the time though, so hard to say if she's actually pondering the big metal thing (hmm, potential cat tree?) or just stalking me.

about wood, building it out of wood, well, wood is actually probably heavier than the metal. And fully loaded, this things gonna be in the 500 pound range already. (6 UPS's (hush, there was a deal online once, LOL) + 6 comps) Well, teh 500 pound range is a ballpark guess, but I figure maybe 50 pounds (to be safe) a compx6=300 pounds, maybe 100 pounds for the thing itself (after adding the wood shelves) again being generous, + the UPS (maybe another 50 pounds or so) 450 pounds. If I ever transport it, i'll be sure to go to one of those industrial weighing things and weigh the truck before and after. Meh, the 500 pounds figure is what I used to determine the caster to buy anyway, so over-estimating isn't a bad thing. (by that I mean i waltzed into the hardware store and said "i got a 500 pound box I want on wheels, help!)

eh. the dump is a nice idea, but begs the question, what were you doing at the dump often enough to notice them?

[Sarduci]

I'll see if I can find the name of the place I bought rack rails from. They were pre-tapped 40u sections you just screwed to a wood frame. Could get them in 10U sections. It was from some overclocker site from a few years ago. Damn my piss-poor DNS server for not currently resolving Google..... *sigh*

Another place to get rack stuff to make your own is from your local music store. Preferably a place that is into heavy metal... [img]../forum/images/smilies/thumbup.png[/img] DJ's and band use it for mounting gear in boxes. That's where I picked up my mounting screws for really cheap. Quick release tool free design FTW.

[Sarduci]

Legacie Bengals[/url]. She flew on a plane! Actually, she's my second Bengal, my first was Artemis, a silver marble, who is almost 2. She's pictured sniffing the 'big box thing' at some point too. I might not have uploaded that picture yet. hmm. Athena is a lot more, uh, in the middle of things generally. She breaks things. hehe. Real laid back tho. Err, im a big cat person, lol, if it wasn't obvious.

I think it's time to make a cat forum. [img]../forum/images/smilies/biggrin.png[/img] My cat loves to play the jump-on-my-hand-when-I-really-need-to-heal game. I never have a camera around for when she wants to 'help' me. Try explaining to a PUG why the healer ran to the other side of the room and aggro'ed the boss..... "But it was my cat..... I forgot to give her cheezeburgers...."[img]../forum/images/smilies/rolleyes.png[/img]