Damn it. So just mounting the Servers on top of each other and screw in via the Rack Ears basically ?
I learned a little bit more about how they do everything specifically, and I have some ideas on how to modify my design to simplify it in a way where I can potentially bring the cost down for the custom design. It ends up leaning toward what we talked about, so this is where I'm at right now:
If it ends up being expensive, I'll cut it up and go fully adjustable/modular and I already have those ears so it'll be made for that
The shipping for the custom one ended up being much lower than the other quote I received. It did look "too high" but I don't really have a frame of reference so I just assumed the other would be similar. So that's what makes it potentially viable. I believe it's because the premade ones are also prepackaged individually for resale, and the custom ones aren't so maybe it saves a lot of volume (still heavy.)
I really do still want to avoid cutting it up too much, or trying to be "smart" and introducing some structural design flaw into it that makes them all useless.
@VirMach: a simple Solution I thought of, but can turn out ugly as ****, would be to get ideally these
Otherwise on the Cheap some say 75mm x 45mm Pieces of Wood and place these in the space between the 2 Choices for the Rack Ear Holes Pattern (M6 or some Imperial Screw Size) on the SAMSON SRK21 (or just after the Hole Pattern, in other Cases where you don't have such Obstacle):
View attachment 43730
Pre-drill 3 Holes per 1U as usual in the Wood and Optionally add a Wood Insert, so you can attach the L-profile "Rails bottom" using a Metal Threaded Screw (instead of a Wood self-threading Screw).
Otherwise take a cheap Rack Strip such as one of these:
View attachment 43732
Søgeresultater - side 1 - "Rack Strip"
www.thomann.dk
e.g.
Rack Rail Punched steel rack rail with three holes per U, 9.5 mm hole size (according to IEC 60297), Powder-coated steel, Material thickness 2 mm, Weight 1.45 kg, Length: 45 U, Colour: Black
www.thomann.dk
And mount that at 90° with a spacer (e.g. Wood) in the same Place.
Then put a L-Profile "Rails Bottom" like this (challenge is to get it thin enough, 3mm is standard, 2mm is a bit more difficult to source and get it shipped to Denmark for a reasonable Price):
Material:Stahl feuerverzinkt Form:Winkelstahl gleichschenklig Werkstoff:S235JR Oberfläche:innen und außen verzinkt Herstellungsverfahren:gewalzt Norm:verzinkt nach EN ISO 1461 Außenabmessung:30 mm x 30 mm x 3 mm Länge:1000 mm Ge…
www.stahl-shop24.de
View attachment 43731
But if you go full-custom and don't have the Rack already, maybe it's just easier to get the Rack Strip and the Steel Profiles, then Screw everything in some IKEA-like Furniture Cabinet or Cupboard. You might at that point not even care about the Rack Strip Holes Pattern for the Rack Ears mounting as you can oversize slightly anyway (e.g. do a "Shelf" every 50mm instead of 1U).
Okay that took a while but I finally pictured all this in my head. Just one thing for our case specifically though, these are ending up in a datacenter facility, so I think they would be pretty upset once they see me bringing in Ikea furniture and wood into their multi-million dollar facility.
And once I'm done explaining to them it's to save a few dollars per server, I don't think I'll ever be allowed back in.
I've done (or tried) what you said in the past, several years ago. I really hated it. A nightmare in many ways once you start using it but maybe I could have done it better (not with wood, etc, by the way, the posts you mentioned, 90 degree, etc.) This was for my personal cabinet at home. Then in the end you still have to basically buy a bunch of stuff so it doesn't really save money. It seems like every solution ends up adding up to the same thing.
By the way, I just checked the price of those steel slotted things I told you to purchase as part of the cheap solution, maybe it is in the US, but I did not realize how much more expensive they have gotten. Crazy. So I think at least for me, that solution no longer makes sense either.
EDIT -- I will say though perhaps one solution for you specifically, if you have all these in the same cabinet, is to essentially do what you said but skip any actual rails, just bring one set of posts closer, use your rack ears, mount it back and front, all 4 sides each server, they won't go anywhere. As in, attach the ears directly to the server at that point and every time you have to take a server out and have to undo 8 screws, just remember of all the money you saved. Plus you wanted to screw them in anyway, correct (so it doesn't slide around.) You're going to be making a lot of holes anyway, just make a couple in the chassis before you put everything in those CSE512's as needed.
EDIT2 -- Oh right you don't even need 4 of them just two, in the back only. It already has front ears.
EDIT3 -- You don't even need to make a hole I don't think, it lines up, but it doesn't "clasp" it, I just had a look. Depending on tolerances should work.
github.com
