14 Aug
2007
14 Aug
'07
9:23 p.m.
On 8/14/07, Jim Leonard <trixter at oldskool.org> wrote:
All this talk has inspired me to get a rack. But do
such things exist
as "personal" racks and/or half-height racks? Or should I be resigned
to just finding a full-height rack somewhere for $400 and find a place
to put it? (I have only about 10us of stuff to rack -- two scan
converters, two computers, that's it...)
6' and taller racks are the most common in my experience, but there
were plenty of 4' and shorter racks made, too.
I just picked up a really short DEC rack from Patrick at VCFmw. I'd
quote the model number, but it's hundreds of miles away and I can't
check the label. It was a semi-common item - it originally contained
a PDP-11/03 and RX01 and has approx 21" of rack space (12 U) and a
wood-grain Formica top.
DEC also made a large number of 42" cabinets with a curved-top profile
that was meant to be suitable for office or machine-room environments.
They will hold 3 RL02s or a CPU and two drives or whatever (approx 18
U, plus room in the bottom-back for a 3 U power controller (with a
kick-plate in the front). A bit older than those were some
similar-height racks from the 11/34 and PDP-8/e era with 3"-ish-tall
45-degree bevel/bezel on the top-front-edge, but I think those might
be a bit rarer.
If you want just your "10 U" and not any more, the table-topped rack I
described would work. If, OTOH, you would rather have things more
than a few inches off the ground, you could use a 42" rack and load it
from the top down (and have room in the future for more
toys ;-)
-ethan