Mounting HP7970e 9-Trk 1/2" Tape Drive

Greetings to the List - My very sincere THANKS for the enlightening responses from Chuck Guzis, Brent Hilpert and Jay West on mounting the HP 7970 tape drive Beasts. I am out of town on business for a couple days and will inspect things when I return. Chuck is, of course, 100% correct on the Tipping Factor. I learned that very quickly - If you open the front of the Drive and swing out the door with the electronics, drive motors etc, it is definitely heavy enough to tip a rack. I bolted the destination 19" rack down to the concrete floor with 3/8" bolts. It will not, I hope, soon go anywhere. Jay makes a very valid point - these things are heavy at 130-pounds each and are real Beasts to deal with especially by yourself. I got both drives into the rack this past weekend and I am an old guy (67) - I carefully stared at the thing before I started and finally figured out that I could, in fact, lift the drive from a waist high cart for a few seconds, but definitely could not lift it or lower it vertically with my arms - no way - and I would have one shot at getting the drives into the rack on the rails. I used heavy and very wide aluminum angle stock for the rails and very carefully measured everything so that I got the rails installed correctly at the right height inside the rack so the screw holes on the front of the drives would mate to the rack and the drives would not overlap or gap and so as to be level. In addition, I slathered a bit of Orange Oil onto the rails to reduce friction when sliding in as there is a lot of friction - 130-pounds of steel on aluminum. Anyway, I finally figured out after staring at it for a few minutes that I should be able to step up carrying the Beast onto a step that I built out of scrap wood - I needed about eight inches in additional height after picking up the thing - so, I took a deep gulp and did that - picked up the drive Beast and stepped up on the step with my left foot - got my left knee under the front of the Beast to raise it a bit and was able to slide the rear of the Beast onto the rails - once I had support on the back of the drive, I was able to then lift the front and slide the thing in. The #2 drive Beast went into the lower part of the rack similarly except that I had the exact opposite problem - I could not possibly pick up the drive and lower it vertically with my arms to align it with the bottom bay - I finally figured out to use a wooden ammunition box (strong with dove tail joints) of the correct matching height on end - I was able to lower the Beast to sit on that in front of the rack - and then slide the thing in. That worked! Hooray! I actually got the things in without hurting myself - DOUBLE HOORAY! I celebrated with a shot of nice Cognac :) Jay is also 100% correct - these things are real bears to deal with - do NOT try it on your own - I was lucky! Anyway, I somehow managed to get everything aligned correctly to within 1/32" or so - the drives look great! :) Remaining tasks: Figure out how to get the mounting screws into the left sides of the drives (the right screws are in); mount a fan on the bottom rear of the rack - I think that should blow in through a filter for positive pressure - is that correct? - and make the rack at least almost air tight to keep the dust out. See http://frobenius.com/190203%20Tape%20Drive1.jpg http://frobenius.com/190203%20Tape%20Drive2.jpg http://frobenius.com/190203%20Tape%20Drive3.jpg for a couple of snapshots. I thought about a photo of me partially soused with my celebratory shot of Cognac, but decided otherwise :) Best, Jack (Hello from the Rockies - we have two-feet of snow forecast overnight :) t 11:25 PM 2/4/2019, you wrote: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jack Harper, President Secure Outcomes Inc 2942 Evergreen Parkway, Suite 300 Evergreen, Colorado 80439 USA 303.670.8375 303.670.3750 (fax) http://www.secureoutcomes.net for Product Info.