Racks, rails and panels

On Nov 18, 22:18, Ian Primus wrote: more, this 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. is 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. rack, I think that's what I've just described, and you've obviously discovered for yourself. at 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