I think I mentioned this on the list before, but I can't find the emails
about it - I think the responses I was trying to dig up were sent directly
to me. So, I'll try again.
I have a PDP-11/44XA, that's the one that is in a "lowboy" rack with a slot
in the front door to slide your dectapes into the dual dectape drive. The
side panels of this rack measure 39.5" high by 30.0" deep. I would like very
much to make a dual bay rack out of this - where the two bays are directly
attached. I have recently obtained another rack that is exactly the same
height & depth, but it has no side panels. So, I was thinking about taking
one of the side panels off the existing 11/44XA rack, putting this new rack
next to it, and putting the side panel on the outside of the new rack -
voila - dual bay rack.
However, here's the problem - I see no way to easily bolt the two
non-sidepanel sides of the two racks together. How was this normally done?
Was there some special piece that slid inbetween the two racks to tie them
together? Without this will I run into problems with mounted peripherals in
each side clearing eachother? Dare I ask that someone has the mating
hardware spare to mate the two racks?
Thanks a million!
Jay West
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Hi Jay. I have done this two ways -
One is to just drill four 1/4" holes thru convenient adjacent hardware
and bolt the cabs together.
Another way is to find (or make) 'mending plates' that are spaced to fit
the inside rack mounting holes (which on my cabinets were drilled and
tapped 10-32) with holes drilled to match the rack hole pattern, and sized
to *pass* a 10-32 screw. These mending plates are placed so as to join
the inside rails of the racks together, front and back. I used four and
it made a combination that I could have supported my car on... eight
casters, etc.
Unfortunately, I turned my back for a second, and all that stuff ended
up in Munich - or I'd take pix.
Cheers
John