DG S/130 progress

[Henk Gooijen]

Jay wrote...
------
>>Henk wrote...
>>------
>>On the right vertical post of the rack you mount two hinges. Each hinge 
>>has
>>a pin that simply goes through a hole of the vertical post, and one screw.
>------
>Yep, I got the installation instructions in the manual, which are
>wonderfully detailed WRT rackmounting. You may not have noticed this
>though.... If you are mounting the 6125 anywhere except the very top of the
>rack - no problem. However, if you are mounting it right at the very top 
>you
>will want to know something that the manual isn't clear on. Those pins you
>mention above - they look like they are threaded and you just screw them
>into the hinge from the top. But if you look very closely, you'll see that
>the pins can be screwed into the hinges *from the bottom* until they stick
>out of the top the right way. You won't get it mounted in the very top of a
>rack unless you do it that way (depending on your rack of course).

Yup, I mounted the 6125 in the top of the rack. The thought indeed did not
occur that you can screw the pin in the metal hinge from the *bottom* side.
I removed the top plastic part with the Data General text (top cover) to
get the clearance space needed to hang the drive on the pins. If you have
a helping hand you can leave the top cover installed. Make sure that the
other guy is holding the drive while *you* screw the pins in :-)
Either way, you have to hang the tape drive on th pins while it is at 90
degrees with the front of the rack (fully "opened" position).

>>------
>>It is heavy, I estimate between 40 and 50 kilo. Not good for your back,
>>but when you're on your own (unloading the van) ...
>>------
>Tell me about it. After I mounted the 6125 I noticed the blue cover door
>wouldn't open all the way due to clearance on the left front of the rack.
>Further scrutiny revealed that $previous_owner mounted the two front
>vertical rails with a slant. The front vertical rails are flush with the
>front of the rack at the bottom, but at the top they are back about 1/2
>inch. So today I am unracking everything in the rack, adjusting the two
>front vertical rails, and then re-racking everything. What a major pain.
>My fault though - I should have noticed this before I got all the way to
>the top in putting stuff in the rack.

Ughh, that's no fun!  If my rack was like that, I would not have noticed
that either. You simply don't expect that, especially because this is
not possible with DEC (or HP) racks. They are either riveted or welded.

Enjoy the disassembly/assembly, a great moment for many pictures :-)
- Henk