Mounting HP7970e 9-Trk 1/2" Tape Drive

[Jack Harper]

At 10:16 AM 2/11/2019, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote:
>On Mon, 11 Feb 2019, Jack Harper via cctalk wrote:
>>Hello Chuck -
>>I like the idea of those sliding rails - and they appear by the 
>>link to be good to 200-pounds.
>>However, with the HP7970 Drives, I would worry about the moment 
>>pressure exerted on the rack with the unit slid all the way out.
>>. . . The 19" rack that I have is actually fairly flimsy and I 
>>worried about the thing flexing with the stop/start (15ms stop) of 
>>the two Tape Drives.
>>Last thing I want is for the tape rack to start wandering about the 
>>room with tape action like some of the early disk drives (I 
>>remember reading that the original "large" UNIVAC Fastrand drum 
>>units laying horizontal would turn circles by gyroscopic action as 
>>the Earth rotated :)
>
>A few hundred pounds slid all the way out will topple it.
>If the center of gravity is NOT within the perimeter of the base, . . .
>Need to bolt the rear to the floor, or something SOLID, and extend 
>the "footprint" of the front to include where the center of gravity 
>is when fully extended.  And a bit more, so that setting a tool or 
>elbow on it doesn't topple it.



I agree 100% Fred... ...and once 300+ pounds of heavy ancient 
computer iron begins to topple, life becomes more exciting :)

I bolted the 19" rack with the two HP7970 drives down to a 3/4" thick 
plywood base about 36" square or so and then anchored that to the 
concrete floor - before I installed the drives.

See http://frobenius.com/190203%20Tape%20Drive5.jpg for yet another 
exciting photo :)


Best to the List -

Jack in the Rocky Mountains.





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