A jumbled mess #

The purpose of this rack is to contain and organize the jumbled mass of wires, mini pcs and networking equipment scattered across my desk and pegboard. After watching too many woodworking videos and reading up on Jeff Geerling’s Project Mini Rack I was inspired to build my own 10" rack. The rack would need to contain:

Hardware #

After doing some measuring and modeling in TinkerCAD I settled on making a box out of 1/2 inch plywood that would have an interior size of 10" x 11" x 11". Given the 1/2" thickness of plywood TinkerCAD helped me figure out what size boards I would need. After sketching it out in my notebook, I headed to the hardware store. Shout out Discount Builders Supply & Hardware for being independent, helpful and well priced. Every person I talked to be in a good mood and wanting to help, a nice pace of change from the big box stores like Home Depot.

For the hardware I got:

• 24" x 48" Plywood and had the guy at the store rip it in half to get 2 12" boards
• 6U Gator Rackworks Rack Rails
• 10-32 x 1/2" Screws to screw things into the rails
• A Kreg pocket hole jig
• Kreg 1/2 inch pocket hole screws
• Short wood screws to screw the rails into the cabinet
• A 3d Printed a 1U shelf
• A cheap home depot jig to make pilot holes for cabinet hinges
• Full overlay hinges
• Water-based polyurethane to finish the cabinet (I was ok without a stain and using cheap plywood)
• Wood glue

Assembly #

I made a number of mistakes while assembling mostly due to impatience and lack of experience. After watching some youtube, I learned to go slow and use painters tape but I tried to cut everything by hand. The first cuts were wildly crooked. After pausing to think I realized I could use the clamps to hold down an old yearbook as a straightedge guide! Unfortunately, I didn’t figure out that trick until I cut the door so all of the other pieces were a little off.

My bad cuts caused other problems down the line. If you look closely there are strange gaps or chips all over the project and the misaligned panels caused the pocket hole screws to stick out in a couple places. Regardless, I am pleased. There is a saying that you are more attached to things you build than buy. This has always proved true for me as the time invested increases how much I enjoy using it, especially as the next upgrade might be around the corner. I am especially happy with the door. As the last part of the project it came out cut just perfectly to shape. I challenged myself cut a 45° angle on the handle side to add some grip as you open it. The only jank with the door is the fact that the hinges are designed for 3/4" thick wood so I made the holes for the hinges intentionally shallow to accomodate for 1/2" plywood. Although the hinges are not flush, I don’t mind because the door is designed to be closed most of the time.

Reflection #

I am really happy with how the cabinet turned out. I am especially happy to have a home server that has huge amounts of storage as a centralized backup. I recently ran a Google Takeout and collected most of our family photos to be served via a open source Google Photos alternative called Immich.

In the future I would like to figure out a ventilation system so I can add a panel to the back and work on muting the sound of the spinning drives in the NAS. I also need to work on the software that runs on Ubuntu. I eventually want to use MergeFS and SNAPRaid to provide some drive redundancy. I also need a third (and offsite) location to complete the 3-2-1 backup strategy, perhaps I will start to rent a Hetzner Storage box or use Backblaze B2. I may also just start to cycle hard drives and store them at my sister or partner’s house.

As I continue to work on that I will be sure to update this blog.