Anyone ever repurpose old server racks?

[FrankLee]

........

 

[d33pt]

i have. they are really modular, so you can put shelves wherever. If you can get the server rails, you can make slide out shelves that can hold hundreds of lbs. they are great.

 

[blazemaster83]

At one point when I was into audio equipment I had one full of amps and stuff. I supposed they would work great for tools if you installed some shelves. I repurposed some casters from a server cabinet for my US electrical tool grinder, they are rated for 1 ton and work great. I found em for free on CL.

 

[SuperSocket]

Man you're taking them just for the casters? That is a lot of work!

 

[redman43]

I haven't used an entire rack, per se, and definitely nothing for storage, but I have built a few entertainment centers using the vertical rack rails set up for the industry standard width shelves as well as custom shelf widths.

They'll hold some heavy *** receivers/amplifiers on each shelf, so weight capacity shouldn't be an issue as long as you use 3U-4U shelves. There are also a few companies that make drawers and stuff with the standard width as well.

IMO, there are a few drawbacks to using them for storage
1) that standard width. 19 1/8" if I recall.
2) if you put several racks side by side, there will be a few inches between the shelves in one rack and the shelves in the next rack. Good for air circulation, not so good for capacity.
3) the shelves will have vertical flanges on each side running front to back to support the shelf itself. Not so good if you want to try to use shelves in neighboring racks to store long stuff, although I suppose you could flip the shelf over.

If you've got a bunch of relatively small stuff, it should be perfect.

 

[slopecarver]

Take them and use them as an av equipment rack in your man-cave or re-sell them on avsforum.com, those guys are always looking for server grade equipment because it isn't cheap for consumers. Commercial places have the big bucks to spend on the overpriced components for a rack.

 

[redman43]

Good point slopecarver. While there are a lot of accessories and components available to make it more "storage-friendly", it is all gonna cost mucho $$$.

Take a look at the stuff at PartsExpress and HomeTech.

If you decide not to use the racks, just sell them someplace like avsforum.com.

 

[justanengineer]

I had a half sized rack (half height) that was brand new a few years ago. I thought about building a mobile shop stereo out of it, then I listed it on Craigs. It sold less than an hour later for $150, and I was much happier with the cash.

 

[willy3486]

Someone posted something similar here a while back, maybe 6 months ago. I would take them all. If they don't fit the purpose of what you want then advertise them on craigslist or the other one posted. If you don't use them you can at least strip them and sell as scrap. If you sell them you might can get enough for a nice storage cabinet or tool box. I usually will haul off old electronics just for parts. I had a old copier I stripped down got parts I wanted then sent the rest to the scrap yard.

 

[ADaughen]

Someone on here used one as pipe/thin wood storage. IMHO, it was overkill and a poor re-purpose due to the price they fetch on the market.

I have a 96u fully enclosed one I use to store all my spare PC gear in. I wanted to get a few empty rack cases and put my computers in it, but the price on cases is crazy expensive.

 

[darkk]

I threw out 6 or 8 of them a few years ago....now I need one to make a 4 1/2' short server rack for our new data closet in our new garage addition.....

 

[wssix99]

Move to Chicago and sell them to me! (I'm going to put my telco and A/V on racks.) Depending on what you can fetch for them, you may be able to sell them and use the money to buy something purpose-built for your situation.

 

[TheGrooveking]

I too now have access to a bunch being scrapped by the IT department, of course after I bought all of these for a portion of my home studio / guitar rig.

TheGrooveking

 

[Cryptic1911]

lol, I remember seeing that pic on the hc guitar forums and drooling over it. Much win detected in this sector!

 

[05CarbonDRZ]

HOLY ****!! That's the most audio gear I have ever seen,You must have quite the studio.I used to work at Overture center for the Arts in Madison,WI and your setup is far more impressive than a $250 million dollar performance hall

 

[fergus]

Well, this one goes to eleven...

 

[lowbucktruck]

Snap those server racks up and resell them! Then use the proceeds from the sale of the racks to buy some garage cabinets.

The parts for those server racks can get quite expensive (I had considered doing something similar myself, but decided it was too costly).

 

[CrashTestDummy]

I threw out 6 or 8 of them a few years ago....now I need one to make a 4 1/2' short server rack for our new data closet in our new garage addition.....

I used a baker's rack. They are about a 1/2 server rack height. They're chrome plated, come with several strong wire shelves that are adjustable in 1" increments, and can hold a bunch of weight. I have a UPS3000 on the bottom of mine, along with a Dell tower server laid on it's side (about 4U in height that way), a rarely-used scanner, the laptop I use for OBDI scanning (to keep it charged up), a couple of Sun Ultra 10's, monitor and keyboards. It also holds my home DSL router and wireless router. I zip-tied a couple of power strips to the side so I can unplug the two power strips from the wall and roll the whole thing around. They're great.

Gene Beaird,
Pearland, Texas

 

[Hosalabad]

Sorry late to the party, here's what I wrote anyhow:

Don't just take the casters. Those old Compaq racks have a whole lower stucture that you can unbolt from the bottom of the rack. They are bulletproof.


The top is 5" wide, with the outside edge at 3" and bottom edge at 1". The wheels mount on 1"x3" channel. Those racks are rated to something like 2000 pounds. I've had 600 lbs worth of Boggers on them in the shop and they roll around like butter.

I have two from work and they have moved everything from freezers to engines to axles in my shop and garage.

 

[BFBOB]

I got one free - full height, fully enclosed, no door. I took the rackmount verticals off, sawed them to the depth, bolted them to the sides for shelf supports. 3/4 plywood shelves. Not especially scenic, but holds a lot of stuff, and all free. I already had the plywood.