Here’s a full write-up on the first year of my Home-Lab: https://piefed.social/post/1002037

Since then I’ve now added networking and a self built 10" rack, I was undecided between MikroTik and UniFi but ended up going UniFI and I’m quite happy.

Building the 2020 Aluminum profile 10" server rack was a lot of fun and I learnt a lot of lessons along the way like:

  • Cutting perfectly straight with a hacksaw is a bitch and nearly impossible (or at least for me) would not recommend.
  • Buy a table/mitre saw or have them pre-cut
  • Tapping threads yourself is a lot of fun, and I would recommend doing it yourself, worked perfectly every time.
  • Bolt length and head size matters, even 1mm matters (that’s what she said)

It’s janky I know, but I love it and it’s a lot less Janky than when everything was just on my desk

Next step for me would be to buy a 3D Printer (Sovol S6 Plus Ace) and print custom racks for everything

Shout out to https://www.motedis.com/ for the Aluminum parts, they can cut and tap all the parts to your desired length if you don’t want to bother with that, but that’s half the fun (and frustration)

  • HelloRoot@lemy.lolEnglish
    5·
    10 days ago

    This is so fucking awesome! Congrats on the build!

    It’s jankey I know

    if this is jankey, my 10" rack belongs in the landfill

    Do you have any interesting plans to do something against the future dust buildup?

  • uhmbah@lemmy.caEnglish
    3·
    9 days ago

    I disagree, not jank.

    I have the same duck.

    Nice job OP. Thanks for posting. I’m going to do the same.

  • yo_scottie_oh@lemmy.mlEnglish
    3·
    9 days ago

    That’s pretty slick.

    What are the HDDs plugged into? Would you mind posting some photos of the back?

    • Ek-Hou-Van-Braai@piefed.socialOPEnglish
      2·
      9 days ago

      Right now the back is literally empty, I’m planning on moving all the power cords there soon.

      The HDDs are plugged into the ODROID H4+ (the thing that looks like a PSU)

      Check my linked post and you’ll see what I’m talking about

  • ohshit604@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    3·
    9 days ago

    Was eyeing a 52Pi rack for a good little while this post inspired me to get one, but then I saw the shipping cost.

    • Ek-Hou-Van-Braai@piefed.socialOPEnglish
      2·
      9 days ago

      Ooof that is rough!!

      If you can make your own like I did I would highly recommend it.

      If you have the Alu tubing cut and threaded for you most of the work is done

      • ohshit604@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        1·
        8 days ago

        If you can make your own like I did I would highly recommend it.

        Honestly I could, metal fabrication comes in handy, get it shop issued and laser or water cut send it through the machinists, I would have to supply the material myself which would be difficult but certainly doable.

        I’ll have to consider this! By chance do you have drawings or dimensions of your rack as a starting point, looks like you’re using Aluminum HSS for the frame? Completely understandable if you rather not share the details,

  • Ananace@lemmy.ananace.devEnglish
    3·
    10 days ago

    I absolutely love that zip-tie mounting solution, it’s the kind of thing I wish I saw in more homelab setups.

  • mrgoosmoos@lemmy.caEnglish
    3·
    8 days ago

    tapping threads is fun

    oh buddy you gotta put the disclaimer of “in soft materials” on that, it’s not much fun on steel even with buckets of lube

  • blimp@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    10 days ago

    Nice build. We use a lot of aluminium profiles at work for prototyping. We also have a mitre saw ;)

    You can also have polycarbonate panels made for cheap to have a more finished appearance at the cost of ventilation and ease of access.

    • Ek-Hou-Van-Braai@piefed.socialOPEnglish
      0·
      9 days ago

      Thanks yea that’s the plan I’ll add those to the side and something on top later on.

      Either that or I’ll 3D print a honeycomb mesh

  • Mr_Dr_Oink@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    8 days ago

    Thats awesome. And really tidy, ive only just started making something like this and it already looks like this:

  • BananaOnionJuice@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    1·
    10 days ago

    Looks much more professional than mine, I just built my case from wood added room for enough disks and placed it into a kitchen cabinet.

    And it’s a nice touch fastening the disks with zip ties.