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)

Update on my Home-Lab now featuring a fully custom built 10" Aluminumm rack

all 43 comments

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[–] 54 points 1 year ago
[–] 36 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Thought it was so much bigger until I saw thoss HDDs 😀

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  • [–] 47 points 1 year ago

    Hey, nice rack.

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  • [–] 14 points 1 year ago

    I disagree, not jank.

    I have the same duck.

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

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  • [–] 14 points 1 year 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?

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  • [–] 9 points 1 year ago

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

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  • [–] 9 points 1 year ago (1 child)

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

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  • 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.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago* (6 children)

    How stable is this rack? Would that be a good frame for building a 3d printer table?

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  • [–] 10 points 1 year ago

    Extruded aluminum of that type is insanely stable and easy enough to build for a reasonably handy person.

    You only need a cheap cutoff saw and a drill, or you can order pre-cut and ore-drilled pieces to order.

    There are a number of makers of extruded aluminum building systems, basically tinkertoys for adults. I have personal experience using 80/20 and the Tslots brands. They are functionally identical.

    I have used it to build stands for heavy equipment like ultra-cold freezers for labs. It is more than sufficient for any server racking.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

    I have an FDM printer (Ender 3 clone) that is mostly 2020 aluminum extrusion as the frame. A few years ago I found some 2020 on sale and built a set of shelves for my wife’s plants out of it. (Now - I know. It’s not the most economical use of materials, but it was the middle of winter, and I didn’t want to go work in the garage. Plus the 2020 was on sale.) It’ll support a slew of plants over a 4-foot span (~1.2m) without any sagging or other concerns. It can be wobbly side to side, but that’s a matter of bracing and connectors.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    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.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year 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

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago

    Good work man, that's a nice setup. Loving the custom frame.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago

    Damn thats a clean setup 🔥

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    That's pretty slick.

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

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  • [–] [S] 4 points 1 year 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

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  • i like how your hdds just chilling there.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Congrats on the setup. Is that proxmox I see in the background?

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (3 children)

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

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    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

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago* (1 child)

    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,

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    Thats a beautiful rack

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    How/to what are the drives below connected to?

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    They are connected to the ODROID H4+ mini PC above with SATA

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    How did you connect a 3.5 externally? Sata to mini PC and power from the PSU?

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    Not that jank, it looks great.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    Fully custom? Sick! Where do I get one? 😅

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    Nice! I want to build a rack too but want to fit a regular ATX board to fit older / cheaper hardware. So it has to be at least 304mm wide, probably 400mm

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago

    It's perfect!!!

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