MOTM

Hi All,

I'm (finally!) just about to mount my first flat rails.

Since the mounting wholes on the front panels are bigger than the
screw's diameter there's some play when mouting.

When mounting several flat rails in a row, what's the nominal gap
between the rails?

And is the upper/lower edge of the rails flush with the top/bottom
edge of the panels?

My intention is to use one 2U and two 1U panels as templates, ie.
assembling panels and rails before mounting the rails.

Thanks a lot, :-) Michael.

> I'm (finally!) just about to mount my first flat rails. Since the mounting
wholes on the front panels are bigger than the screw's diameter there's some
play when mouting.

Yes, this is part of Paul's design slop to allow for fit.  The same is true
on the 19" rack rails.

> When mounting several flat rails in a row, what's the nominal gap between
the rails?

When butting the rails end to end, there is zero gap.  They are a full 6U
wide.

> And is the upper/lower edge of the rails flush with the top/bottom edge of
the panels?

That depends on the cabinet.  In theory, the rails should be flush or up to
0.0075 higher (top) or lower (bottom) than the panels.  I have found the top
row of my slant cabinets you cannot put them all the way out against the
wood.  The truth you will find is that the measurements in your wood
cabinets cannot be near as accurate as those in metal.  Therefore, you can
adjust the flat rails somewhat as needed to compensate.

> My intention is to use one 2U and two 1U panels as templates, ie.
assembling panels and rails before mounting the rails.

This is the perfect plan.  You can leave the screws loose so when you get
your flat rails where you want them, the panel should still "rattle around"
on the loose screws so that you know the fit is good for all panels.

The best way is to use two 1U panels in positions 2 and 5.  If you look at
the flat rail wood screw holes, you will see you can still get to all 4 of
them with 1U panels in positions 2 and 5.  That was no accident.  :-)

Here are some photos of me installing flat rails in a dot com cabinet.  Some
of the issues with spacing and positioning are discussed.
http://www.wiseguysynth.com/larry/cabinet/dotcom/dotcom.htm

Larry

I found Larry's webpage that he linked extremely helpful when mounting 
my rails in a synthesizers.com cabinet.
Another thing that I did was, instead of using a 1U panel in position 
5, use a 2U panel across 2 sets of rails so that the horizontal spacing 
between the 2 sets was correct. This covered up one of the 
rail-mounting holes, but I was able to screw the rails in with the 
holes that were exposed, then take the 2U faceplate out and go back and 
screw in the one that was covered.

On Feb 7, 2005, at 9:04 AM, J. Larry Hendry wrote:

> > I'm (finally!) just about to mount my first flat rails. Since the 
> mounting
>  wholes on the front panels are bigger than the screw's diameter 
> there's some
>  play when mouting.
>
>  Yes, this is part of Paul's design slop to allow for fit.  The same 
> is true
>  on the 19" rack rails.
>
>  > When mounting several flat rails in a row, what's the nominal gap 
> between
>  the rails?
>
>  When butting the rails end to end, there is zero gap.  They are a 
> full 6U
>  wide.
>
>  > And is the upper/lower edge of the rails flush with the top/bottom 
> edge of
>  the panels?
>
>  That depends on the cabinet.  In theory, the rails should be flush or 
> up to
>  0.0075 higher (top) or lower (bottom) than the panels.  I have found 
> the top
>  row of my slant cabinets you cannot put them all the way out against 
> the
>  wood.  The truth you will find is that the measurements in your wood
>  cabinets cannot be near as accurate as those in metal.  Therefore, 
> you can
>  adjust the flat rails somewhat as needed to compensate.
>
>  > My intention is to use one 2U and two 1U panels as templates, ie.
>  assembling panels and rails before mounting the rails.
>
>  This is the perfect plan.  You can leave the screws loose so when you 
> get
>  your flat rails where you want them, the panel should still "rattle 
> around"
>  on the loose screws so that you know the fit is good for all panels.
>
>  The best way is to use two 1U panels in positions 2 and 5.  If you 
> look at
>  the flat rail wood screw holes, you will see you can still get to all 
> 4 of
>  them with 1U panels in positions 2 and 5.  That was no accident.  :-)
>
>  Here are some photos of me installing flat rails in a dot com 
> cabinet.  Some
>  of the issues with spacing and positioning are discussed.
> http://www.wiseguysynth.com/larry/cabinet/dotcom/dotcom.htm
>
>  Larry
>
>
>
>
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>

Hey Larry,

> When butting the rails end to end, there is zero gap.  They are a
> full 6U wide.

good to know!

> In theory, the rails should be flush or up to
> 0.0075 higher (top) or lower (bottom) than the panels.

That's not much. Wood can't be tailored this accurate (as you say below).

> Therefore, you can
> adjust the flat rails somewhat as needed to compensate.

Adjusting the rails is a breeze - the measures are well thought out,
something I really do appreciate.
I did my first trials on a sloppy chipwood box. It's just a frame with
a bottom board. It's all open so it's convenient for testing etc.
But it's not done for mounting the rails, but I managed to fit two
pairs nevertheless.

> You can leave the screws loose so when you get
> your flat rails where you want them, the panel should still 
> "rattle around" on the loose screws so that you know the fit is 
> good for all panels.

"Loose" is the key. I was about to tighten the screws but quickly
found out this gets difficult.

> you will see you can still 
> get to all 4 of them with 1U panels in positions 2 and 5.  
> That was no accident.  :-)

well, see above ;-)

> Here are some photos of me installing flat rails in a dot com 
> cabinet.  Some of the issues with spacing and positioning are 
> discussed.
> http://www.wiseguysynth.com/larry/cabinet/dotcom/dotcom.htm

Yeah, could have thought of it before asking ;-)

Thanks for this comprehensive insight!

     cheerio, Michael.

Hi Ben,

> I found Larry's webpage that he linked extremely helpful when
> mounting my rails in a synthesizers.com cabinet.

Yeah, Larry's got a lot of highly valuable information on his site.

> Another thing that I did was, instead of using a 1U panel in
> position 5, use a 2U panel across 2 sets of rails so that the
> horizontal spacing between the 2 sets was correct.

This is what I eventually did.
Meanwhile I experienced that the slop is big enough to deal with the
sloppiest mounted rails ;-)

I tried that on a "prototype box" I got from a friend, but this box
wasn't made for mounting the rails. So the screws tend to break out of
the wood (chipboard!)

For the real cabinets I'll have to use real good (red)wood in order to
maintain it's stability.

   cheers, Michael.