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)

  • blimp@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    8 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
      2·
      8 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

  • yo_scottie_oh@lemmy.mlEnglish
    4·
    7 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
      4·
      7 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

  • Thorry@feddit.orgEnglish
    3·
    8 days ago

    A table saw is for lengthwise cuts, for cutting long things like these you need a cut-off saw.

    Fun fact, you don’t really need to tap soft aluminium like this. You can just drive the bolt straight in with an impact driver. I thought it was sketch at first, having always tapped them beforehand. But my buddy said it’s a waste of time, just drive the bolts in right away. So I tried it and he was right, it works perfectly every time. They form perfect threads so you can easily remove and re-add the bolt just like when it was tapped beforehand.

    • bluGill@fedia.io
      4·
      8 days ago

      I have enough of a machinist background to doubt the threads are anywhere close to perfect. However if you are saying more than good enough I will agree.

      • Fuck u/spez@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        4·
        7 days ago

        I’d think they would at least need to be self-tapping sheet metal screws but that an impact driver could surely strip the holes just as fast as it threads them.

  • Mr_Dr_Oink@lemmy.worldEnglish
    8·
    6 days ago

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

  • mrgoosmoos@lemmy.caEnglish
    5·
    6 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

  • Ananace@lemmy.ananace.devEnglish
    9·
    8 days ago

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

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

      Thanks I love the jank, one day it’s going to be all neat and tidy and I’m going to miss the mess that it used to be, it adds character.