I've got 4 boxes under my desk and it would be
nice to be able to roll them out for repairs, etc.
I'm thinking about a piece of plywood with those
sliders for furniture underneath. The wheels on
the manufactured ones for boxex are moved too
easily and one wheel broke. The floor is tile so
the pads can slide but I'm not sure if the boxes
should be anchored to the plywood or how ...

But mostly I'm wondering if you inventive people
can come up with or already have a bette idea.

"AKA gray asphalt" wrote in message
news:UokBf.13341$JT.4800@fed1read06...
I've got 4 boxes under my desk and it would be nice to be able to roll
them out for repairs, etc. I'm thinking about a piece of plywood with
those sliders for furniture underneath. The wheels on the manufactured
ones for boxex are moved too easily and one wheel broke. The floor is tile
so the pads can slide but I'm not sure if the boxes should be anchored to
the plywood or how ...

But mostly I'm wondering if you inventive people can come up with or
already have a bette idea.


How 'bout kneepads or a very short repair person?

"Bubba " ReMoVe wrote in
message
...
On Mon, 23 Jan 2006 23:08:34 -0800, "AKA gray
asphalt"
wrote:

I've got 4 boxes under my desk and it would be
nice to be able to roll them out for repairs,
etc.
I'm thinking about a piece of plywood with those
sliders for furniture underneath. The wheels on
the manufactured ones for boxex are moved too
easily and one wheel broke. The floor is tile so
the pads can slide but I'm not sure if the boxes
should be anchored to the plywood or how ...

But mostly I'm wondering if you inventive people
can come up with or already have a bette idea.


How bout just get you fat ass up off your
recliner chair, bend over
and pull the boxes out with those things you
have called arms?
Bubba

Thanks Bubba, You must know my wife.

AKA gray asphalt wrote:
I've got 4 boxes under my desk and it would be
nice to be able to roll them out for repairs, etc.
I'm thinking about a piece of plywood with those
sliders for furniture underneath. The wheels on
the manufactured ones for boxex are moved too
easily and one wheel broke. The floor is tile so
the pads can slide but I'm not sure if the boxes
should be anchored to the plywood or how ...

But mostly I'm wondering if you inventive people
can come up with or already have a bette idea.

Plywood base on casters. You can buy casters at Home Depot, or a
million places online.

You can buy casters that you can lock so they won't move without
unlocking them

Here's just a sample

http://www.rockler.com/search_results.cfm?filter=caster

there is virtually no effort in sliding a box out from under a desk. the
effort is in dealing with cables, which is not improved by having the box on
a slide or whatever. for whatever reason you have to access them so much,
you're better off having them on shelf or rack 30" off the floor. also, if
they need that much attention, you would also be better off replacing them
with machines of reasonable quality.

bill


"AKA gray asphalt" wrote in message
news:UokBf.13341$JT.4800@fed1read06...
I've got 4 boxes under my desk and it would be nice to be able to roll
them out for repairs, etc. I'm thinking about a piece of plywood with
those sliders for furniture underneath. The wheels on the manufactured
ones for boxex are moved too easily and one wheel broke. The floor is tile
so the pads can slide but I'm not sure if the boxes should be anchored to
the plywood or how ...

But mostly I'm wondering if you inventive people can come up with or
already have a bette idea.

AKA gray asphalt wrote:

I've got 4 boxes under my desk and it would be
nice to be able to roll them out for repairs, etc.
I'm thinking about a piece of plywood with those
sliders for furniture underneath. The wheels on
the manufactured ones for boxex are moved too
easily and one wheel broke. The floor is tile so
the pads can slide but I'm not sure if the boxes
should be anchored to the plywood or how ...

But mostly I'm wondering if you inventive people
can come up with or already have a bette idea.


Got room for a vertical cabinet - two levels? If so, I would be inclined
to put them in one with wheels (not casters). The wheel assemblies made
for moving appliances are lower and go over tile pretty easily. Leave
back open or put on fiberboard back, similar to what entertainment units
have. Or junk them all and get a system that has equal capacity )

"AKA gray asphalt" wrote in message
news:UokBf.13341$JT.4800@fed1read06...
I've got 4 boxes under my desk and it would be
nice to be able to roll them out for repairs, etc.
I'm thinking about a piece of plywood with those
sliders for furniture underneath. The wheels on
the manufactured ones for boxex are moved too
easily and one wheel broke. The floor is tile so
the pads can slide but I'm not sure if the boxes
should be anchored to the plywood or how ...

But mostly I'm wondering if you inventive people
can come up with or already have a bette idea.



Not wanting the CPU to fall off and crash the drive while I might be moving
it, I made a plywood box with a two inch lip all around. Then I used those
cheap metal nail on furniture glides.

The cpu is as far off the floor and dust as it can be. When I need to
insert a disc or CD it is as high as it can be under there.

Will post or email a pic if you like.


Colbyt

"Larry Bud" wrote in
message
oups.com...

AKA gray asphalt wrote:
I've got 4 boxes under my desk and it would be
nice to be able to roll them out for repairs,
etc.
I'm thinking about a piece of plywood with
those
sliders for furniture underneath. The wheels on
the manufactured ones for boxex are moved too
easily and one wheel broke. The floor is tile
so
the pads can slide but I'm not sure if the
boxes
should be anchored to the plywood or how ...

But mostly I'm wondering if you inventive
people
can come up with or already have a bette idea.

Plywood base on casters. You can buy casters at
Home Depot, or a
million places online.

You can buy casters that you can lock so they
won't move without
unlocking them

Here's just a sample

http://www.rockler.com/search_results.cfm?filter=caster

I tried some of the plastic ones and they slid
pretty much on a tile floor. I guess the metal
might be more solid ... well, they would still
slide, wouldn't they?

Yes, the cables are the problem. I'm hoping to
have room for the 4-way KVM box and some kind of a
cable tie post or shelf too. The computers are
new. My problem is that I want to play around with
RAID and do a bunch of benchmarks for different
routers and NICs and switches.

"bill allemann"
wrote in
message
et...
there is virtually no effort in sliding a box
out from under a desk. the effort is in dealing
with cables, which is not improved by having the
box on a slide or whatever. for whatever
reason you have to access them so much, you're
better off having them on shelf or rack 30" off
the floor. also, if they need that much
attention, you would also be better off
replacing them with machines of reasonable
quality.

bill


"AKA gray asphalt" wrote
in message
news:UokBf.13341$JT.4800@fed1read06...
I've got 4 boxes under my desk and it would be
nice to be able to roll them out for repairs,
etc. I'm thinking about a piece of plywood with
those sliders for furniture underneath. The
wheels on the manufactured ones for boxex are
moved too easily and one wheel broke. The floor
is tile so the pads can slide but I'm not sure
if the boxes should be anchored to the plywood
or how ...

But mostly I'm wondering if you inventive
people can come up with or already have a bette
idea.

"Norminn" wrote in message
ink.net...
AKA gray asphalt wrote:

I've got 4 boxes under my desk and it would be
nice to be able to roll them out for repairs,
etc. I'm thinking about a piece of plywood with
those sliders for furniture underneath. The
wheels on the manufactured ones for boxex are
moved too easily and one wheel broke. The floor
is tile so the pads can slide but I'm not sure
if the boxes should be anchored to the plywood
or how ...

But mostly I'm wondering if you inventive
people can come up with or already have a bette
idea.


Got room for a vertical cabinet - two levels? If
so, I would be inclined to put them in one with
wheels (not casters). The wheel assemblies made
for moving appliances are lower and go over tile
pretty easily. Leave back open or put on
fiberboard back, similar to what entertainment
units have. Or junk them all and get a system
that has equal capacity )

I built a box to go on top of a folding table,
like the kind at OfficeMax. It holds a lot of
weight. Anyway, the box is open in the front and
has the front of some external hard drives facing
out. I put a power strip inside the box to avoid a
bunch of cables. It seems to be working pretty
well except that the firewire connections sucked
and I had to go to USB. I've thought that a
computer desk with a removeable top (in sections)
would be cool so that all of the cables could be
stored under the desktop.

I don't want to put a back on anything if I don't
have to because of access to the cables. I'm not
worried about the wheels not going over the tile.
I'm worried that they slide too easily.

This is more than you wanted to know, sorry. : -)

I'd really like to see a pic. Can you post it
here?

"Colbyt" wrote in
message news:zdxBf.753938$xm3.627071@attbi_s21...

"AKA gray asphalt" wrote
in message
news:UokBf.13341$JT.4800@fed1read06...
I've got 4 boxes under my desk and it would be
nice to be able to roll them out for repairs,
etc.
I'm thinking about a piece of plywood with
those
sliders for furniture underneath. The wheels on
the manufactured ones for boxex are moved too
easily and one wheel broke. The floor is tile
so
the pads can slide but I'm not sure if the
boxes
should be anchored to the plywood or how ...

But mostly I'm wondering if you inventive
people
can come up with or already have a bette idea.



Not wanting the CPU to fall off and crash the
drive while I might be moving
it, I made a plywood box with a two inch lip all
around. Then I used those
cheap metal nail on furniture glides.

The cpu is as far off the floor and dust as it
can be. When I need to
insert a disc or CD it is as high as it can be
under there.

Will post or email a pic if you like.


Colbyt

"Dr. Hardcrab" wrote
in message news:Y1oBf.30329$jd5.26470@trnddc02...

"AKA gray asphalt" wrote
in message
news:UokBf.13341$JT.4800@fed1read06...
I've got 4 boxes under my desk and it would be
nice to be able to roll them out for repairs,
etc. I'm thinking about a piece of plywood with
those sliders for furniture underneath. The
wheels on the manufactured ones for boxex are
moved too easily and one wheel broke. The floor
is tile so the pads can slide but I'm not sure
if the boxes should be anchored to the plywood
or how ...

But mostly I'm wondering if you inventive
people can come up with or already have a bette
idea.


How 'bout kneepads or a very short repair
person?

Maybe I could get her one of those miner hard hats
with a light on it.

"AKA gray asphalt" wrote in message
news:R5yBf.13659$JT.11374@fed1read06...

I'd really like to see a pic. Can you post it
here?

"Colbyt" wrote in
message news:zdxBf.753938$xm3.627071@attbi_s21...


This is a non binary group.

I posted the pics he

http://alt-home-repair.com/folder.php?id=11

Sorry about the erased area. After I took the picture I realized that there
was information I did not want to share with the world shown in the picture.

This is nothing fancy. Just something I knocked together out of scrap 3/4"
plywood.

Build a box with a bottom, turn it upside down so that the bottom becomes
the shelf on which the CPU sits. Add another box without a bottom or top
around the perimeter. Be sure not to block any cards near the bottom of your
CPU box. Add glides to the bottom and you are ready to go.

Once I determined the measurements the whole project took a 30 minutes.

Colbyt

Is there anything in the lower box? What is the
advantage of the lower box instead of the upper
box being directly on the casters? Don't you worry
about the box moving while the hard drives are
spinning ... crash?

"Colbyt" wrote in
message news:nqzBf.722636$x96.255285@attbi_s72...

"AKA gray asphalt" wrote
in message
news:R5yBf.13659$JT.11374@fed1read06...

I'd really like to see a pic. Can you post it
here?

"Colbyt" wrote
in
message
news:zdxBf.753938$xm3.627071@attbi_s21...


This is a non binary group.

I posted the pics he

http://alt-home-repair.com/folder.php?id=11

Sorry about the erased area. After I took the
picture I realized that there
was information I did not want to share with the
world shown in the picture.

This is nothing fancy. Just something I knocked
together out of scrap 3/4"
plywood.

Build a box with a bottom, turn it upside down
so that the bottom becomes
the shelf on which the CPU sits. Add another
box without a bottom or top
around the perimeter. Be sure not to block any
cards near the bottom of your
CPU box. Add glides to the bottom and you are
ready to go.

Once I determined the measurements the whole
project took a 30 minutes.

Colbyt

"AKA gray asphalt" wrote in message
news:sgBBf.13682$JT.3211@fed1read06...

Is there anything in the lower box? What is the
advantage of the lower box instead of the upper
box being directly on the casters? Don't you worry
about the box moving while the hard drives are
spinning ... crash?


The lower box is hollow. If I had wanted to spend more time on it than I
did, I would have made a single box with the shelf supported in the middle.
Or just low enough to keep the CPU from getting knocked off. Like I said
earlier this was a 30 minute knock together out of scrap material. I planned
to do it better and greater later. Someday I will. :))

I do not have any casters. I have furniture glides. If you look closely at
the close up you can see them at the corners. It doesn't happen often but I
have actually bumped the box a time or two with my knee. Never had a
problem.

Colbyt

"AKA gray asphalt" wrote in message
news:UokBf.13341$JT.4800@fed1read06...
I've got 4 boxes under my desk and it would be
nice to be able to roll them out for repairs, etc.
I'm thinking about a piece of plywood with those
sliders for furniture underneath. The wheels on
the manufactured ones for boxex are moved too
easily and one wheel broke. The floor is tile so
the pads can slide but I'm not sure if the boxes
should be anchored to the plywood or how ...

But mostly I'm wondering if you inventive people
can come up with or already have a bette idea.

If you have and need that many boxes (ie, they are making money for you), it
may be time to consider going to rack mounts. Otherwise, I'd just make a
plywood tray with a little lip on it, and casters on the bottom. Modern hard
drives aren't near as fussy as the old days- minor bumps won't even make
them skip a beat.

aem sends....

"AKA gray asphalt" wrote in message
news:PYXCf.15748$JT.6972@fed1read06...

"ameijers" wrote in
message
...

(snip)

If you have and need that many boxes (ie, they
are making money for you), it
may be time to consider going to rack mounts.
Otherwise, I'd just make a
plywood tray with a little lip on it, and
casters on the bottom. Modern hard
drives aren't near as fussy as the old days-
minor bumps won't even make
them skip a beat.

aem sends....

Thanks for the business advice (mild sarcasm) ...
but why use casters when those furniture sliders
work so well? I hadn't thought of a rack mount. Do
they allow for easy access to experiment with
cards and drives, etc., ie opening the boxes?

Sorry, your previous posts didn't make it clear if you were doing consulting
work, or had just built a LAN to teach yourself hardware. (I did that a few
years ago.) I also saw in a different post where you said these are all new
machines. (being poor and cheap, I used trailing-edge machines from
auctions.)

Rack mount only works well if the machines are designed for rack mount. (19"
in one dimension or the other, and some way to put mounting ears on them.)
Otherwise, the rack is just a metal cabinet with fixed or slide-mounted
shelves the machines sit on. The commercial racks we used had 'sleds' on
casters for the tall bottom bay where the then-huge UPS boxes could slide
into. You mentioned a KVM setup. Do you have floor space, either in your
office or in the basement right below, to set up a work table where you can
walk all the way around the machines? I've found, in various labs and
test-bed setups at work, that that makes the most painless way to do things.
Not having to hunch over the machines or drag them around to open the case
or move cables, is a lot easier on the back. (Getting up off the floor is p
ainful for people my size and age.) A tall table or workbench with a power
strip is a wonderful thing, and if you get a long KVM cable set (or a KVM
that supports Cat5), the console can be quite a ways away if needed. Back
when there was still a market for rebuilding used PCs, I kept one machine
sitting with the lid off, just for testing cards and stuff.

aem sends...

"Colbyt" wrote in
message news:RUTBf.756053$xm3.293758@attbi_s21...

"AKA gray asphalt" wrote
in message
news:sgBBf.13682$JT.3211@fed1read06...

Is there anything in the lower box? What is the
advantage of the lower box instead of the upper
box being directly on the casters? Don't you
worry
about the box moving while the hard drives are
spinning ... crash?


The lower box is hollow. If I had wanted to
spend more time on it than I
did, I would have made a single box with the
shelf supported in the middle.
Or just low enough to keep the CPU from getting
knocked off. Like I said
earlier this was a 30 minute knock together out
of scrap material. I planned
to do it better and greater later. Someday I
will. :))

I do not have any casters. I have furniture
glides. If you look closely at
the close up you can see them at the corners.
It doesn't happen often but I
have actually bumped the box a time or two with
my knee. Never had a
problem.

Colbyt

Thanks for the ideas and help. I decided to just
use a piece of plywood with some of those
furniture slides and be really careful when I pull
it out. And put up a 4' power strip up on the
wall. I also used plastic ties to attach some of
the cables to that little tap used to lock your
case. I'm a happy camper until the first time I
have to take them out ... : -)

"ameijers" wrote in
message
...

"AKA gray asphalt" wrote
in message
news:UokBf.13341$JT.4800@fed1read06...
I've got 4 boxes under my desk and it would be
nice to be able to roll them out for repairs,
etc.
I'm thinking about a piece of plywood with
those
sliders for furniture underneath. The wheels on
the manufactured ones for boxex are moved too
easily and one wheel broke. The floor is tile
so
the pads can slide but I'm not sure if the
boxes
should be anchored to the plywood or how ...

But mostly I'm wondering if you inventive
people
can come up with or already have a bette idea.

If you have and need that many boxes (ie, they
are making money for you), it
may be time to consider going to rack mounts.
Otherwise, I'd just make a
plywood tray with a little lip on it, and
casters on the bottom. Modern hard
drives aren't near as fussy as the old days-
minor bumps won't even make
them skip a beat.

aem sends....

Thanks for the business advice (mild sarcasm) ...
but why use casters when those furniture sliders
work so well? I hadn't thought of a rack mount. Do
they allow for easy access to experiment with
cards and drives, etc., ie opening the boxes?