Check Out My RACK!

My eyes are up here, mister.

Apr 06, 2024

Welcome back! As usual, this article contains all the thoughts, research, and deeper dives into topics mentioned in my YouTube video. The video today is about how I created a home server rack that fits into the - very common - cube organizer table (AKA Ikea Kallax)

So… Here’s the video. I recommend watching it first so you know what the heck I’m talking about below.

Drilling a hole in my furniture…

After making the 3D model, I decided to drill and cut the access holes in the back of my table (shelf?). I did this on purpose for motivation. I find that without motivation, projects drag on or never get finished. In this case I really wanted to finish this project and get my office back into working order. So, I cut the holes before I actually printed anything. This way, having a table with holes in it would continue to remind me that I was already committed to finishing this.

I knew that what I designed was going to be DAYS of 3D printing and probably days of trying, testing, wiring, and failing. But… having holes in my shelf meant that it needed to be done so it could fill those holes.

If you are looking to make sure you finish your projects, try doing something permanent that requires you to finish. It’s helpful, and a little stressful.

My office is a challenging puzzle

This project, as well as many others, is related to solving one problem. I keep getting more stuff and yet my office doesn’t get any additional square footage. In this case, adding a 3D printer took up a huge footprint on the desk that I use for assembling most of my indoor-based projects. If I kept the printer and the home compute lab stuff on this table, there would be no room to actually work on other things. This presented the kind of challenge that I like solving. Make more space from what I have.

My office isn’t large (by American standards) and I don’t really intend on halting my acquisition of cool new toys so continuing to make it more efficient is a necessity and when done right you can organize things while continuing to make your workflows more efficient.

I personally cant stand a cluttered space so while my office is dense, it needs to not look that way. If you saw my last video (most didn’t, lol) you saw another one of these challenges. I like my desk space to be clear but continue to offer all the functionality I need.

This isn’t the first video about keeping my space in order and it wont be the last. As I mentioned in the video, my closet is probably the next big “infrastructure” project. It’s a terrible use of space and I know I can do better. If done right I could effectively eliminate everything that needs to sit on a desk (or in a drawer) and organize it in the closet. The challenge is doing this while continuing to make all the stuff accessible.

I am really inspired by Adam Savage’s “first order retrievability” video and it’s essentially what I keep in mind whenever I organize things.

While I enjoy looking at his eclectic clutter, it’s not really my style. I want all the access without the stuff being visible.

So that was a long way of getting to how this server rack works really well. The equipment needs to exist and I occasionally need access to it, but not very often (physically). By building this rack and putting it in the cube shelf, it exists and I can see it but it’s not immediately available or in the way. it also looks cool and that’s a bonus.

Making “the cube” - inspiration

In the video, I mentioned two different projects that I used as inspiration, but oh man there was so much more. I’m not going to do a bunch of typing here about each of them, but here’s a list of links for all the different designs I looked at while dreaming this up. Hopefully, you find them useful.

Parametric design in Autodesk fusion

One of my co-workers showed me this and it blew my mind. Fusion has a feature called custom parameters and being a programmer, I immediately forgot whatever fusion called and just started calling it what it really is: Variables.

essentially, any place where you type a number into a box in fusion, you can instead type a variable name and then define that variable to whatever you want. Later on, if your designs are well-made (mine usually aren’t, lol), you can go back and change the value of the variable and it will adjust your design automatically!

I used this feature to make it so I could adjust the size of the cube. I defined the number of "holes” that I wanted across the top and the side of the frame and set that as a variable. Later, I went back and adjusted that number so I could export all the different sizes.

By the way, this is the link to the frame on printables where you can get all the different sizes and make your own: https://www.printables.com/model/834467

And here’s a great video on using fusion parameters so you can try it out yourself.

Keystone jacks - Universal for all your plugs

In the video, I went back and forth between remembering what these things are actually called. I’m still not 100% positive they are called “keystone jacks”. maybe they are just called keystones? IDK…

Either way, these things are amazing! You usually see them on wall plates in houses. In my case, I have three different types.

but you can look on Amazon and find all kinds of different cables that come in this format.

The best thing about these is that they all fit into a standard space and allow you to mix and match for whatever you want. In my model, I have a total of 11 keystone mounting holes and I used 8 of them so far. I was able to find a 3d model of a single keystone jack and then hack it up to make the shapes I needed.

Here’s the link to the model I used: https://grabcad.com/library/panel-socket-keystone-jack-rj45-1

As a side note, the Grabcad website has tons of free STEP files that you can pull into your models. More about that below.

The importance of everything in CAD

Speaking of 3D models, I can’t stress enough the importance of modeling EVERYTHING when trying to make something that needs to integrate multiple parts or fit into a certain space.

For example, in this project, the very first thing I did was model the shelf that this whole rack fits into. Modeling your reference materials will save your butt over and over again. It just makes it so easy to see where something isn’t going to work. You will notice that i also made rough models (just squares) of each of the hardware pieces that would end up in this rack. Doing this allowed me to see how it all fits together without all the trial and error.

As I mentioned above, if you have a common item that you need to represent in your model, check out grabcad.com. This site has tons of models that you can easily pull in as a reference. But… beware some are not accurate. Always double-check.

for example, check out this “8 port switch” that has 9 ports, lol

Making an automated cooling solution with simple hardware

I left out quite a bit of detail on the whole cooling fan situation in the video. Honestly, it’s super cool and I didn’t really have to do anything to make it all work.

So here I want to shout out Github user patrickcollins12 for making an excellent tutorial on how to set up a cooling fan system using ESPHome. This thing works great and always keeps the temp in the case within a level of tolerance that I set.

I made a couple of modifications to this since I only had one fan, but otherwise, it was taken directly from the readme on the project

And here’s a link to the fan I used: https://geni.us/HsNnFTr

I chose a more expensive Noctua fan because they are well-known for being very quiet. Since I record videos in here I need to make sure I don’t have things making constant noise.

Side note on sharing “custom stuff”

Making 3D-printed custom stuff and sharing it has always seemed strange to me. Beyond saying “Look at this thing I made”, most really custom projects are just that: custom. They are made for a single specific purpose and likely won’t work for everyone.

This is why in this video and on the printables page for this project I don’t specifically say that someone should just make the same exact thing that I did. I think the cube frame is useful to others. I also think the rest of the stuff is useless to anyone else.

If I look around my house, there are literally dozens of custom things I’ve made. But there are only a handful of videos. That’s mainly because I have trouble making a video that doesn’t result in the viewer (or reader) actually getting some value.

but maybe this is just my opinion. Maybe I’m wrong. If you’re reading this and think I should share more of my “custom” stuff, let me know. I’ll consider it.

Finally, a new camera in my arsenal

This video is the first of many that will feature a new tool in my video-making kit. Recently I got an Insta360 Go 3. I feel like this camera filled a gap in my video tools for one specific reason.

All my other cameras require setup. I have a camera that is permanently attached to my desk, which is great for a simple headshot explainer video. I have my phone but I found that I often need my phone when recording for other reasons. I have a very nice Sony ZV E10 that takes amazing video but requires configuration to get everything right before filming and the battery dies quickly.

All of those cameras have a purpose, but they don’t offer what the Go3 offers: the ability to grab a camera, press one button, and just start recording.

This thing has automatic horizon leveling so every shot looks level, even if I’m holding the camera crooked. It records up to 4k. And… it allows me to pop out the tiny camera from the frame and wear it on my head. Upcoming videos will definitely use that feature for a first-person point of view when I’m working on stuff.

Whew, this was a long one! I hope you liked it.

Leave a comment, get subscribed (here or YouTube or both), and share if you think someone else might like it too.

Until next time, I hope I helped you learn faster!