For a while now I have been thinking of ways to tidy up my two external hard drives and cable router as they were sat on the end of a shelf in my study at home and were somewhat untidy!
Original setup
Having just got a 3D printer I was looking for a project which could include some 3D printed elements. I had already got some 10mm MakerBeam aluminium extrusion and decided to a mixture of this and 3D printed parts soI got to work with the free AutoDesk 123D Design and started to design the 3D printed elements.
I decided on a base and two shelves. SO I produced STL files using 123D Design and printed them in black PLA:
Base
Shelf supports
I then designed some spacers, end covers for the extrusions, feet and a top piece to finish the while thing off:
35mm & 50mm spacers
End caps & feet
Top piece
I also designed and printed a couple of cable management guides which gave this complete kit of parts:
Cable management guides
Complete kit of parts
The MakerBeam extrusion was assembled with 3mm fasteners and captive MakerBeam square head nuts :
Completed rack
It was then pressed in to service with the network hard drive, use hard drive and cable modem / router installed and cabled:
The finished rack
All in all a much nicer solution with fewer visible wires and using a lot less shelf space as well.
I sourced the MakerBeam extrusion and specialist fasteners here: TechnoBots
