I wanted to build a rack for mining rig that was affordable and scalable. After seeing some people use this same style racking I thought I could improve upon a few things.
Everything starts with the cheap rack. I bought mine from my local Target on clearance for $14.00. You can purchase these in most stores like Target & Home Depot for around $20.
https://i.imgur.com/23h1hDj.jpgI wanted to be able to use this rack with two power supplies so I made a quick drawing of what i wanted to do so i could cut the wood base.
https://i.imgur.com/657ahxu.pngHere's the wood cut with the standoffs mounted for the motherboard. Power supplies are placed with their fans down so the holes allow for ample airflow.
https://i.imgur.com/kJuhmGU.jpgBoard is simply held to the shelving with a few zip ties.
https://i.imgur.com/Uwi9cPq.jpgHere's a mockup of the motherboard mounted and the first PSU in place with no mounting yet.
https://i.imgur.com/gywot4i.jpgThere is a slot cut in the wood in front of the motherboard that wasn't shown in the rendering. This is necessary to mount PCI Express cards in the motherboard without risers. Necessary for testing.
Next thing was mounting the power supply to the board. Made this bracket so the PSU could be screwed to the base.
Power Supply Mounting Bracket - STL Filehttps://mega.co.nz/#!EMRAhIaC!F0XW4pZE1ajVd_3ABwvb6lOKVxjS7hR5hpbozW3-W-shttps://i.imgur.com/TP5yB6D.pngBracket mounted on PSU shown here:
https://i.imgur.com/WXtFtOc.jpgThe next challenge was to figure out how we're going to securely mount the video cards for maximum airflow. Since the rig is designed to be used with PCI express risers we need a way to hang these cards. The first part was designing a bracket that could be screwed to each card and then hung from the shelf.
GPU Mounting Bracket - STL File Downloadhttps://mega.co.nz/#!xZwTnApa!3ukkuM2UFLETKrHvtjf-X2Q3Q-OfiTbnH8l2bKmVCDkhttps://i.imgur.com/sfzbTLd.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/wEjlKzN.jpgThese brackets are designed exactly for the OD of the wire racking and are very secure/stable while offering flexibility in lateral & horizontal mounting.
So now that we have the front end of the card secured we needed some way to support the rear of the cards. The challenge here was I wanted infinite adjustability. Went to Home Depot and bought 2 x 3/4" CPVC Tee's for under a buck each. Then designed a plug that i could put in the middle of the tee's so that we could run a dowel between the tee's and have a nice place for the video cards to rest.
CPVC Tee Plug - STL File Downloadhttps://mega.co.nz/#!dQBFmDJQ!aYjEbCCy8IN2HGPt4yJlrSqMzAG8HnFG5ycvTuOUmPghttps://i.imgur.com/vpqMJXr.pngThe hole is offset since i wanted the wooden dowel to be as inward as possible. I didn't want the rear end of the video cards extending beyond the rack if possible.
https://i.imgur.com/ct5rA6R.jpgHere's the 3/4" CPVC tee which i've painted black, then the 3d printed plug w/ ~12mm dowel. Below the tee you'll see a C clamp which will give us the infinite vertical adjustability.
C Collar Clamp - STL File Downloadhttps://mega.co.nz/#!0VIUGRyS!s9WucsPgzS1lzmu0g9XXscguKcsTuOEomvUj4zbmeJEhttps://i.imgur.com/NKYC4Zk.jpgOnce we have all of that we can finally put it all together.
https://i.imgur.com/1I9Lzn1.jpgStill waiting for the second power supply here which will allow me to run another 2-3 GPU's. The rack will comfortably support 5-6 GPU's. If you have a 3d printer the cost for the rack plus all associated parts should not exceed $40.
