Purpose:
To build a network relay rack to mount and store all computer and audio equipment.
Requirments:
Enough physical room, at least 9 square feet, and a couple hundred dollars.
Tools used:
Drill
Sockets
Philips Screwdriver
Punch down tool with 110 bit
Trowel
Equipment:
This is a list of the items I purchased, not all are nessecary.
  • 6' 19" Chatsworth Rack: #46353-101 $113
  • 12" wide Chatsworth ladder + support and mounting kits: #10250-712, #11421-712, #10595-712. $80
  • Rack grounding kit: #41016-006. $33
  • Cement mount kit: #40604-001. $13
  • Gemsound SP8500 8 port power switch. $30
  • 25 square feet Anti-static carpet tile. $200
Notes:
I was able to find 80% of the items above on ebay.com to save cost. Most of the items were at 50%+ below retail cost. Search ebay with "rack 19" to find most of the items you will need.
Steps:
  1. Once I received my equipment I was able to start. In my ethernet project, I had pulled cat 5e throughout the house to a central 5' by 5' closet. This was enough room to mount a rack, or two in the future. The first thing how ever was to get ride of the carpet inside and replace it with anti-static carpet tiles. The benifit here is to reduce the static electricity in the room and the tiles were thinner and not too spongy to mount the rack ontop of it.
  2. First thing was to remove the carpet and padding from the closet. This wasn't hard just take pliers and pull up on the edges. Most likely the pad is glued down, but only around the edges, so pull it up and scrap the glue/pad remnants off the ground. Next use a hammer and flat head screwdriver to pop up the carpet tack strips.
  3. Drilling holes for the rack mounts was next. I have a 12" cement slab so a cement drill bit was needed as well as a strong electric drill. This was a long and painful process. Took about 3+ hours and sore hands for a week to drill 8 holes 5" deep. I'm pre-drilling a set of holes for a second rack if I ever want to add another one. My bit was almost toast after 8 holes. The bit was cheap and I don't forsee using it again anyways.
  4. After cleaning up the mounds of cement dust I slipped the mounting lags into the cement holes.
  5. Setting down the carpet was next. I was able to find some scrap pieces of ESD UltraStat Carpet tile from Ground Zero Electrostatics Inc. This reduced the cost a bit.
    • First I cut the carpet to size and fitted it in the room. This took a while as I'm a novice with laying carpet.
    • Once I got a good fit I pulled the carpet out and taped down the copper grounding tape. This is to help ground any static charge to the house ground. In the pictures you can see I had to run the tape up the wall a bit to reach the outlet to ground it. This was not my first choice, but I could not get into the wall to pull it up without making a large mess. I glued it down and plan to paint over it later.
    • Next with a standard trowel I layed down the conductive glue on the exposed cement and very carefully put the carpet in place.
  6. To find my mounting holes I used a nail to poke down in the carpet then marked it with tape. Then took a utility knive to make a small cut and forced the cut open with screw driver and slipped in the bolt. I did this for all 8 holes and screwed down the bolts to the correct height I wanted.
  7. Mounting the rack itself was exciting. To finally see it sitting in the room after some hard work and 4 weeks of planning, but my job was not over yet.
  8. The last part was to attach the ladder rack. The purpose of this is mainly for stability and cable management. I meassured and cut the metal ladder to the width of the room. Then with a Level and set the ladder above the rack and marked off on the walls where to place the mounting brackets. Next I set the brackets against the wall and marked the holes I needed to drill for the toggle bolts to hold it up. After drilling 1/2" holes and mounting the brackets I was able to set the ladder on top and mount the ladder down the the brackets and relay rack.
  9. The final step is to punch down the cat 5e cable to the patch panel. A simple step, just a little time consuming.
  10. As you can see in my pictures I've added other items on the rack and room. A fire extinguisher (just in case), D-rings to hold the cat 5e to the wall, Rack mount fan to move air around the rack and help cool it, etc... Already my rack is full and I need to buy and mount a second one. Good thing I planned for it and pre-drilled mounting holes for it!

See pictures of construction here.