Project Description

The funny thing about this project was the rack itself. Let me explain!

You known those opportunities where you not looking to buy anything in specific, but you end up spending money anyway... Well this was case, specially because I needed something to store my Cisco Lab. So that by itself, justified it... Its a bit like they say "go big or go home".

Purchasing the Unit

For 150€ I bought this ~30U unit from a guy that wanted to get rid of it due to its size!
And if you ask me, I do believe that this, was quite a good deal, specially because identical units usually cost around 500€, however the funny part is (now we getting into that) that this "thing" was 350km away from me...
So end up contracting one of those removal companies to grab it from the old owners house and bring it all way across the country to my place, and for that I paid another 150€ (hahahah), so basically transportation costed me another rack!

Anyway, the unit arrived in mint condition! The previous owner even dropped a 4U server case and some old UPS's inside it...Very happy with the freebies!

Restoration Process

It had some rust on it, near the bottom panel door, nothing major, but as a perfectionist that I am i wouldn't leave like that.

So for a couple euro's I bought some black spray and some sand paper and started cleaning those bits.

With a bit of muscle power, the sanding job was done in 2 hours! After that I covered the other parts with some paper and duck tape and started painting...

24 hours later the ink properly dried and the result was quite positive.

It never gets the exact same tone as the rest of the ink (due to the ageing and bright) but it was quite satisfactory.

Because I needed this unit to be moved easily, I went on the local hardware store and bought 4 rotating wheels, which screwed perfectly into the base of the rack.

After that, a bit of help from a special "miss" was requested in order to make it look clean and new, so using a cloth with a bit of furniture "grease" (believe it or not) we rubbed the whole unit. 2 days after (took a bit to dry) it was looking brand new!

Now it holds my private Cisco Collection and soon will be home for much more!