How to build your own rack?

[EyeMWing]

I'm looking into creating a rackmounted system for use with TeAm AT and to operate my mockup corporate network. However, I find normal racks to be repulsively expensive and difficult to work with, so I'm leaning more towards designing my own rack form factor. This is what I have so far, but there are inherently some problems with this. The motherboard ports face forwards, and the power supply exhausts out the back. There are 3 levels of module to this design - the whole damn thing, the per-computer assembly (The whole motherboard/PSU/drive assembly dedicated to one machine), and detatchable from that is the drive stack, which basically consists of some drives zip-tied into place horizontally and vertically, and to prevent forward and backward motion, they simply have a screw or other such stop in place.

http://home.earthlink.net/~eyemwing/Untitled-1%20copy.jpg

First of all, it has to be made out of wood due to weight, supply, and "dammit, WTF is shorted out" concerns. Second, since the mobo has to face away from the drive stack to give the CPU cooler clearance, there's a good deal of wasted space. Then, there's the cabling issue. A lot of cables simply won't reach around to the motherboard's component side. Third, the motherboard has to be mounted to wood, which rules out using conventional case screws. How?

 

[Zap]

You talking about making a rackmount case? That's a lot of work to save $100. That $100 gets you a heavy duty 4U case built with really thick metals. I don't think wood is a good idea since it would require being overbuilt to be strong enough for being held in a rack with a few screws. The resulting thickness of the wood would eat into the space available inside the case.