Hi Larry,
This sounds great. I agree with all your points, and while I had been
thinking of a two jack row strip, I think you are right in that it's just too
expensive and with one row (and say 7 different multiples), the jack one
needed would never be more than about 3&1/2" away. I'll have to look for the
"U" channel that you mention.
Keep us posted!
JB
Larry's message (heavily edited) below:
In a message dated 9/19/99 8:59:26 PM,
jlarryh@... writes:
>To John Barlow and others that have been following a concept that John
>and
>I have been kicking around for a horizontal multiple panel to go in the
>case style MOTM:
>The objective is to accomplish this task so that it is very functional
>and
>looks good too. And of course, something not too damn expensive would
>be
>cool too. As I thought about this horizontal row, I came to four
>conclusions:
>1 - It should take up the least amount of real estate possible
> (and stay with standard MOTM spacing).
>2 - One row of jacks across each row of a large system is plenty.
> Two rows would be excessive and expensive. If you have only
> one row of jacks and take little real estate, it makes it easy to
> justify one horizontal multiple under each row in the case.
>3 - It needs to be sturdy and worthy to reside with MOTM gear.
>4 - It needs to look good.
>I found at the hardware store some aluminum channel called "trim channel
>for 3/4" plywood." This stuff is not quite 1/8" thick, but it is very
>sturdy
>because of the two bends along the entire length. It comes 4 foot and
>8 foot long. The 4 foot piece was $3. Imagine a square U shape if you
>were looking at the end. Across the outside of the face they are 7/8
>inches wide. That is 1/2 a rack space (just by luck). So, in 11 unit
>spaces (tall) in your MOTM case, you can have 2 rows of modules and two
>horizontal multiples (one under each row of modules). If you are using
>rack rails (like John) you could bolt one of your rack rails directly to
>the side of this channel, adding to the strength of both.
>The front format drilling would be a duplication of MOTM spacing. There
>would be two 1/4 jacks per 1U space. So, John's 21 unit wide case would
>have 42 jacks on his multiple. The grouping or distribution of groups
>would be what suited his system best. However, you can see how a multiple
>would be in easy reach of any module. So, if you can imagine how this
>might look, it would look like each MOTM modules 1/4 jack row along the
>bottom of the panel had one more row of jacks directly below with identical
>spacing.
>I hope I have painted a good visual picture. Obviously, this will not
>be a
>real picture until I get my case. However, I will try to make photos of
>the rail available next time I get a row developed.