The way I personally approached this tolerance issue is this. I designed
and built the cabinet, making sure to leave a "little extra" play around
all four sides of the front panels. Not quite an eighth of an inch on
each side I think. You don't want to cut that too close.
With the flat rails and a bunch of unfinished 2u panel blanks, plus
whatever panels I had from modules I haven't started building yet
(there's always a backlog in my studio, Stooge panels for modules I
haven't converted yet, etc.) ... I screwed in a panel crossing over the
seam between each flat rail. So I ended up with a weird Erector-set
contraption with all of my flat rails exactly where they needed to be in
relation to each other, but with plenty of gaps between panels so that I
could get in there and fasten the rails to the wood.
I just tipped the cabinet onto its back, laid the rail/panel contraption
on top of it, and screwed it all down. When I removed the phony panels
and replaced them with real modules, everything fit perfectly, and I did
very little actual measuring. The eight-inch gap that I left seemed to
be right-on -- it's loose enough that the nodules do not scrape the wood
lip, but you do not really notice any gap either.
When you're putting the modules in for the first time, it goes a lot
easier to do it with the cabinet on its back. You can drop each one in,
move the arrangement around; wiggle them into place, etc., until it's
just right. Then go along and screw them all in.
When you go to tip the cabinet upright, it's amazing how much it now
weighs...!
-----Original Message-----
From: tontaub [mailto:
egroups@...]
Sent: Monday, February 07, 2005 7:11 AM
To:
motm@yahoogroups.comSubject: [motm] Gap between Flat Rails?
Hi All,
I'm (finally!) just about to mount my first flat rails.
Since the mounting wholes on the front panels are bigger than the
screw's diameter there's some play when mouting.
When mounting several flat rails in a row, what's the nominal gap
between the rails?
And is the upper/lower edge of the rails flush with the top/bottom
edge of the panels?
My intention is to use one 2U and two 1U panels as templates, ie.
assembling panels and rails before mounting the rails.
Thanks a lot, :-) Michael.