How I built my own "MONSTER" Rack Server. - [Main Site]
JS-ExamplesMY MONSTER RACKCONTACT

The Front


The front was a big deal, because I had to cut exactly right the holes for the CD & DVD players, as well as the USB connector, LED indicator lights, and the On/Off power switches and resets.

I had to find a wire harness that would connect or disconnect as I wanted, routing all wires to the front through this connector.
This proved to be a very large part of the project, wiring, soldering, and getting those holes cut in the right place!
I started with the wiring. I got some quick disconnect parts, and some easy fasteners for the wires to go into the quick disconnects.
Switch soldered but not yet shrink-wrapped:

Switch shrink-wrapped:

LED connected, and shrink-wrapped:

This is the heat-guy I used to shrink the wrap:

This is the quick connect pins that I soldered. Notice how terrible the solder was. I had to undo it later to make it fit into the quick connector:

This is the quick connectors that I used:

This shows the wiring from the PCs to the quick connectors:

After I got the front plexiglass installed, I installed the LEDs and Switches, here the are:


Then I found some old card board that I could use as a template to cut holes and see if it would fit over the CDs and Fan openings.
After drilling holes in the corner of the places to be cut out, a small jig saw did the trick to cut out all the holes.

After assembling the front to fit (and doing some minor filing to get it to fit), I moved on to the installation of LEDs and SWITCHES. The great idea to have them installed with threads so I can tighten a nut onto the back side was really a great idea -- however -- the depth of the LEDs and Switches was not enough -- so I had to resort to hot-glue to keep them in place.
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