Operational Content, I think...
This comes up every now and then, and I still haven't seen a good solution, so here is the situation. Every now and then, the graveyard maintenance shift (read: few people) needs to mount a 7' tall or 600 lb piece of equipment we've all come to know and love in a rack. While pad jacks are available to move them around the datacenter floor, equipped with friendly hydraulics and all, there is a piece missing. Is there a common-sense piece of equipment available that 1 person can operate that will support a very bulky, rackmountable piece of equipment so the same, single person can mount/unmount it near the top of a rack? I have seen plenty of solutions for this on warehouse floors, but most datacenters don't have the ceiling height for track-crane. I don't know how people handle the 15' relay racks either now that I am sharing my gap in knowledge. Your advice, suggestions and even jokes are appreciated, but remember, I'm armed. :) Deepak
Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2001 15:32:02 -0400 From: Deepak Jain <deepak@ai.net>
[ snip ]
Is there a common-sense piece of equipment available that 1 person can operate that will support a very bulky, rackmountable piece of equipment so the same, single person can mount/unmount it near the top of a rack?
Automobile engine hoist with some sort of reinforced L-shaped shelf to bolt where the back of the block would be? Eddy --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brotsman & Dreger, Inc. EverQuick Internet Division Phone: +1 (316) 794-8922 Wichita/(Inter)national Phone: +1 (785) 865-5885 Lawrence --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 21 May 2001 11:23:58 +0000 (GMT) From: A Trap <blacklist@brics.com> To: blacklist@brics.com Subject: Please ignore this portion of my mail signature. These last few lines are a trap for address-harvesting spambots. Do NOT send mail to <blacklist@brics.com>, or you are likely to be blocked.
On Sun, Jun 24, 2001 at 03:32:02PM -0400, Deepak Jain wrote:
Is there a common-sense piece of equipment available that 1 person can operate that will support a very bulky, rackmountable piece of equipment so the same, single person can mount/unmount it near the top of a rack?
Genie lift makes a number of approrpiate products: http://www.genielift.com/ Something like this http://www.genielift.com/ml-series/ml-1-2.html from behind works quite well. They make a counterweighted version I can't find on the web site better for the front. With forks you can even side it into a rack. With a flat platform welding on a heavy duity drawer slide will allow you to slide smaller gear in and out of a rack. -- Leo Bicknell - bicknell@ufp.org Systems Engineer - Internetworking Engineer - CCIE 3440 Read TMBG List - tmbg-list-request@tmbg.org, www.tmbg.org
[ On Sunday, June 24, 2001 at 19:36:29 (-0400), Leo Bicknell wrote: ]
Subject: Re: Operational Content, I think...
Something like this http://www.genielift.com/ml-series/ml-1-2.html from behind works quite well. They make a counterweighted version I can't find on the web site better for the front. With forks you can even side it into a rack.
Yeah, the counterweighted version would be almost ideal, at least if the forks are adjustable and will fit betwen 19" rails. There's a good picture of it on their "online brochure" page for the "ml series" link you gave, and from there a link to a larger picture.
With a flat platform welding on a heavy duity drawer slide will allow you to slide smaller gear in and out of a rack.
If you've got, or can make, a wee bit of space between cabinets (eg. with cabinets on wheels) then the straddle model would work well too.... Mobile Lift is another manufacturer of similar lifts / stackers, some with much higher lifting capacities. If you're putting stuff onto a shelf or existing rails (like you REALLY should be!) there are various companies making scissor-lift mobile carts/tables/dollies, though any adjustable lift should work in such a situation. Best value is probably a Mobile Lift 500-lb winch lift with 20x20" platform and 54" lift height at ~$775[cdn] from Avenue Inustrial Supply. Just mount the rails in the cabinet (or shelf on the rack) and mount the mating slides on the box, plop the box on the lift, wheel it into place, winch up to line up the rails (or shelf), and slide it into its new home. All of this issue of course clearly identifies why it's cricital to pay for the extra floor space and have suitable amounts of clearance on both sides of a rack or cabinet! ;-) -- Greg A. Woods +1 416 218-0098 VE3TCP <gwoods@acm.org> <woods@robohack.ca> Planix, Inc. <woods@planix.com>; Secrets of the Weird <woods@weird.com>
On Sun, 24 Jun 2001, Greg A. Woods wrote:
Mobile Lift is another manufacturer of similar lifts / stackers, some with much higher lifting capacities.
If you're putting stuff onto a shelf or existing rails (like you REALLY should be!) there are various companies making scissor-lift mobile carts/tables/dollies, though any adjustable lift should work in such a situation. Best value is probably a Mobile Lift 500-lb winch lift with 20x20" platform and 54" lift height at ~$775[cdn] from Avenue Inustrial Supply. Just mount the rails in the cabinet (or shelf on the rack) and mount the mating slides on the box, plop the box on the lift, wheel it into place, winch up to line up the rails (or shelf), and slide it into its new home.
All of this issue of course clearly identifies why it's cricital to pay for the extra floor space and have suitable amounts of clearance on both sides of a rack or cabinet! ;-)
Sheesh. And people think I'm insane for wrestling two 12008's into racks. By myself. With my bad arm (broken titanium rod inside broken arm for 1 1/2 years, email for copies of a really pretty x-ray!) and bad leg (partially fused crushed ankle from auto accident). I think the day after, I was praying to $deity for one of these things the next time I have to move heavy stuff like that. -j -- -Jonathan Disher -Sr. Systems and Network Engineer -Internet Pictures Corporation, San Ramon, CA -[v] (650) 280-4833 | [p] (877) 446-9311 | [e] jdisher@eng.ipix.com
[ On Monday, June 25, 2001 at 09:44:04 (-0700), Jonathan Disher wrote: ]
Subject: Re: Operational Content, I think...
And people think I'm insane for wrestling two 12008's into racks. By myself. With my bad arm (broken titanium rod inside broken arm for 1 1/2 years, email for copies of a really pretty x-ray!) and bad leg (partially fused crushed ankle from auto accident).
I think the day after, I was praying to $deity for one of these things the next time I have to move heavy stuff like that.
Yikes! The best(worst) I ever managed was to put a Sun 3/280 (I admit with the PS and disks removed) into the top of a 6' cabinet by myself. (And it was a stupid old DEC cabinet that needed those silly little clip-on rail nuts, which of course meant every time I lifted the thing into place and bumped one of them it slid off to the wrong spot. I HATE clip-on rail nuts, round, square, or otherwise (though at least the square ones can't be slid out of place). Why can't everyone just use pre-tapped EIA rails?!?!?!?) So, (I just gotta ask), how'd the titanium rod break? -- Greg A. Woods +1 416 218-0098 VE3TCP <gwoods@acm.org> <woods@robohack.ca> Planix, Inc. <woods@planix.com>; Secrets of the Weird <woods@weird.com>
At 15:32 6/24/01 -0400, Deepak Jain wrote:
This comes up every now and then, and I still haven't seen a good solution, so here is the situation.
Every now and then, the graveyard maintenance shift (read: few people) needs to mount a 7' tall or 600 lb piece of equipment we've all come to know and love in a rack. While pad jacks are available to move them around the datacenter floor, equipped with friendly hydraulics and all, there is a piece missing.
Is there a common-sense piece of equipment available that 1 person can operate that will support a very bulky, rackmountable piece of equipment so the same, single person can mount/unmount it near the top of a rack?
I have seen plenty of solutions for this on warehouse floors, but most datacenters don't have the ceiling height for track-crane. I don't know how people handle the 15' relay racks either now that I am sharing my gap in knowledge.
Your advice, suggestions and even jokes are appreciated, but remember, I'm armed. :)
A couple of car jacks and some 2 by 4's. Chris -- Chris Horry - zerbey@wibble.co.uk ICQ 18279005 | "Hi there!" Operations Engineer and Abuse minion IRC Zerbey | ...@/ http://www.wibble.co.uk (UK Silliness) PGP DSA/2B4C654E RSA/A90483ED "Don't accept average habits, open your heart and push the limits"-MC
participants (6)
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Chris Horry -
Deepak Jain -
E.B. Dreger -
Jonathan Disher -
Leo Bicknell -
woods＠weird.com