Mobile server rack in a military transport case… does this make sense mechanically?
Hey everyone, hope someone can help me out here. I want to build a pull-out server rack inside a military transport case, basically like a drawer that slides out the front. I know my way around servers but my mechanical engineering knowledge is pretty limited so I figured I’d ask here before buying anything.
The case has 4 fixed aluminum rails, 2 on top and 2 on the bottom, each 62cm long and 4cm wide. The problem is there are only 4 mounting holes and they’re all at the front …the back just has stoppers.
My idea is to put two 5mm aluminum plates on the rails, one on top one on bottom, screw them in the front via Rivnuts and let the stoppers hold the back. Between the plates a 30x30mm aluminum profile frame sitting on two pairs of heavy duty telescopic slides so the whole thing pulls out the front like a drawer. Planning to put maybe 50kg of servers and switches in there.
Geometry seems to check out, sandwich stack is 348mm with 42mm to spare in the 390mm vertical space.
Main things I’m unsure about:
the top plate basically hangs from the upper rails with only Rivnuts taking the load long term is that actually fine?
only 2 screws per plate, is that enough with Loctite?
is the double plate sandwich even the smartest approach or am I overcomplicating this?
Happy to share the full PDF with measurements and material list if anyone wants to take a closer look. Thanks