19" Modular Rack Mount: Assembly and Install

For the 19" Modular Series: two printed halves that bolt into one full rack-width unit. If yours came as three pieces, a tray and two separate ears, use the Extended guide. If it is one piece with no seam down the middle, it is a 10" mount.

What is in the box

• 1 x device half. The brass seam threads are already fitted.
• 1 x blank half.
• 4 x M3x12 seam screws.
• 1 x 2.5mm hex key.

Rack screws are not included. Racks differ too much to guess at, and most people have a handful already.

Work in this order: assemble, rack, then fit the device. Loading the device first means lifting a loaded bracket into the rack one-handed while lining up four bolts.

Step 1. Join the two halves

1. Lay both halves face down, rack faces flat on the table.
2. 2U and taller: bring the blank half onto the device half from the back, then slide it forward until it stops. The seam is a dovetail and only goes together this way.
3. 1U: butt the two halves together. This seam is flat.

Check: both rack faces sit in one plane, with no step where they meet.

Step 2. Bolt the seam

1. Start all four screws by hand from the blank side.
2. Tighten in a cross pattern.
3. Stop as soon as each head seats in its pocket.

Use the supplied screws. A longer M3 bottoms out in the brass before the head touches, which leaves the halves hanging off the screw tips instead of clamped together.

Check: no gap at the seam, and no screw head standing proud of the face.

Does your box have a separate flat plate with screw holes? Then yours holds the device captive and assembles in a different order. Follow Mounts with a Back Plate instead, starting now: the device and the plate go on at the bench, before the mount is racked.

Step 3. Bolt the mount into the rack

1. Fit cage nuts first if your rack has square holes.
2. Start all four rack bolts loose, two per ear.
3. Let the mount settle in the slots, then tighten.

The oval slots take M6 and #12-24.

Check your rack screw length before you start. A printed faceplate is thicker than a steel one, so a short screw, or a screw with a washer under it, can run out of thread before it bites. If one will not start, go up a length or drop the washer.

Step 4. Fit the device

1. Slide the device in through the front opening.
2. Push until it stops against the two bars at the rear corners.

Check: the device's front face sits level with the rack face. It will slide back out again if you pull it, and that is normal. See What holds the device in below.

Two mounts work differently, and the listing said so when you bought:

• A solid front plate with no window means the device goes in from the back.
• If small screws for the device's own side holes came in the bag, fit the device before Step 1. On some designs the seam covers a side screw once the halves are joined.

What holds the device in

On this mount, nothing clamps it, and that is deliberate. (Mounts that came with a back plate are the exception: there, the plate holds it captive.) The pocket is cut about half a millimetre larger than your device on each side, so it is a friction fit with the rear bars as a backstop. In a rack the plugged-in cables do the rest. It means you can pull a device out and put a different one in without unbolting anything.

If yours will get knocked about, or you are shipping the rack somewhere, a strip of hook-and-loop tape on the tray floor makes it captive and still removable. Some designs can be built with screws through the device's own side holes instead. Message me with the device and I will tell you if yours is one of them.

Installing with the device on the other side

On most of my mounts the device sits centred in the U and the rack hole pattern is symmetric, so you can turn the whole unit over and put it back in with the device on the other side. Same part, nothing to buy, and the device still sits the right way up.

Mounts with a shelf the device rests on, or a row of holders on the face, only go in one way up.

Telling top from bottom on a bare half: you mostly cannot, and you mostly do not need to. The rack holes are symmetric about the centre of the U, so a half works either way up. What decides left from right is which end carries the rack ear. Hold the two halves with their ears at opposite ends and the device where you want it, and that is the assembly.

Troubleshooting

A seam screw goes in stiff

Normal. The clearance hole in the blank half is printed a touch under size so the screw cuts its own path. Drive it slowly and it will go. Do not put a drill on it.

A seam screw spins and never bites

The brass insert has sat too deep. Do not force it. Message me and I will send a replacement half.

A rack bolt will not start

Almost always screw length. See the note in Step 3.

The device slides around in the pocket

See "What holds the device in" above.

The device will not go in

Check for a stick-on label, a rubber foot or a cable still attached before you push harder. If it is genuinely too tight, check your device's revision against the model numbers in the listing. Manufacturers change a chassis without changing the name more often than you would think.

There is a gap around the device and it does not feel snug

That is almost always the clearance cut for the rubber feet on the bottom of your device, and it is meant to be there. Check the device is pushed all the way back against the rear bars. If it is seated and still rattles, send me a photo and I will check it against the design.

The mount is too wide for my rack, or the holes will not line up

These are cut to the EIA-310 standard, 465mm between hole centres, which is what a real 19" rack uses. If one ear lines up and the other does not, your rails are not on the standard spacing. That is common in wooden AV cabinets and some furniture-style racks sold as "19 inch", where the rails are decorative rather than to spec. Measure the centre-to-centre distance between your rail holes and send me the number. Do not trim the ears, because the mount then has nothing to sit against.

I think I have the wrong mount

Check the model on the label underneath your device against the model list in the listing you ordered from. Manufacturers reuse names across chassis that are not the same size, which is where most of these come from. If it is the wrong one, message me with your order number and a photo and I will sort it out. Do not modify the part to make it fit, because that ends any chance of me replacing it.

A piece arrived cracked

Message me with your order number and a photo, even if the box looks fine. Printed parts can take a knock in transit that the packaging does not show. I will reprint and post a replacement.

I need to replace a screw

The seam screws are M3x12 socket head. Any hardware shop has them. Message me with your order number first though, because if one was missing or stripped I will post replacements free rather than have you make a trip.

Hardware missing from the bag

Message me with your order number and I will post the rest the same day.

Swapping gear later

Because the device goes in last, it comes out the same way. The mount stays on the rails. If you are moving to something a different size, the four seam screws are all that hold the mount together, and either half can be swapped on its own.