Greetings to the List -
My very sincere THANKS for the enlightening responses from Chuck
Guzis, Brent Hilpert and Jay West on mounting the HP 7970 tape drive Beasts.
I am out of town on business for a couple days and will inspect
things when I return.
Chuck is, of course, 100% correct on the Tipping Factor.
I learned that very quickly - If you open the front of the Drive and
swing out the door with the electronics, drive motors etc, it is
definitely heavy enough to tip a rack.
I bolted the destination 19" rack down to the concrete floor with
3/8" bolts. It will not, I hope, soon go anywhere.
Jay makes a very valid point - these things are heavy at 130-pounds
each and are real Beasts to deal with especially by yourself.
I got both drives into the rack this past weekend and I am an old guy
(67) - I carefully stared at the thing before I started and finally
figured out that I could, in fact, lift the drive from a waist high
cart for a few seconds, but definitely could not lift it or lower it
vertically with my arms - no way - and I would have one shot at
getting the drives into the rack on the rails.
I used heavy and very wide aluminum angle stock for the rails and
very carefully measured everything so that I got the rails installed
correctly at the right height inside the rack so the screw holes on
the front of the drives would mate to the rack and the drives would
not overlap or gap and so as to be level.
In addition, I slathered a bit of Orange Oil onto the rails to reduce
friction when sliding in as there is a lot of friction - 130-pounds
of steel on aluminum.
Anyway, I finally figured out after staring at it for a few minutes
that I should be able to step up carrying the Beast onto a step that
I built out of scrap wood - I needed about eight inches in additional
height after picking up the thing - so, I took a deep gulp and did
that - picked up the drive Beast and stepped up on the step with my
left foot - got my left knee under the front of the Beast to raise it
a bit and was able to slide the rear of the Beast onto the rails -
once I had support on the back of the drive, I was able to then lift
the front and slide the thing in.
The #2 drive Beast went into the lower part of the rack similarly
except that I had the exact opposite problem - I could not possibly
pick up the drive and lower it vertically with my arms to align it
with the bottom bay - I finally figured out to use a wooden
ammunition box (strong with dove tail joints) of the correct matching
height on end - I was able to lower the Beast to sit on that in front
of the rack - and then slide the thing in.
That worked!
Hooray!
I actually got the things in without hurting myself - DOUBLE HOORAY!
I celebrated with a shot of nice Cognac :)
Jay is also 100% correct - these things are real bears to deal with -
do NOT try it on your own - I was lucky!
Anyway, I somehow managed to get everything aligned correctly to
within 1/32" or so - the drives look great! :)
Remaining tasks: Figure out how to get the mounting screws into the
left sides of the drives (the right screws are in); mount a fan on
the bottom rear of the rack - I think that should blow in through a
filter for positive pressure - is that correct? - and make the rack
at least almost air tight to keep the dust out.
See
http://frobenius.com/190203%20Tape%20Drive1.jpg
http://frobenius.com/190203%20Tape%20Drive2.jpg
http://frobenius.com/190203%20Tape%20Drive3.jpg for a couple of snapshots.
I thought about a photo of me partially soused with my celebratory
shot of Cognac, but decided otherwise :)
Best,
Jack (Hello from the Rockies - we have two-feet of snow forecast overnight :)
t 11:25 PM 2/4/2019, you wrote:
On 2/4/19 3:40 PM, Jack Harper via cctalk wrote:
>
>
> Greetings to the List -
>
> I am mounting a couple of heavy (130-pounds each) HP7970e tape drives to
> a 19" rack.
>
> The screw holes that mate to the standard spaced holes on the right side
> of the drive after you open the case are visible and obvious.
>
> However, the holes on the left are hidden under the heavy die-cast(?)
> frame of the drive.
>
> Anyone know how to get to those three screw holes with a horrible
> disassembly.
>
> There has to be a trick to this that I don't see (so what else is new? :)
>
There's a mounting kit for this as described here;
http://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/pdf/hp/tape/7970/07970-90383_7970B_7970C_Operating_and_Service_Manual_upd_Feb76/07970-90383_7970B_7970C_Operating_and_Service_Manual_Section_1.pdf
Page 2-1, section 2-8, installation.
Whatever you do, be sure that your rack has an "anti-tip" foot (most
full-size 19" HP racks do. When you open the drive, the entire assembly
but for the card cages and the power supply swing out. It's more than
enough to tip a rack over.
--Chuck
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jack Harper, President
Secure Outcomes Inc
2942 Evergreen Parkway, Suite 300
Evergreen, Colorado 80439 USA
303.670.8375
303.670.3750 (fax)
http://www.secureoutcomes.net for Product Info.
