{"id":981,"date":"2013-04-23T11:27:08","date_gmt":"2013-04-23T15:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/infotechguy.net\/?page_id=981"},"modified":"2013-04-23T11:27:08","modified_gmt":"2013-04-23T15:27:08","slug":"home-made-monitor-and-keyboard-tray","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/infotechguy.net\/?page_id=981","title":{"rendered":"Homemade Monitor and Keyboard Tray"},"content":{"rendered":"

For my home server rack, I wanted to build a Monitor and Keyboard tray that I could easily use and put away when needed. First I looked online for a professional Monitor Tray and keyboard, these would fit perfectly in the server cabinet. However with the professional built monitor trays, comes a professional price. The cheapest I could find was roughly $500!! Yikes!<\/a> Another issue I ran into is because my home made rack is technically only a 2-post rack, most of the monitor trays require installation on a 4 post rack. With this in mind I walked downstairs into my garage to look for scrap pieces of wood. I had a bunch of 2x4s that were already cut less than foot and some extra plywood. After some brainstorming with the material I had and would get from Home Depot, I had a rough sketch of how to build this tray.<\/p>\n

Monitor & Keyboard Tray Sketch<\/h3>\n

Here is the sketch I drew for the Monitor & Keyboard tray. Notice it is not a pull out tray like this one, rather a articulating arm which allows me to tuck it under the server rack and not use up rack space.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"MonitorKeyboardTray\"<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

Homemade Server Rack<\/h3>\n

Here is a picture of my home-made server rack, which hangs from the 1st floor’s floor joists.<\/em>
\n

\"IMAG0241\"<\/a>   \"IMAG0069\"<\/a>
\n<\/center><\/p>\n

Construction<\/h3>\n
    \n
  1. \n

    Monitor Plate<\/h4>\n

    First I started with constructing the monitor plate. Measure on the back of the monitor where the mounting nuts were. <\/p>\n

    \"IMAG0130\"<\/a>\"IMAG0129\"<\/a>\"IMAG0131\"<\/a>\"IMAG0132\"<\/a>\n<\/li>\n

  2. \n

    Main Brackets and Hinges<\/h4>\n

    Next was to construct the main framing brackets and hinges that would attach to the server rack. After cutting the already short 2x4s to the correct length, see sketch above, I mounted them together with T-Brackets<\/strong>, here<\/a>, and Hinges<\/strong>, here<\/a>.
    \n    \"IMAG0133\"<\/a>\n<\/li>\n

  3. \n

    Constructing the Keyboard Tray<\/h4>\n

    Constructing the keyboard tray consisted of two long cuts of plywood held together with two Shelf Brackets<\/strong>, here<\/a>.
    \n    \"IMAG0134\"<\/a>\"IMAG0135\"<\/a>\n<\/li>\n

  4. \n

    Pre-mounting<\/h4>\n

    A quick look at the Monitor & Keyboard Tray before mounting it to the server rack.
    \n    \"IMAG0136\"<\/a>\n<\/li>\n

  5. \n

    Mounting to Server Rack<\/h4>\n

    Screw and anchor in each of the two hinges.
    \n    \"IMAG0137\"<\/a>\"IMAG0138\"<\/a>\"IMAG0139\"<\/a>\n<\/li>\n

  6. \n

    Finished Product<\/h4>\n

    \"IMAG0140\"<\/a>\"IMAG0141\"<\/a>
    \n    \"IMAG0142\"<\/a>\"IMAG0143\"<\/a>\"IMAG0144\"<\/a>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Link to Gallery<\/h3>\n

    , http:\/\/postimg.org\/gallery\/2llj1iby\/<\/a>
    \nHope you like it! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    For my home server rack, I wanted to build a Monitor and Keyboard tray that I could easily use and put away when needed. First I looked online for a professional Monitor Tray and keyboard,...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":658,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-981","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/infotechguy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/infotechguy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/infotechguy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infotechguy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infotechguy.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/infotechguy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/981\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infotechguy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/infotechguy.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}