Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with rack

Right ski roof rack?

Wood — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:25:23 -0800

I want to buy a ski roof rack for my late(st) model Honda Civic. Any suggestions? I'm concerned about any impact on the fit (seals) and finish (paint) on my car. How justified is this paranoia? Also I will likely eventually want to carry bikes or other cargo.

My girlfriend is getting a bit suspicious that I keep googling for a "nice rack."

history is a weapon — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 08:10:59 -0800

I can't believe I'm asking this, but I want a magazine rack next to my toilet and can't seem to find one anywhere that doesn't look like it belongs at my grandparents' house. Dimensions about 6 1/2" width (from toilet to wall), the height is less important, and the depth is up to 17" or so.
Ideally, it would be a like a simple metal bin, but not weaved wire, wire mesh, or plastic thing. It'd be nice if it looked sturdy.
I'm in NYC and I'd love to see it and pick it up in person if possible. I went to all these yuppie furniture places (like ABC Carpet and Home) and came up completely empty handed. Does anyone know where I can pick up a cool industrial looking magazine rack or a simple metal box with roughly those dimensions? If it's not in NYC, that's fine. I just need a place to store the current month worth of magazines.

I promise my next question will involve the overthrow of the capitalist state.

Most boring server rack question ever

Maarika — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 07:44:59 -0800

How can I put HP DL160s on slide rails in an IBM rack? I'm in over my head here, so apologies for the technical details... I need to put a couple HP DL160s on slide rails in an IBM rack (IBM 42U Enterprise Rack - 19” Rack). I can find standard rails just fine, but there don't seem to be any compatible slide rails available for HP 1U servers.

My Google-fu is failing me here -- do you know of any specific technical forums where I can ask this question? Where do data center and server hardware folks gather online to exchange information?

Or, if any of you are IT gurus, do you have any suggestions on which rail kits to look for, where to look for them, or who to ask?

Rack-ing my brain.

eschatfische — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:50:48 -0800

RoofRackFilter: in which the poster ignores all the good advice he received earlier, buys a used Volvo V70, and is confounded by the roof rack. So, I bought myself a rather high mileage 2001 Volvo V70 T5 on the cheap. So far, so good. Took it to a local mechanic, had a few things done, slapped on some new tires, and it's driving like a champ.

However, the roof rack appears to be an aftermarket custom roof-rack. I've scoured Google, and it looks like it not only isn't the Volvo OEM roof rack, but it also looks fundamentally unlike any other roof rack I've found on my searches. It didn't come with cross-bars or a cover, and I'd sort of like to grab some to both keep those screws from getting rustier, and also possibly haul our bikes somewhere.

I'd love to know what kind of bars I'd need to mount things; a reference to the manufacturer and model, a link to somewhere with crossbars or instructions, or just an explanation of how this works.

Thanks!

What kind of bike rack should I get for my car?

MorningPerson — Thu, 07 May 2009 05:27:38 -0800

What kind of bike rack should I get for my car? We have a 2008 Subaru Outback and want to get a bike rack that will securely hold two mountain bikes on an extended (1000+ mile) trip.

So... should we get a roof rack or a hitch mounted rack? Are there other options for racks that don't require a hitch mount, but still hold the bikes securely on the back of the car? The car does NOT have a hitch right now, but we would consider getting one.

Thanks!

Identify this wine rack

machaus — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 10:15:06 -0800

Help me identify this wine rack. I purchased these at a flea market about 10 years ago and would like to expand the rack to hold more bottles. The tubular sections are extruded so they come apart and inter-lock. Anyone know who manufactured them so I could know what to search for?

What stores in Canada sell tie racks?

newatom — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:01:27 -0800

What stores in Canada sell tie racks? I can't seem to find them anywhere. I don't need anything fancy, a wall mounted one would be perfect, or one that does over a door frame. Any ideas?

Get my shoes off the floor, please

The corpse in the library — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 15:12:30 -0800

Please help me find a shoe rack. I can't believe I'm having such a hard time finding one. I'm looking for a shoe rack to go by my front door. Our footwear ranges from bulky running shoes in men's size 13 to bedroom slippers in children's size 5, and we have a lot of it.

Qualities I'm looking for in a rack:

- available on-line in the US (or in a store in Seattle)
- around 20" tall, 42" wide, and 8" deep (wider and shallower than most racks)
- at least four shelves
- no bench on top
- sturdy
- shelves, not tiny cubbies
- wood would be best
- no tilting cubbies, doors to open, or racks to slide. Just shelves.

I have seen DWR's Side by Side Shoe Rack. It is lovely but expensive, and doesn't hold enough shoes.

We currently have Target's Stacking Shoe Rack for Twenty Pairs of Shoes. It's a cheap piece o' crap and falls apart daily.

I've seen Ikea's Leksvik. It's close, but wider and shorter than I want.

Suggestions?

Buying a trailer hitch bike rack in T.O.?

the dief — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 09:24:06 -0800

I'm going on a longish trip on Friday of next week and would like to bring my bicycle with me. I'll be in Toronto on Sunday; does anyone have any recommendations on where to go to buy a trailer hitch mount bike rack there?

Old Server Rail Kits?

yellowbkpk — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:28:29 -0800

Where do I find sliding rail kits for older Dell PowerEdge 1750, Sun, and HP/Compaq G3/G4 machines? We've been moving a bunch of 1U servers from one server room to another at work, and quite a few of the machines don't have rails. One of the rules that the IT folks have in this new server room is that machines can't be stacked higher than one on top of the other, so we need to find quite a few rail kits.

My Google-fu seems to be lacking as I can't seem to find any sites that sell such a thing.

Best mileage when traveling with a bike

Toekneesan — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 04:43:57 -0800

Driving from Pennsylvania to South Carolina with a bike and a kid cart for the bike. Which will create less drag, putting them on top of our Ford Focus wagon, or on a bike rack on the back?

How should I tote my stuff, including a laptop, on my bike?

Project F — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 09:51:52 -0800

How should I tote my stuff, including a laptop, on my bike? (Backpacks and messenger bags need not apply.) I just bought a Cannondale XR 7, and am using it primarily as a commuter bike. As such, I'd like to add some storage, a little bigger than my handlebar bento box. I was thinking a rear rack, a laptop pannier and a regular pannier.

Problem is, neither of my local bike shops actually stocks a rack that's meant to work on a disc brake bike, nor do either of them have any laptop panniers.

Anybody have any specific recommendations on rear racks for disc brake bikes, or laptop panniers? Or warnings against them?

How to set up a server room with a 10 TB rack?

ShawnStruck — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 07:40:21 -0800

Going to be moving into a new office space, where will will get to redesign some of the space for our needs. We will need to set of a 10TB server rack-- need to figure out how much space should we set aside for a server room. If you were starting to set up one from scratch, what would you start considering? What sort of things do we need to worry about-- room temparture, or airflow or both? Cooling racks? How big would the room need to be?

Where can I buy colored power cables?

thparkth — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 06:15:02 -0800

I want to use color-coded cables for critical servers. Is it possible to purchase PC power cables in colors other than black and grey? I've inherited a spaghetti-like mess of cabling in the server racks at my new company. There are dozens of servers each with dual power supplies, and there are two UPSs in each rack. Naturally each power supply is meant to be connected to a separate UPS. But since every power cable is black, and they're all routed together (and since they're all three times too long!) it's impossible to figure out which cable goes where, and I strongly suspect that some servers have both PSUs connected to the same UPS...

Ideally I'd like to buy a big box of blue power cables of various lengths, and another of yellow. Then I'd re-cable every last server, and it would be easy to visually confirm that they had redundant power.

(I'd also like to use red for critical devices without redundant power, and there are a few other special cases.)

I know I could color-code the ends of black cables with tape or something, and that's the fallback position, but really it'd be much nicer to have colored cables.

But I can't find a supplier anywhere! Power cables are the Model T of computing. You can have any shade you like provided it's black or gray.

Any suggestions?

Rear bike rack for a VW New Beetle

ackptui — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 05:07:56 -0800

Anybody know the make and model of a bike rack that can be used on the rear end of a VW New Beetle? I know Volkswagen makes a top-mounted rack accessory, but I don't want to be lifting my heavy bikes up that high. Bonus points if you have successfully mounted it on your own Beetle in this lifetime. Holding 2 bikes would be fine, 3 would be even better.

Please help me find a temporary bike rack for my 1993 Saab 900 convertible.

sequential — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 11:00:46 -0800

Please help me find a bike rack for my 1993 Saab 900 convertible. Long term, I believe I need to have a hitch installed to avoid common pitfalls of trunk mounted bike racks. In the short term, though, I need a bike rack to transport my road bike and my mountain bike this coming Sunday. Unfortunately, I can not have a hitch installed before then. What would you suggest as a good compromise?

For a point of reference, the rear of my car looks much like this, but without the luggage rack. The luggage rack, ski rack, and bike rack intended for my car were, at some point, for sale, but I seem to be unable to find one available now. Bonus points if you can point me to where I can pick these accessories up.

How do I show off my pipes?

wolfsleepy — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 19:29:32 -0800

Does anyone have any experience or advice on building a clothing/display rack out of pipes? Firstly, I don't know anything about plumbing, building things, or generally being handy.

I suspect it might be simple enough to construct a simple clothing rack out of steel pipes, but I'm posting here in case I'm mistaken so someone can tell me not to waste my time.

It would basically be a rectangular frame held together by 45 degree elbow joints, with a 4-directional joiner on each corner at the bottom so that parallel pipes can be fitted as a base.

(I'd sketch out a design but I'm worse at drawing than I am at words).

I'd like to know if something like this would be sturdy enough without having to weld anything together, and any tips/terminology that would make me sound less moronic in front of the staff at the hardware store.

Help identify cool mystery bike rack?

de void — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 07:53:18 -0800

Help me identify/locate the manufacturer of a cool hitch-mounted bike rack I saw last summer. I want one. The google goggles, they do nothing. Saw a really cool bicycle rack at a mountain bike trail parking lot last summer. Wanted it then, want it now, but can't find it.

As stated, the bike rack is a hitch mount (plugs into a square trailer receiver). The rack I saw carried 2 bikes. I suspect there may be other longer models that carry 3 or 4 bikes.

It had a center frame/bar that had a "stretched/flattened Z" profile when viewed from the side; the end that connects to the hitch mount is lower than the bike carrying end.

It carried the bikes in "V" channels that were mounted perpendicular to the center frame. The bikes were secured to the rack by ratcheting straps that locked the wheels down into the V channels. I seem to remember that there were no attachment points or risers for the bike frames and that all the securing was done at the wheels, but that doesn't seem feasible. Perhaps there were folding fork braces that I missed.

The whole rack had a dull silver color that suggested it was made of aluminum alloy.

It had a plate riveted to one of the channels with the manufacturer's name and the web site. It was not one that I had heard of before (Thule/Yakima etc.). I remember thinking that it sounded like a small shop, and that I should write the web site down because I would forget it. I didn't, and I did.

Nice rack.

unSane — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 19:01:34 -0800

Design for a home-made wooden snowboard/ski/snowshoe rack? Okay, I want to build a snowboard/ski/snowshoe rack which will sit on our covered porch in the winter. A typical load would be:

2 pairs of snowshoes
2-4 snowboards
2-4 pairs of skis
poles for the above

It needs to be fairly simple to build and it would be nice if it could be moved for the summer, or at least transform into a rack for work clothes and boots. So standalone would be best. I'll be making it out of pressure treated lumber.

Any ideas? The Jam Rack is the closest I've seen but it's not stand-alone, or big enough.

Hitch on a 2007 Camry

exhilaration — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 08:48:41 -0800

Anyone have any experience with installing a hitch for use with a hitch bike rack on a Toyota Camry? I haven't had a chance to visit the dealer, but is there an official Toyota-sanctioned hitch for a 2007 Camry? The manual says it can tow 1000 lbs, so there's gotta be something. I've been using Saris bike racks for a few years and I don't want to use to a trunk rack on my new Camry. If the dealer doesn't carry a hitch, can I buy one and take it to a mechanic for installation? Can anyone recommend a reasonably priced hitch bike rack? Are they removable? I just want to put it on when I need to transport a few bikes. Thanks in advance.

This Server's on the Road Again...and Again...and Again...

JLobster — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 11:45:48 -0800

At work, we have a storage device that we need to send across these United States for live demonstration purposes. We want to send a 2U device, along with a 1U server host and a 1U pull out keyboard/trackball/flip-up LCD. I have some questions regarding this, notably how to ship it, in what, and with what? 1) What is the best container to ship it in? After a perfunctory search by my boss, we came upon this: http://www.skbcases.com/industrial/product/shocks/shock3-r30.html. Are there any better/cheaper options? Our minimal requirements are 4U, 4 post rackmount that can withstand many, many shippings.

2) Any advice on the 1U K//LCD/M? We don't need a switch built-in, so just 1 input is OK.

3) We will also have to send along accessories (hubs/switches, Cat6 cabling, power strips). What else should be in this "Go Kit?" I know that power strips are like gold at some trade shows, so any extras are uesful to make friends. Gaffer's tape is a necessity, too. Anything else? I don't want the size to get too out of hand, so I have specifically excluded a spool of Cat6 cable and crimping toolkit.

3a) Should we get a custom box to ship the Go Kit in, too? They are not worth as much money-wise, but they are just as important.

My Googling only reveals products, not opinions, which is why I am reaching out to my MetaFriends.

Can I buy a bike like this in the US?

FortyT-wo — Wed, 10 May 2006 08:49:25 -0800

Can a bike similar to this be purchased in america? I know absolutely nothing about bikes, so please be gentle. I'm looking at getting a bicycle to get me around my urban neighborhood to a few places that are too far to walk. My main destinations are going to probably be grocery store type places, so a basket and rear rack are really important to me. I find the bycicles I see on foreign websites much more attractive than the ones I see out and about here because they have those features built-in, and they don't seem to be covered in as much garish writing.

The bike linked to is from Bridgestone's japanese website, and they don't appear to have an english one. I've checked out major bicycle manufacturers that I can think of and google and they don't seem to be selling any similar models. Ebay and craigslist also seem to have just standard models without built-in baskets.

I defintely know I can buy a basket to put on my bike, but I love the aesthetic of a bicycle that was designed and built to include it.

I'm afraid I just don't know enough about bicycles and manufacturers to find one... Any help is appreciated!

Cheap alternatives to tabloid newspaper floor racks. What can you think of?

stokast — Wed, 29 Mar 2006 06:49:12 -0800

Cheap alternatives to tabloid newspaper floor racks. What can you think of? Another question about the alternative weekly business...

Floor racks from newspaper supply companies cost more than we can deal with ($35-$50 each), especially when we want to buy 200 or so. So we're looking for other other ideas.

We need something that looks somewhat professional with a minimal amount of labour, and without taking up any more space than a conventional wire rack.

Any suggestions?

What's the easiest-to-use, non-scratch bike rack for my new car?

sixpack — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 11:46:52 -0800

I need a bike rack that won't scratch my new car. Suggestions? I use a bike rack frequently, and the last two I owned (trunk-mounted) ultimately scratched the paint -- minor dings, many of them from the bikes themselves. Convenience is a big priority for me, so I don't want a roof rack. I'm considering a hitch-mounted rack, which looks like it'll keep the bikes from banging my car. Anyone with experience with these? I'm driving a Cadillac CTS.

Rack Ears (for 19" Rack) for a Consumer CD Player

Mars Saxman — Thu, 29 Apr 2004 08:48:27 -0800

I want to mount "rack ears" on a consumer CD player and install it into a standard 19" equipment rack. Do people sell aftermarket rack ears? Where do you get them?