[Beowulf] Re: What is the right lubricant for computer sliding rails?

[David Mathog]

"Douglas Eadline" <deadline at eadline.org> wrote

> Indeed why use rails at all. 

Lack of access to the side mount screws when installed.  A certain rack
used to be located in a room such that there was access (albeit with
minor contortions by the operator) to all screws and connections. 
Consequently it was ordered without rails.  When it moved to its present
location, where it is flanked on one side by another rack, and on the
other by shelves, several of the side mounting screws became incredibly
difficult to remove.  All are still possible, but the worst ones require
severe contortions by the operator and "blind" removal/insertion of
screws.  You can well imagine how I found this out.  It is possible to
roll the rack forward instead to gain easier access to the sides, but
that takes longer than the contortions: unbolt it from the earthquake
clamps at the top (using a ladder and socket set), crank up all 4 feet
(with a wrench), roll it forward to gain access, then reverse to put it
away.

One other point, if the bottom node in a stack isn't on rails, then
removing that node ceases to be a trivial one man operation.  I use a
length of unistrut and some chunks of wood to temporarily support these
sorts of nodes when they need to be serviced.

Regards,

David Mathog
mathog at caltech.edu
Manager, Sequence Analysis Facility, Biology Division, Caltech