Rack base kit, 3U

Pre-order. The first kits ship after our printed prototype has been assembled and checked. Estimated dispatch: 4 to 6 weeks after your order. Every dimension is provisional until then; if the prototype changes the design, you receive the revised kit. You can cancel for a full refund at any time before dispatch.

One 3U section of our printed 10-inch rack: the start of every rack. Stack extensions on it for 6U, 9U and up.

Printed parts (PETG): 4 x post, 2 x bottom bar, 2 x top bar, 2 x side rail, 4 x base tile (front left, front right, back left, back right), and 2 x top rail with a carrying handle.

Hardware included: 36 M6 heat-set inserts (pressed before shipping), 40 M6 nyloc nuts and 40 M6 x 16 socket screws for the bars and rails, 4 M5 x 20 socket screws and 4 M5 nyloc nuts for the base.

The handles come as standard. A built 3U section is the better part of a kilo and people move these, so the two top rails are in the box and in the price. Build it without them, or with a plain groove instead of the grip, and the price is the same.

Mounting pattern: three M6 inserts per U at 15.875 mm — the common ten-inch pattern, so standard accessories line up — on the front posts and the rear ones. Panels are 254 mm wide; the frame is 288 mm across, and 260 or 195 mm deep — chosen when you build it, and priced for each: less plastic at 195, so less to pay.

A post runs the full height of its section, so a 3U section is 3U and nothing more. Everything else in the rack — the bars at each end, the next section up — bolts to the two rows of holes each post end already carries, which is why the front stays clear for its whole height. The base is a vented plate in four tiles, each bolted up into its post.