Braced Shelf, 2U, 7.5-inch

A 2U shelf for our 7.5-inch rack, 60 to 220 mm deep, with a vented floor and a front aperture you can open right up. At a low wall height and a wide aperture it is a shelf; wind the wall up and it is a tray that holds a device in place.

It does not droop, and that is built in rather than bolted on. The side walls stand the full 88.9 mm of the bezel where the load is worst and taper back from there, so each is a 3 x 88.9 mm section at its root instead of a 3 mm plate. That is four orders of magnitude more second moment than a bare plate, and it costs nothing but the plastic already in the walls.

ONE BEZEL. The 10-inch shelf’s 2U face is over the bed and ships as two lapped tiles; this one lies flat. Two printed pieces in the box instead of three, and no seam across the front of the shelf.

Up to 161 mm deep, which is what this rack has behind its posts. The 10-inch shelf goes to 220; this one is shallower because the rack is, and 161 is the limit that actually binds.

In the box: the bezel, the floor, and the eight M4 inserts and screws that join them. Eight, spread over the bezel’s full height, so the floor’s moment becomes a couple across 66 mm of lever rather than shear in one row.