DIY Server Rack Plans

Free woodworking plans for an open frame or enclosed 20U Server Rack for home or small office.

I have a few rack mount servers that I use for testing and development. These days home servers are becoming more popular. Everything from storage servers, home theater servers, home automation and more are making their way into people's homes and having a rack mount enclosure helps fit all those servers neatly in one spot.

Every so often I look into purchasing a rack to put them in but even used they're not cheap. A new half height, no frills open rack cabinet (like this Tripp Lite SR4POST25 25U 4-Post Open Frame Rack Cabinet) sells for a few hundred dollars. Enclosed racks are around $1,000.

Out of curiosity I wanted to see what it would take to build my own so I designed and priced out a 20U server rack. 20U is more than most people will need for a home server rack but I chose that height because it puts the top at a comfortable position as a standing desk. You can place a monitor, keyboard and mouse hooked up to a KVM switch to have direct console access.

Pricing wasn't too bad. Materials for an enclosed 20U server rack came out to just under $400. For an open rack it was only about $100 including casters. Much cheaper than buying a server enclosure. Here's what I came up with if anyone is interested.
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