I got a rack!

This is the setup I started with. I initially wanted to be able to play with some gear for the classes I'm taking for my CCNA, which is where the 3 1841s, and the 4 switches at the bottom come in. I also managed to find a 3560G for cheap for the home network, since I needed more ports to plug stuff into.

This whole stack was arguably a terrible idea, and the top two switches are dead weight, since the 3560G was balanced in an "it's fine for now" way.

I picked up a StarTech 4POSTRACK42 for sorta cheap, brand new, and it took me about a half an hour to get to this point with no help around.

My cat thinks he was helping. He was not helping.

I decided to install the casters, since I won't be loading it to the full 1300 pound capacity anyway, and it ended up making it way easier for me.

I had to move the existing stack of gear to put the rack in place, so this was my temporary setup to maintain network access to my computer and the Raspberry Pi in the mean time.

Rack moved into place, and leveled, complete with tangled mess of power cables from the stack of stuff on the table just out of frame.

Starting to mount stuff! I did everything up to this point before finishing the cage nuts, since I wasn't sure about alignment with the bracket for the top router. I messed up, and that one's a v01, so I ended up having to buy a $25 shelf instead of a $10 set of rack ears.

I wanted to mount it 2 holes lower to make it sit on top of the others, but the spacing between rack units made the holes not line up quite right, so an extra 2/3U of space it is, I guess.

Noticed once I mounted everything that the freaking logo on the side I chose to face out is slightly crooked. I can't unsee this now.

Everything is installed, and cable management is started at this point! Lots of work to be done yet, and things to be cleared out of the way, but it's functional and running!

Added in the rest of the cables, labeled the console jacks for the switches, and cable managed a bit more. Still a ton of work to be done, including removal of some cables I pulled, and getting rid of the temporary green extension cord.

At the moment, I'm still wrestling with the bundle of Ethernet that snakes around the corner, since most of the slack before was hidden in the cabinet, and needs to be managed properly now that it's visible.

Closeup of all of my stuff! Eventually, I plan to stick some servers in here, but primarily, this is all my CCNA stuff.

Top to bottom:
* Cisco 3560G-48TS-S
* Monoprice blank panel, and 24 port keystone jack panel
* Cisco 1841 v01
* Cisco 1841 v05
* Cisco 1841 v03
* Cisco 2960-24TT-L
* Cisco 2960-24TC-L
* Cisco 3750-48TS-S
* Cisco 3560-48TS-S
* NavePoint 2U drawer for all of my short cables for my Cisco labs

Switches are a bit redundant, but it's the same as what we're working with in class, so I know I'm not missing any functionality that I might need for the labs.

It may not be much compared to some of you, but it's mine, and it's properly mounted now!