Modular packaging... doh! Why didn't I come up with this before~?

[R.G.]

It wasn't until I looked at the title "Euro rack rails" and my gaze wandered to the two 24" long relay rack rails on my shelves waiting for use that I thought of this.

Want a cheap modular effects packaging system? For well under $20, probably under $15, you can buy two L-shaped rails already pre-drilled and tapped, suitable for making 19" relay racks or equipment racks. But nothing says you have to mount those things so they hold standard rack panels. If you mount them so they're, say, 6" or 8" apart, they'll work fine just as well. And you can then make your own minipanels which you mount effects in.

The way this appeared in my mind was a small wooden box, sprayed inside with pressure sensitive adhesive spray and then lined with aluminum foil for shielding, and the rails mounted across it. The box would be about, say, 18" wide, 9" long and 4" deep. 17 1/2 inches is a standard length for rack rails, and is 10 rack units (RU). You mount two 10 RU rails across the width. You make/buy/etc ten panels of metal 8" long and 1.8" wide. These are your front panels. These you drill so you can bolt them into the rails. You get ten effects in this box.

It's a standard technique. If you want something, find a suitable giant to stand on the shoulders of to reach it. 

[aron]

COOL!

[arawn]

I've been working along similar lines except that I am getting old rack mount units for cable gear from work

[Mark Hammer]

The number of times that I stared at something over and over and OVER, and all I really needed to understand it was to simply turn it 90 degrees.....

[Paul Marossy]

Hmm.... nifty idea. 

[R.G.]

Followup - if you get a single RU panel, you can use the holes/slots in it for a guide to mark and drill holes for the panels you make.