Mounting Network Gear

For a while I’ve been keeping my modem and the voip box sitting on top of the printer. This is a bit of a problem as you tend to knock everything off when you try to scan something.

When I replaced the modem with a new modem and a switch. I decided enough was enough, I needed a better solution. I thought the solution I came up with might be of general interest so I took a few photos on the way through.

Apologies in advance the terrible quality of the photos.

Before – oh the mess!

What you need:

12mm thick mdf board
Screws to match the depth of the board (I chose 6G x 15mm)
Jigaw to cut it out
Drill + bits to put a nice neat hole in the top to hang it
Sandpaper to clean up
Tape Measure

You need this

1. Mark the board

Measure the items you want to mount. Add a centimetre for the space between each one, and 5cm for space at the top. Mark the board up. Don’r forget: measure twice and cut once.

2. Cut out your board

Using your handy jigsaw, cut out the board.Coffee table and jellybean dropsheet are optional accessories.

Jigsawing

Clean this up with the sandpapaper, jigsaws tend to leave rough edges

Sanding

3. Drill a hole

This needs to be large enough to handle your hook. I’d err on the side of larger holes to handle larger hooks.

It’s a hole! In a piece of wood!

4. Start mounting things

First set of screws

Problem 1: The little linksys box didn’t neatly handle the screws, so I had to scrape the plastic away a little.

Thank goodness it will all be out of sight in time

First one mounted, blurred for effect

All of them mounted on the board

With the cables wired in

You might notice that I didn’t do a great job of spacing these apart very well. The modem on the far left overhangs the end of the board slightly and there isn’t a huge gap between that and the switch (in the middle). I should follow my own advice on measure twice cut once.

Conclusion

I’ve found this useful for getting everything out of the way. I hope this helps someone else.