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Shelving for in-home VIntage Computer display

snuci

snuci

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Joined
Nov 22, 2012
Messages
1,551
Location
Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada
After much procrastination and a spare bedroom full of computers, I finally bought some shelving. I originally bought some chrome wire rack shelving that was 72" tall and 36" wide but it was 18" deep and it wan't deep enough. I also had to buy extra wire rack "placemats" so computers could be pushed into place. This does get expensive pretty quickly especially if you buy deeper ones.

I ended up buying three of these "garage racks": http://www.homedepot.ca/product/industrial-strength-welded-storage-rack-with-wire-deck/925733 because they were'nt too expensive and they are 24" deep and the width of two separate shelves. They do have a wire grid on each shelf, which isn't good for computer placement but I've cut some old carpet I had to place on top of the shelves so the computers will sit on that instead of the grids. I haven't yet organized everything but I look forward to that hopefully over the next few days.

I'll take some pics when I'm done but does anyone have any advise on how to organize them? I was thinking Manufacturer then date. Does anyone have any pics they have to share to illustrate how you organized yours? I'd like to build in some power bars and have them runnable in place as well. Did you create any signage?

Thanks for any thoughts on this.
 
Yup, I started sorting mine Alphabetical by vendor then by release date although it wasn't always the most desirable outcome (keyboard units on bottom shelf) but it made sense to me.

I also quickly found that catch with the 18" deep not being acceptable. I found similar shelves to yours (nice but pricey) but mine required the purchase of a board to put in them (no wire frame). Not sure the price difference, maybe they changed the one I had to these (pretty much same and look similar in price). I liked the 4 shelf size, most cases it was enough for a system and a monitor if the system wasn't too tall.

I was surprised to see wire frame shelving at the Computer History Museum in San Jose. They were using 5 shelf units with wire frame bottoms and just setting the systems on those (unless it changed since then). I think on certain smaller systems they would put a tilt bottom below them to prop them up for visibility sake.
 
snuci said:
After much procrastination and a spare bedroom full of computers, I finally bought some shelving. [...] Does anyone have any pics they have to share to illustrate how you organized yours? I'd like to build in some power bars and have them runnable in place as well.
Click to expand...

I recently cleaned up (a bit) and put everything in IKEA 'Ivar' racks. Same idea as yours, just wood instead of metal. I put one shelf per rack at exactly 80cm from the floor (typical desk height). These shelves are 50cm deep, I'm planning to put extend those shelves by 20cm. That way, I have a huge stretch of desk space so I can not only store the computers, but have a lot of them ready to play with as well. Which matters to me.

Pictures are here...

In terms of how I organised the computer collection: after I finished, I realised that I had sorted them coincidentally by the first name of their designer/maker. There seem to be two shelves with Jack-produced machines (Commodores and Atari ST), and two Steve shelves (Steve as in Wozniak as well as Leininger). So I have a Mostly-Jack shelf and a Steves shelf. The rest is randomly filled up. Pretty sad really but there you go.

Regards,

Oscar.
 
Yeah would love to see some pics when your done... I rally need to get something done with my garage as the stuff that doesn't fit in the games room is just sat on the floor out there at the moment.
 
I used some "Muscle Rack" shelving. Not quite the best for my application, as the shelves end up being a little too tall, but the price was right - $35 shipped in an insane deal from Ace Hardware online. Roughly half the price of competing shelving, and certainly something that will last quite a long time, and can be moved to the garage at some point if need be.
 
Thanks for the replies so far. I like your pictures Oscar. We have similar taste in computers. I do like a variety.

I have been taking my time and had to move stuff around to put a third shelf in the room and am taking my time in pondering what to do (while being distracted by some recent acquisitions). I tried Apple first but the Apple II, II+ gets lost on the top shelf and can't be seen too well. Then I have a row of Lisa's (I can only fit three on on a shelf) but have four so do I put duplicates somewhere else and only show 2 (a 2/5 and 2/10)? Here's a quick pic with two empty shelves in the room. This is about two thirds of what I need to put on those shelves. I think I need more :)

My collection pile.jpg
 
snuci said:
Thanks for the replies so far. I like your pictures Oscar. We have similar taste in computers. I do like a variety.
Click to expand...

More is better until it suddenly becomes too much, I have a Collection Cull every few years and I guess one is coming up soon...

Here's a quick pic with two empty shelves in the room. This is about two thirds of what I need to put on those shelves. I think I need more :)
Click to expand...

Actually, if you buy some extra shelves it's amazing what you can stash away and still have it at hand. For me the big issue was to have as many computers ready to play with - hence extending one row of shelves, at desk height, with an extra plank so it becomes desk space. Like you say, spares can go up onto the top shelves.

It's still better than collecting cars, space wise.


Regards,

Oscar.
 
That's why I won't post any pictures of my setup ;-) I have the shelves and it still resulted in that.
 
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