Good work !

This is incredible! Just right now I am fiddeling with some alumina rods and try to make a rail for a 5.25 drive for the very same computer (433L). Thanks for sharing. I dont have a 3D printer but I may just try to order these rails from a 3d printing service. Thanks for sharing.

This is very much appreciated. I will definitely give these a go and find somewhere online to print and try. I'll confirm if they work in the older style case but from the pictures, they look the same. I opted to just line up the second drive and carefully mark the screw holes, drill into the cage and use longer screws. It's a pain to align when I remove the drive. I really wish Dell just left spares installed in the empty bay but I guess those pennies add up.

b_riera wrote on 2024-07-06, 04:28:

I opted to just line up the second drive and carefully mark the screw holes, drill into the cage and use longer screws. It's a pain to align when I remove the drive. I really wish Dell just left spares installed in the empty bay but I guess those pennies add up.

Yes, the previous owner to my Dell did something similar. While he did not dig holes, he used extra long screws with washers to reach the drive and reduce its movement.. but it wasn't very effective.

Happy to hear those designs were useful to you guys. I already have them installed and they work great!
I, too, don't have a 3D printer. I got them printed at one nice dude's who offered 3D printing via Facebook. Cheap and local. I printed them with 100% infill to make them sturdy enough to handle heavy 5.25" drives plus user operation.
The design is made to be printed laying flat. Dont print them on the thin edge.
I also added supports under the raised edge of the rail to ensure it doesn't sag during printing. After you get the parts, carefully break off those supports. They are 1mm thin, and should be scored with something sharp first, then with a little force they will break off cleanly.

Enjoy!

Nice one, thanks! I have the 466 case in your second picture and those rails look the same. I needed to mount a 3.5" floppy drive so used a Dell adapter like you have for your floppy drive. I think it was advertised as coming from a Dell Server case so this is probably beneficial for a few different models.

This is my case's original 3.5" drive and enclosure:

As you can see, this one has the rails part of the whole plastic mold, so it's one big a** custom Dell part. But I don't think you need this for a 3.5" drive. You can grab a generic 3.5-to-5.25 bay adapter available on Amazon/eBay and add the 3D printed rails on it amd it will work just as fine.

In fact, I'm having trouble with this Dell 3.5" enclosure. I just don't know for the life of me how to take out the floppy drive. It needs cleaning badly and I can't seem to figure out how to remove it from the enclosure 🤪

I recall you really just need to bend it away from the drive. It was a bit scary and maybe I wasn't doing it the right way but I couldn't see how else 😁