Rack-mounted ORIGINAL POD

From the look of that spider's nest of wires and such, I don't know that the time/hassle invested would be that much cheaper. Seems anytime I've ever done a project with lots o' wires and buttons here and there I run into snags along the way...usually waste more time and close to more money than buying what I'm trying to make in the first place.

I think your idea of rack mounting a toneport/UX sounds more like something I would try and do. Of course I just wants things to work now a days and don't much care for fiddling around with stuff.