"R J Carpenter" wrote in message
...

"Frank Dinger" wrote in message
...

Over the years I bought cut-offs up to large sheets of double sided PCB
(at
amateur radio flea markets) , which can also be used to make front
panels
and small cabinets/ enclosures.

My stock of double sided epoxy board is a 4 ft by 4 ft sheet I bought at a
hamfest for $20 or 25 IIRC. I have some smaller pieces left over from the
past.

If you don't want to solder partitions or sides, you might do as I and buy
a
10-ft length of extruded aluminum angle, 0.25 inches on a side. This way
you
can screw things together without worrying about overheating /
delaminating
the PC board. You can also take things apart if needed :-(


I'd be careful about using aluminum for this. You could set up a situation
where over the years, the dissimilar metals would begin to react and cause
all sorts of gremlins. I'd think you'd want to use copper or brass angle
stock, which is also available, albeit more expensive...or plastic; or even
wood. The plastic channel stock that is used to join masonite wall panels
comes to mind. If you used nonconductive material, it would be easy to
connect the chassis parts electrically with a few bits of copper braid or
brackets.

I could be wrong about this, but judging by the debacle during the 70's
where a lot of aluminum wiring got installed in a lot of homes--and later
caused at least a few fires--I'd at least be cautious. I've also seen
several places in my old houses where iron piping was screwed directly into
brass fittings. I just dug up the faucet in my front yard, which a
neighborhood kid had hit with a lawnmower. Water was bubbling up out of the
ground. The shock from the mower was the final straw which crumbled the
iron pipe at the threads where it screwed into the brass tee. When finally
I got down to it, there was practically nothing of the threaded end left,
although the rest of the pipe was in good condition. I replaced it with a
plastic nipple...didn't really need a second faucet in the front yard
anyway.

jak