kenneth scharf wrote:

Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Michael Black wrote:

"Ralph Mowery" ) writes:

Aluminum is usually easier for most to work with with simple hand tools.
Steel is fine but it might rust and look bad after a while. Make the
chassie out of whatever kind of metel that you think is the best for you to
work with . Electrically there will be little if any differance.



And of course, everyone did use steel (once things progressed beyond
wood and bakelite chassis) right up until aluminum because readily
available and/or cheap enough, at which point I doubt anyone used
steel except if what they were building was really really heavy, ie
a kilowatt modulator or final.

Michael VE2BVW


I have seen a few nice layouts on Brass chassis, as well. Easier to
work than steel, and you can still solder to it. I built some tube RF
decks on 1/16" brass sheet stock, and mounted them into a steel cabinet
years ago.

I think RL Drake used copper chassis on their tube ham gear. Looked
real nice when new and shiny! I've build some equipment in home made
boxes made out of copper (you can get small pieces of sheet copper from
the hobby shop). Not cheap, but solders easy and makes a great ground
plane!

Yes, I know what you mean. I still have some pieces of sheet brass,
angles, and small tubes for RF work. I use to solder small brass boxes
together for shields when I built filters and RF pre amps. I was using
K&S Engineering materials sold at hobby shops, but the last hobby shop
in Ocala closed about four years ago. I am looking for a place to get
some deep drawn brass boxes and small tubing to build some DC blocks,
detectors, and dummy antennas to sell as alignment aids for older
radios.
--


Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

kenneth scharf wrote:
I think RL Drake used copper chassis on their tube ham gear. Looked
real nice when new and shiny!

No, it was copper plated steel.

Jeff

--
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin
"A life lived in fear is a life half lived."
Tara Morice as Fran, from the movie "Strictly Ballroom"

kenneth scharf wrote:
I think RL Drake used copper chassis on their tube ham gear. Looked
real nice when new and shiny!

No, it was copper plated steel.

Jeff

--
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin
"A life lived in fear is a life half lived."
Tara Morice as Fran, from the movie "Strictly Ballroom"

I have seen a few nice layouts on Brass chassis, as well. Easier to
work than steel, and you can still solder to it. I built some tube RF
decks on 1/16" brass sheet stock, and mounted them into a steel cabinet
years ago.

I think RL Drake used copper chassis on their tube ham gear. Looked
real nice when new and shiny! I've build some equipment in home made
boxes made out of copper (you can get small pieces of sheet copper from
the hobby shop). Not cheap, but solders easy and makes a great ground
plane!
========
For equipment NOT involving heavy components like large transformers ,you
could consider making a chassis out of (scrap) double sided printed circuit
board material , which is very easy to handle (drill ,cut ,solder) .
Components can be directly soldered to the chassis and RF screens of the
same material can be readily added.
When screening sections ,feed-through capacitors can be easily soldered .
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.

Frank GM0CSZ / KN6WH

I have seen a few nice layouts on Brass chassis, as well. Easier to
work than steel, and you can still solder to it. I built some tube RF
decks on 1/16" brass sheet stock, and mounted them into a steel cabinet
years ago.

I think RL Drake used copper chassis on their tube ham gear. Looked
real nice when new and shiny! I've build some equipment in home made
boxes made out of copper (you can get small pieces of sheet copper from
the hobby shop). Not cheap, but solders easy and makes a great ground
plane!
========
For equipment NOT involving heavy components like large transformers ,you
could consider making a chassis out of (scrap) double sided printed circuit
board material , which is very easy to handle (drill ,cut ,solder) .
Components can be directly soldered to the chassis and RF screens of the
same material can be readily added.
When screening sections ,feed-through capacitors can be easily soldered .
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.

Frank GM0CSZ / KN6WH

"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 :-(

"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 :-(

"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

"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

jakdedert wrote:
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 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.

That was mostly hype stirred up by Jeraldo Riviera. Back when he
was still caucasion.

The real problem with aluminum wiring was three fold. 1. For a
given current ration, the aluminum wire has to be bigger than
copper. 2. Special terminations (screw and or compression type)
marked CuAl shoud be used along with a gel like "No-Ox" to protect
the connection 3. Proper torque on the fastenings is manditory.

Given the special requirements and the attitude of most workers
that "I know what I'm doing" of course it was a disaster.

I've also seen several places in my old houses where iron piping
was screwed directly into brass fittings. [ snip ] 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.

This is more the fault of the iron pipe. Not the bronze/brass
fittings. When you thread the end of a pipe, you remove the
galvanized coating. Exposed metal pipe = weak spot.

Jeff



--
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin
"A life lived in fear is a life half lived."
Tara Morice as Fran, from the movie "Strictly Ballroom"