Dave Platt wrote:
It's not a bad one-afternoon project and the components
are the sort of thing most homebrewers are likely to have in their
junk-box.

Schematic is at http://www.radagast.org/~dplatt/hamradio/charger.pdf

Interesting circuit.

I have to beg a fair amount of ignorance about battery behavior. I've
got a couple of the smaller sealed lead-acid batteries - the one on the
desk right now is 4Ah.

Judging from what (little) I know about these batteries, I presume it
would be safe to use your circuit as-is - that the maximum 200mA
charging current, while intended to protect the unregulated source,
would also be low enough to not overheat the battery.
--
Doug Smith W9WI
Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66
http://www.w9wi.com