At 01:57 PM 8/24/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Great idea, John. Do you know someone that will make me 40-60 of these?
>
>(((73)))
>Phil, K5PC
Phil,
You can pick up the G-10 at most plastics supply houses. Cadillac
Plastics is one chain that comes to mind. Any local machine shop
will also be happy to make them for you. With a need for 40-60
you can probably get someone with an NC (computer controlled)
machine to make them.
I have my own shop--decent mill, lathe, TIG welder, and sheet metal
stuff--but I usually don't make things for other people--just that I
don't even have time to make all of the stuff for my self. Probably
cheaper to have someone local make them anyway.
Some shops don't like to machine G-10--it tends to be abrassive
and is hard on the equipment when it gets down into the ways and
bearings. Any decent carbide cutting tool will have no problem
doing a nice job.
The only tricky part is making sure the the holes in the tower legs
and the insulators all line up. I use a piece of angle to scribe a
straight line along the leg that is parallel with the leg. And then
I put the insulators in place and lay the tower on a flat floor
and use a straight edge (aluminum channel) to make sure the
tower is straight in the other plane (90 deg from the floor plane).
I have an attachment that goes on my electric drill that holds the drill
square to the leg and then drill away. After each hole I drop
in a bolt so that nothing slips between drilling the holes. It goes
pretty fast once you get set up for it. I use good hardware including
NYLOK self locking nuts to keep it all together. I touch up the
galvanizing on the cut ends of the diagonals with some of the
cold galvanizing spray.
Hope this all helps.
John W0UN
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