[TowerTalk] disassemble traps, cleaning aluminum Reply de K0FF

[K0FF]

At the Home Depot (or other hardware store) in the plumbing supply area you
can find a wire brush shaped like a baby bottle brush It is made to clean
the inside of copper tubing before soldering, and comes in a few different
sizes. Just the thing to help clean the inside of aluminum tubing too. For
bigger sizes, they have another similar wire brush over in Automotive, which
is made to clean battery terminals. Both these "inside" brushes have
"outside" counterparts as well, being a circular or ring type wire brush,
and you stick the tubing through the hole, and turn it. The outside ones are
pretty size specific, but the inside ones will cover a lot of different size
ranges. I always soak the brush down with WD40 before beginning the cleaning
process. It helps to dissolve the gunk, and makes it less likely to gouge or
scratch the aluminum surface.


73 Geo>K0FF


-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Adams <n4vi@diac.com>
To: towertalk@contesting.com <towertalk@contesting.com>
Date: Thursday, July 06, 2000 12:48 AM
Subject: [TowerTalk] disassemble traps, cleaning aluminum


>
>I've got a few antenna projects going on that have brought up some
>questions....
>
>The first item I'm doing is converting an old Hy-Gain DB-1015 (duo band
>10/15m, 3 element trapped beam) into a 15m 3 element monobander.
>
>During my investigations, using YA (from ARRL Ant Book, 18th edition,
>and "scale"), I've become aware of just how much tapering can change
>dimensions.  Which leads me to the aluminum from this antenna....
>
>I suppose due to the weight of the traps, I have the following taper
>schedule for each element:
>
>
>section 1:  1 1/4"
>section 2: 1 1/8"  tapered to 7/8"
>section 3: 3/4"  tapered to 1/2"  (unfortunately this section includes
>the trap)
>section 4: 7/16"
>
>The problem section is #3 with the trap.  Since I don't know where to
>buy aluminum sections that are tapered like Hy-Gain's, I'm either left
>with much larger diameter elements, adding weight and some wind
>resistance, or I can do some fancy tapering with short pieces of
>aluminum to make a sleeve or I could take apart the trap.
>
>My take on the above ideas after some deliberation is....
>
>1.  Would prefer not to add any more weight and wind resistance then I
>have too.
>
>2.  Fancy tapering schemes seem increase the odds of having some type of
>quality problem.
>
>
>3.   I would like to use 7/16" end pieces of at all possible (well maybe
>not, if present pieces aren't long enough, Texas Towers does not sell
>7/16" tubing).
>
>
>This means I need to take the trap apart.  Any suggestions on how to
>disassemble a trap?
>
>Any other ideas on how to taper down to small diameter aluminum tubing?
>
>------------
>
>Another question:
>
>I have been cleaning the outside of the aluminum tubing where two pieces
>meet with a circular wire sander attachment for my drill.  However, that
>does NOT clean the inside of the larger telescoping tubing.  There is
>definitely some type of gunk/paste, not sure if it is aluminum oxide or
>the remains of some type of conducting paste, etc.  Any suggestions of
>cleaning the inside of aluminum elements?
>
>I have other questions, but they escape me at the moment.
>
>73's
>
>chris, n4vi
>
>--
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