The AM Forum

Here in Costa Rica I don't have the possibility building stuff at aluminum plate chassis. Simply because you can't buy it here and I do not have the tools anymore. So I build a lot of experiments at remnants of FR4 board, easy to work, you can solder cases, chassis, chassis etc. BUT, my supply of FR4 is at the end, I don't have anymore. In the Netherlands there was a surplus shop that had always remnants of a pcb manufacturer which I bought frequently. But the Netherlands is a bit far now....
Someone knows a supply of remnants FR4, single sided, double sided, whatever. ?

CH, eBay.

Ebay sells just small pieces, max 20 x 30 cm, mostly 10 x 15 cm

Contact the seller.

I deal with CH direct and sell you whatever you want!

That a good idea, I will do so, thanks

There are a ton of PCB houses out there - they'd likely sell you some.
Also you can check the remaining surplus houses in the USA...

Are you sure you can't get aluminum down there??
Somebody does metal work in the country, I'd expect.
If not, there's a bona fide business niche?

Cutting aluminum takes a carbide saw. Drill press does most of the rest.

                      _-_-bear

When tools are limited, aluminum sheet metal can easily be "cut" by scoring it (somewhat deeply) with a sharp blade on both sides and gently bending it, along the score, over the sharp edge of a table. It will crack nicely along the scored line and can be filed to a clean edge, if needed.

This method also works quite well with circuit board and many other materials.

Don

Is there any point to developing contacts within Costa Rica's large medical equipment sector? There might to be places where old gear is scrapped and might provide some chassis, enclosures, or other items.

But I totally agree with the viability of making good RF-worthy chassis with circuit board materials even to the point where large components like tube sockets and transformers could have their mountings extend through the board to a solid piece of wood or other available material. It's all up to the ingenuity of the individual.

I've used cleaned off PC board for chimneys on large triodes and tetrodes as well.

A well known ham has done tempalac / temperlac testing and found that with the oversized chimney and larger holes in the chassis for airflow with the accordingly larger blower, a 3CX3000 can dissipate 6Kw.  The 3CX6000 has been tested at 9kw PDiss.

The chimney was made of PC board material and LARGE and square.


--Shane
KD6VXI