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Note:   Currently not all project links are active as I have just stared documenting my projects and also I have only just stared on a few new ones, so please check back again later. - UPDATE: 27/01/2015 (Added new Tower project page)
Most of my project ideas/designs are from the internet and are from other designs that others have made available to use. I will give credit to those designs and ideas where possible with links to those sites. You are welcome to use any of my ideas but please refer to the original author/creator for permissions.
SAFETY - SAFETY - SAFETY
Please use any ideas or designs at your own risk! Some projects use "LETHAL VOLTAGES" and will KILL you if you do not take all safety precautions while building/testing and using the final design.http://www.qsl.net/zl1lds/projects.html


Antenna Projects
  • 11 Element LFA for 144 MHz - Completed
  • 4 x 7 Element LFA 144 MHZ - Completed - Still to document!
 Amplifier Projects
  • 3 x GI7B 50MHz 6 meter  Amplifier - (no updates 27/01/2015)
  • 2 x GI7B 144 MHz 2 meter  Amplifier - (no updates 27/01/2015)
  • 1 x GS35B 144 Mhz 2 meter Amplifer - (no updates 27/01/2015)
 Power Supply and other projects
  • HV Power supply for valve Amplifier - Just started with Eagle PCB and made board - (no updates 27/01/2015)
  • Sheet Metal Brake - for bending those enclosures for your projects.
  • Electric Fence Unit - Mounted components (Going slowley as this is not an urgent project 27/01/2015)
  • Ultraviolet PCB Photo UV cabinet - For making fancy printed circuit boards from Eagle (Completed) Want to add another two UV lamps but that can come later as it works as it is. (Still to document)
Tower Projects
(Updated 27/01/2015)
  • 6M Tri-tower 9Meters high
  • HF Tower mast, tilt-over telescopic, 12 meter high
  • 2M Tri-tower 9Meters high


























Sheet Metal Press Break
Top
The reason I built this is that I have always struggled to bend small pieces of sheet metal for projects around the house. There are cheap ones around $150-00 that can bend up to 1mm x 500mm wide and ones that do a good job that obviously cost a bit $! and still only bend up to 1mm thick. So in the end I googled and came up with this idea with a piece of channel and angle iron with the idea that I could bend up to 2-2.5mm aliminuim sheet of up to about 400-450 mm wide. All in all I probably spent up to $100-00 NZD for the metal and gas to Tig weld the parts together, but for those that have scrap laying around you could make it for a few bucks.

Here is a short cut to all the photos (Winzip) with a little larger resolution:  
 Completed Press Break




Construction:

I wanted this to be as accurate a spossible, so I took a bit of time measuring things out and as usual, all the plans are in my head, so I make thing work as I go along.

The main 3 pieces are the channel which is the base support to clamp in a vice or to a table, the next is the actual bending lever and then the clamp down to keep the sheet metal in place.
This part I changed so the wide angle was facing down, which I then enclosed with a 90mm x 3mm sheet metal strip to give a sharp edge as well as supporting short lengths of sheet when bending which gives the maximun press grip of the sheet metal and also I can bend past 90 deg.

The channel iron is 100mm x 60mm and 6mm thick; the bending piece 85mm x 85mm  angle; the pressure plate is an 65mm x 65mm whith a 100 x 3mm sheet welded on to the bottom.
3) Cutting the hinges. I used 12mm steel rod and had some 12.5 mm ID and 16 mm OD diameter tube. I reckoned the tube would tighten up when welded, which it did nicely 4) Hinges ready for mounting. using a tube cutter is really the way to go. The lenth for each hinge is 2 x 20mm and 1 x 40mm piece of tube and 1 x 85mm steel 12mm rod. I left this rod extended so I coule take the brake apart for storage.
1) Pieces layed out ready for marking. All pieces were cut to 600 mm long by the engineering yard where I bought the steel. 2) Marking the hinge groove on both the angle and channel iron which I then cut with an angle grinder. The hinge groove is 8 mm2 on each piece both ends 80 mm long
5) Hinge slot 6) All slots cut and ready to seat the hinges



7) Here you can see the top press with the sheet metal welded to the bottom 8) Looking from the front


9) Presser foot, notice the flat sheet welded on the bottom gives a nice sharp edge. This gives nice sharp bends
 10) Stopper welded at the back. This stops the presser plate from moving back when bending thicker sheets, works a treat!




11)Nice side view, M12 SS bolts. i wanted to use M16, but only had these available and seem to work ok 12) Pull handles, nice heavy duty 3mm wall tube.


























































































 
   













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