Wood chassis howardnair or others

[RPMac]

Howie, I see in your photos you build some wood top plates...any tips you can pass on about trying this?
I'm going to rebuild my Paraglows and was thinking along this line.
Thanks

[howardnair]

robert-yes i will be glad to--off to work at rt now-tonite i will get back to you-

howie

[howardnair]

robert -having made several all wood tops i will say they are a lot of work-i have found that to put a wood top over a metal chassis plate makes the most sense--it helps with grounding issues and layout issues-you can make a sandwich which you can see in the enclosed link-or doing something similar to the bottlehead chassis where the plate is let into the wooden surround and then making a wood top to fit over that--if you look closely at the photos-you can see where i have a hole drilled with what appears to be a partial hole drilled with it --this second drilling allows for mechanical protrusions-meaning the tube socket and/or its fastening hardware-most of the work is in the layout -i do this first with a piece of plywood or scrap-all this can be done with a drill press and some forstner bits-a jig saw and a tablesaw--the second thing that is time consuming is the finish -one a coat on top and a coat on the bottom-important as the piece will warp for certain -sometimes it warps anyway-i use wipe on poly-use high gloss until you are happy with the finish then you can tone it down with satin or similar-the gloss will give you "build" and will harden a lot better-i also use threaded inserts to fasten the plate to the top -here is the link-feel free to PM me
https://picasaweb.google.com/100635555508988591604/January22201402?authkey=Gv1sRgCIi_yb-EzfakPw