28-08-2011, 02:24 PM
I did see a thread somewhere about using a cradle to hold your radio while working on it. I thought that was a good idea and decided to have a go at making one but then the scrooge side of me kicked in and I decided to try and make it adaptable to fit almost any radio to save making more than one cradle.The final idea used what I had to hand which was basically some 7.5" squares of paxolin and a few nuts and bolts.
My design required a visit to messers Block&Quail for two 1M threaded bars 8mm dia which were cut in half to make four bars half a meter long. The next job was to drill four holes 9mm dia in the corners of each of two sheets of paxolin half an inch in from the point of the corner, then I secured each of the four threaded bars to one piece of paxolin using nuts and domed nuts the other piece of paxolin was pushed onto the other end of the rods with a nut on each side of the paxolin so the paxolin could be locked in place and dome nuts fitted to the open ends of the rods for safety
The facing ends of the paxolin sheets have some of the non-slip rubbery stuff that is made to stop things moving around your dash-board, glued to them to provide a non-slip surface.
It is then just a matter of putting your chassis in between the paxolin sheets and adjusting the sliding one so they grip the chassis and locking it in place with the 8mm nuts just tight enough to hold the chassis in place. As no holes are used to hold the chassis it should be infinitely adjustable to put the chassis at any angle you want but with all four sides of the cradle being open the chassis should be available from any direction. Of course you can drill holes in the paxolin, to hold a more complex shape if you wish to but I think for most chassis just pressure will work quite well.
In the pictures you will see it holding my Pilot Major Maestro chassis I have removed the speaker because it gives me better access to the chassis but if I had needed the speaker on I would probably make some extension pieces for the paxolin to keep the speaker clear of the bench.
Of course should you want to make one of these anything would do for the end pieces like plywood etc I just used the paxolin because I had it to hand ..........
My design required a visit to messers Block&Quail for two 1M threaded bars 8mm dia which were cut in half to make four bars half a meter long. The next job was to drill four holes 9mm dia in the corners of each of two sheets of paxolin half an inch in from the point of the corner, then I secured each of the four threaded bars to one piece of paxolin using nuts and domed nuts the other piece of paxolin was pushed onto the other end of the rods with a nut on each side of the paxolin so the paxolin could be locked in place and dome nuts fitted to the open ends of the rods for safety
The facing ends of the paxolin sheets have some of the non-slip rubbery stuff that is made to stop things moving around your dash-board, glued to them to provide a non-slip surface.
It is then just a matter of putting your chassis in between the paxolin sheets and adjusting the sliding one so they grip the chassis and locking it in place with the 8mm nuts just tight enough to hold the chassis in place. As no holes are used to hold the chassis it should be infinitely adjustable to put the chassis at any angle you want but with all four sides of the cradle being open the chassis should be available from any direction. Of course you can drill holes in the paxolin, to hold a more complex shape if you wish to but I think for most chassis just pressure will work quite well.
In the pictures you will see it holding my Pilot Major Maestro chassis I have removed the speaker because it gives me better access to the chassis but if I had needed the speaker on I would probably make some extension pieces for the paxolin to keep the speaker clear of the bench.
Of course should you want to make one of these anything would do for the end pieces like plywood etc I just used the paxolin because I had it to hand ..........