> -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Friday, June 02, 2006 1:18 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Distributors for RF Chamber Components > > I'm looking to build a screen room/rf chamber. To save money, > I would like to purchase components, such as wall panels, > doors, air and cable penetrations, absorbing materials, etc. > and do most of the construction work myself. > > Are there distrubutors out there where I can purchase these > materials? Right now I'm trying to get prices so we can > determine our budget for what we want to do. > > I'm building the screen room in Florida. If anyone has a > screen room in the Florida area that they want to sell, > please let me know. > > Thanks, > Brian
Brian: I'm assuming that you don't need to build a MIL grade room, with shielding to the extreme lower and higher frequencies. And that you don't need a huge chamber. And, you look like you want to trade sweat for money. You can build a standard room frame out of 2x4's. Then you can buy rolls of copper screen. Just staple the screen to the frame and tuck roll the seams. Soldered seams would be a nice extra. You can buy chamber filters on eBay, or >from any of the regular chamber builders. With the copper screen, you can just put a big fan outside for ventilation; no need for air ducts. The door is the biggest problem. You can buy a modular door and merge it into one wall of the shielded box. (You did make the frame extra strong around the door frame?) Penetration panels can be as simple as a flat aluminum plate over a framed hole in a wall. Use a lot of hold-down bolts, and a strip of wire braid mesh for a gasket. Aluminum is nice when it comes time to add 6 more coax feedthroughs to the plate! With the cost of copper screen rather high, consider using tin-plated 20-gauge steel sheet. You can buy that from a metal supplier. Just screw / nail it to the frames, with a bit of overlap between the sheets, and then sweat-solder the seams. The tin plating makes this fairly easy. Solder over the screw heads too. If you decide to buy modular panels, then you will move to a new level of complexity. The concept is simple, but the execution is a lot harder. Those panels are heavy, nothing ever fits perfectly, and you have to be meticulous about seam mating. If you haven't done it before, you probably don't want to learn all about it now. A small chamber (maybe 12x20x8) is feasible for a home-built project; any bigger, and you need to worry about spans and stiffness and building inspectors and insurance guys. If you really need a moderate chamber, it's usually good advice to stick to your core competency and get a pro to do the job for you. There are some service companies that specialize in the modification, service and moving of shielded enclosures. They often have extra pieces left over, or they can include you in a multi-party deal that makes everybody happy. For instance, I wanted a 4'x8' door added to my chamber. The service company got a job to move an existing multi-door chamber about 150 miles, and the chamber owner didn't need all those doors at the new site. The service company put the deal together, and we all ended up happy. I'm sure there must be other companies, but you might want to call Henry Osgood at (858) 679-8737. Ed Price [email protected] <BLOCKED::mailto:[email protected]> WB6WSN NARTE Certified EMC Engineer & Technician Electromagnetic Compatibility Lab Cubic Defense Applications San Diego, CA USA 858-505-2780 (Voice) 858-505-1583 (Fax) Military & Avionics EMC Is Our Specialty - ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to [email protected] Instructions: http://listserv.ieee.org/request/user-guide.html List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas [email protected] Mike Cantwell [email protected] For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher: [email protected] David Heald: [email protected] All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieeecommunities.org/emc-pstc
