It's something I will be looking at doing since I have a lot of HP delivery victims here too.
David
Well hopefully your still around. I thought that what I had done was good enough. I haven't use it a lot this past few months because of other projects that were in the way and work. I wanted to see if a certain frequency I was emitting was going to show up on the analyzer, I was just going to do this for practice. The minute I saw the screen light up I knew something was wrong. The display had shrunk and there was a brighter than usual spot. For some reason the beam was overlapping! (see video)
Back on the bench, opened it up again. I knew it wasn't the problem, but I thought I would check the voltage rails.
81.3V Something is deteriorating I don't know what! I haven't checked any of the caps for leakage or correct value. I have to check the schematic again.
Anyway not the main problem, I'm guessing something is wrong inside the IF section of the analyzer. I need to look into it further. I found the manual and a block diagram. This one is going to be interesting.
On the bright side, I got the crack repaired! The welding shop asked 50$ to get it repaired, I asked if I could just pay for the supplies and time on the welder, but they didn't want to. I ended up buying some aluminum brazing rods. I had some trouble at first, heating a large piece of aluminum takes longer than you would expect. I forgot to clean more than just the crack on one side and it bulge a little. It holds well, I got some 220 grit sand paper and finished up the frame. I have some before and after pictures.
For a first time I don't think it looks too bad. I've only done copper pipping before.
Things to consider next time:
#1: hold the torch farther away from the work. It's easy to think that more flame will heat the work faster.
#2: Clean the work area thoroughly before applying the heat. I did one side, but the other did not get as much cleaning.
#3: put down the brazing rod before taking of the safety goggles. I have a nasty red spot on the side of my cheek now.
I'll study the schematic, there's a lot more components in the IF section than in the power supply. I think that some component is dying slowly in the power supply.
This is taking longer than I had anticipated, but there's a lot to learn in the process.