What started on October 19th, 2010 finally ended yesterday, March 11th, 2011 after receiving the cavity and it only took five months! The order was placed October 19th, they received and cleared the money order November 5th, shipped the cavity January 14th and I cleared it through customs in late February and it arrive this past Friday, March 11th. Holy crap that took a long time.
The good news is the cavity looks very good and here is a shot of it fresh from being unboxed:
Vital Stats -> 22lbs, $2K CND including shipping and copper plating.
It does have one nick with aluminum showing through:
The nick is on rim of the narrow (front) end. The cavity has also darkened noticeably having since been unboxed – oxidization I suspect.
I spent the weekend cutting caps for the ends:
The gloves on the left are to keep oil from my fingers off the cavity. This afternoon, to make holes for the end cap bolts, I am off to purchase a drill press ($400) which I should have done a long time ago.
The power supply is sitting in my basement :
Although I really wonder where I can find a place to plug it in! Here’s the plug:
Unfortunately, I’m not sure the power supply works and it could be a write off ($900!). I think I was a bit hasty in grabbing it off eBay but we shall see.
As usual, I video taped things for a possible future documentary:
If things go well, I should have the cavity ready for testing on the network analyzer by early next week.