Initial work on the test-bed - built on the chassis from a Systron-Donner/Trygon power supply.  The unit was capable of producing about 1200 watts, fully regulated.  I was able to purchase 3 of these units from NASA weighing around 80 pounds (35kg) for about the cost of having them freighted to NJ.

I removed the regulator circuitry, tested and retained the electrolytic capacitors, fan, meters and power transformer. It turned out that the power transformer has an auxiliary winding for the regulatory circuits which would come in handy to test various high-power regulator schemes.

Immediately adjacent to the transformer, in the spot where a 1mH choke formerly resided, I placed 4 standoffs for testing boards of different rectifiers.  

The filter capacitors are attached to the rectifier circuitry with color-coded #12 stranded wire.  I used copper straps to connect  the capacitors (in this example, 2 pair sets of the 18,000 uF/50VDC Mallory electrolytics which came with the supply.  As seen above, the connections to the capacitors are protected with 3/16th inch plexiglass so that inadvertent body contact is avoided.