Wishing to get back into cw again, I looked on the 'net to see what was available for a key. I was disappointed to see that anything I wished to have cost a heck of a lot of money. Sure, I saw some wonderful craftsmanship, but I couldn't justify spending so much on just a key. Anything in my price range was lightweight plastic and tiny.
great...
Well, like I usually end up doing, I decided to make my own. I looked high and low for parts (hardware), to put together something that looked good as well as worked properly. Unfortunately, besides the high cost of purchasing anything new that's ham related, I found it also has become quite difficult to find hardware to build anything that looks decent. Real hardware stores have pretty much vanished, and in their place, "home improvement" stores are the rule.
This leaves the builder in the position of having to be very creative, as one has to "make-do" by using imagination to make some item fit/work, making it to do something other than the manufacturer intended. I have a decent "treasure trove" of electronic parts, but when it comes to simple metal parts, I seldom can find what I need at home. I end up at the Home Improvement stores rummaging through bins to "make do". When the stores "helper" stops by to help me, I say "thanks but I'm doing ok. If I really told him what I was doing, he wouldn't know what to say anyway.
Well, enough of my critique of the state of homebrewing. Back to the project.
I started by looking for something "squarish" and heavy. I thought about marble for "looks" but wondered where to find it. I lucked out by going to a store that made custom countertops and found out that they had samples of stone... exactly what I was looking for! They gave me one of the samples just for asking... wow! Needing something flexible, but a conductor of electricity, I chose a miniature hacksaw blade for the paddle arm... nice and "springy". I wanted a good conductor for the contacts. I had some gold plated battery contacts from an old motorola 2-way that fit the bill perfectly. For the "grips" on the paddle arm, I just glued a couple buttons to the hacksaw blade... cheap and easy. The hard part was the angle supports. I SO wanted to find brass angle for the supports but had absolutely no luck anywhere. I even looked online and had no luck. I had to settle for cheap looking aluminum. I really wanted the elegant look of brass to "work" with the marble. It seems that the stores have pretty much quit stocking nearly all brass hardware.
Well, having the parts, it was time for assembly. I had to cut and shape the aluminum, drill and install the gold contacts. Mount the hacksaw blade in the supports and get it perfectly level with the base. O.K., now the hard part... how do you anchor the supports to the marble? There was no way I was going to drill marble. I came up with idea of super-gluing the supports to the marble base. The hard part of that idea was that the supports had to be placed exactly perfect, or the key would be out of "alignment". I drilled one hole in each support. I carefully aligned each support, held it in place with one hand as I put a drop of super glue in the hole with the other hand. After waiting for about 15 seconds, I could let go and the part stayed in place. The glue seeped under the support and held it very secure. I cut the heads off of four small screws and glued them over the holes. looking at the picture, you would think I screwed the supports down into the marble. On the hidden side of the marble block, a DIN three conductor terminal block serves as the termination point for the stereo jack cord to the keyer. The final thing left was gluing some "anti-slide" foam stuff underneath the marble block. I got it from the XYL. It's the stuff she lined cabinets with so that dishes wouldn't slide around. It really works well on the key. With the weight of the marble and the non-skid pad, the key stays put on the desk.
The final result and conclusion:
The keyer works quite well! Sending cw with it is effortless.
I was really disappointed that I couldn't get brass in place of aluminum. The key would have looked a lot more "professional" with it.
I'm not sure I would do all this all over again if I wanted another key. It was a heck of a lot of work and time chasing parts and "machining" the aluminum by hand with no real workshop at my home.
On the positive side, the key was pretty inexpensive to build, so I saved a lot of money. The key is a lot better than the plastic versions available.
great...
Well, like I usually end up doing, I decided to make my own. I looked high and low for parts (hardware), to put together something that looked good as well as worked properly. Unfortunately, besides the high cost of purchasing anything new that's ham related, I found it also has become quite difficult to find hardware to build anything that looks decent. Real hardware stores have pretty much vanished, and in their place, "home improvement" stores are the rule.
This leaves the builder in the position of having to be very creative, as one has to "make-do" by using imagination to make some item fit/work, making it to do something other than the manufacturer intended. I have a decent "treasure trove" of electronic parts, but when it comes to simple metal parts, I seldom can find what I need at home. I end up at the Home Improvement stores rummaging through bins to "make do". When the stores "helper" stops by to help me, I say "thanks but I'm doing ok. If I really told him what I was doing, he wouldn't know what to say anyway.
Well, enough of my critique of the state of homebrewing. Back to the project.
I started by looking for something "squarish" and heavy. I thought about marble for "looks" but wondered where to find it. I lucked out by going to a store that made custom countertops and found out that they had samples of stone... exactly what I was looking for! They gave me one of the samples just for asking... wow! Needing something flexible, but a conductor of electricity, I chose a miniature hacksaw blade for the paddle arm... nice and "springy". I wanted a good conductor for the contacts. I had some gold plated battery contacts from an old motorola 2-way that fit the bill perfectly. For the "grips" on the paddle arm, I just glued a couple buttons to the hacksaw blade... cheap and easy. The hard part was the angle supports. I SO wanted to find brass angle for the supports but had absolutely no luck anywhere. I even looked online and had no luck. I had to settle for cheap looking aluminum. I really wanted the elegant look of brass to "work" with the marble. It seems that the stores have pretty much quit stocking nearly all brass hardware.
Well, having the parts, it was time for assembly. I had to cut and shape the aluminum, drill and install the gold contacts. Mount the hacksaw blade in the supports and get it perfectly level with the base. O.K., now the hard part... how do you anchor the supports to the marble? There was no way I was going to drill marble. I came up with idea of super-gluing the supports to the marble base. The hard part of that idea was that the supports had to be placed exactly perfect, or the key would be out of "alignment". I drilled one hole in each support. I carefully aligned each support, held it in place with one hand as I put a drop of super glue in the hole with the other hand. After waiting for about 15 seconds, I could let go and the part stayed in place. The glue seeped under the support and held it very secure. I cut the heads off of four small screws and glued them over the holes. looking at the picture, you would think I screwed the supports down into the marble. On the hidden side of the marble block, a DIN three conductor terminal block serves as the termination point for the stereo jack cord to the keyer. The final thing left was gluing some "anti-slide" foam stuff underneath the marble block. I got it from the XYL. It's the stuff she lined cabinets with so that dishes wouldn't slide around. It really works well on the key. With the weight of the marble and the non-skid pad, the key stays put on the desk.
The final result and conclusion:
The keyer works quite well! Sending cw with it is effortless.
I was really disappointed that I couldn't get brass in place of aluminum. The key would have looked a lot more "professional" with it.
I'm not sure I would do all this all over again if I wanted another key. It was a heck of a lot of work and time chasing parts and "machining" the aluminum by hand with no real workshop at my home.
On the positive side, the key was pretty inexpensive to build, so I saved a lot of money. The key is a lot better than the plastic versions available.
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