The postman rang twice today, bringing with him the second time a hefty box shipped priority mail.
As persnickety as I am on proper packing of the goods I buy on eBay, I was doubly concerned when I realized the box held not one but two bugs — my awaited 1938B McElroy Mac Key Deluxe, and a 1945 Vibroplex Original DeLuxe.
The Vibroplex was a lark — like I need another one, right? This one was listed as the seller as a “skanky” key, and he wasn't wrong.
The key really isn't in bad shape, but the base, which should be nice and smooth, is rough as the proverbial corn cob. It appears that when Vibroplex went back to chrome plating the bases for its keys (they had suspended the use of chrome about 1943), this base was one that should have been painted rather than plated.
All Vibroplex plated bases have sharp, straight edges and sharp corners. The base on this key has rounded corners and a very rough surface, just like that found on the keys of this era with painted bases. Somewhere along the way, the wrong base must have been chrome plated. There's no other explanation for why a rough looking cast base is plated.
The key operates flawlessly, just like any other WWII DeLuxe key. The seller insisted that this key wasn't a DeLuxe model, but I disagree. It was built as a DeLuxe. I don't know why anyone would have made such a rough-looking base in chrome — unless there was a shortage of parts and they needed to produce code keys. I suspect this one was sold for less, but for function, it works as smoothly as a new one today. Not bad for a 60 year old key.
The key was dirt cheap, which makes its worth the price I paid just for the parts. I don't plan to part this one out, however. Nothing beats the attraction of the offbeat.
McELROY 1938B MAC KEY DELUXE. I've rambled at length in the past over my ongoing fascination with the McElroy keys, so it should come as no surprise that for Christmas I bought a 1938 Mac Key DeLuxe at a fair price.
It's not pristine; the paint has some chips on the top of the “t-bar,” and a couple of minor chips on the edges of the base. The key has the large McElroy label, and its interesting to note that there was not a serial number stamped on the tag. According to key collector Tom French, there were a number of keys produced that weren't given a number. He maintains a serial number registry, and all of mine with numbers are on the list.
I had a meeting to attend this evening, but first I had to try out the new Mac Key. It didn't take a great deal of adjusting, and the contacts were spotless. The return spring on this key is probably the original one, and its a little stretched out. The pendulum doesn't snap back as fast as it should, so I'll probably buy a small spring and make a new one tomorrow.
Other than the slow action, the key plays well. I didn't need to clean the contacts on either key, which I appreciate. The new Mac Key is one that I'm going to use for SKN coming up at the end of the month. I'm going to dig up some other oddball keys for SKN. I've got some Speed-X bugs I'll look over and probably one of my Cedar Rapids bugs.
There's no other keys of interest on eBay this Christmas season, so the remaining fishing I'll do (see the eBay commercial, LOL) is for Christmas gifts and other assorted trinkets (and any bargains, of course!).
73 de KY4Z … dit dit …