Friday, Sept. 9, 2011 — Where would our lives be without eBay, the premium seller of extra “stuff?”
Cruising the auction listings I found several keys listed with Buy It Now prices, some of which appeared — at first blush — to be reasonable. Example? OK, how about an E.F. Johnson Speed-X 114-501 bug for $40? Sound reasonable to you? Yeah, me too — BUT — the devil is in the details.
At first glance, I was ready to punch the Buy It Now button; but common sense reared its ugly head, forcing me to fire a few neurons prior to committing myself to such a “deal.” In short, the “deal” had some shortcomings.
ISSUE 1: NO WEIGHTS. This key had no weights on its pendulum; it should have had two.
ISSUE 2: PATINA OR RUST? This was definitely rust — you can call it “patina” if you like, but its still rust! The rust on the base didn’t bother me as much as the rust on all of the steel parts — screws, bolts, etc., just about every connector that wasn’t plated. Even the springs were rusty.
ISSUE 3: BROKEN/MISSING PARTS. Check the left side lever travel adjustment screw; yeah, notice the head of the screw is missing. The pivot frame (the big “T” thing) is made of a pot metal-like alloy that is not only brittle, but likes to corrode the threads of any screw inserted into it. The missing head of the adjustment screw means only one thing — that screw is stuck in the pivot frame. Stuck TIGHT. It also looks like the other set screw is missing the head on that screw (though there’s more threaded shaft sticking out on that side). Ugh! More trouble! There’s no way to be certain you’re going to get those screws out without a trip to your local machine shop, where they’ll sock you more than the price of this entire key.
Also notice there’s something funky going on with the contact screws. The contact points should be flush with the end of the screws; both the dit and dah contact points look like they are mounted on a cylinder that is either threaded over the adjustment screw or slipped over the threaded part.
So now we’re getting down to the key being a parts key; the pivot frame is questionable; and you don’t know if either of the contact screws can be used. You have a usable base, keying lever and paddles, along with a few other parts that aren’t too rusty. $40 doesn’t sound bad, but its a gamble I don’t need to take. (Actually, I think the seller of this key took parts off of it to complete one or more of the other Speed-X keys he’s listed.)
I could probably get the frozen threaded screws out of the pivot frame, but without other usable parts, is it worth the expense (plus shipping?).
Nope. Sorry!
Postscript
Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2011 — I’ve been on the road and haven’t had time to post here, but I did want to update this entry. Within a couple of hours after I posted this, the key depicted here was purchased using Buy It Now. I don’t know who, but someone did. They may be in for a bit of a surprise … though I’m hoping the key had parts they could use. The paddles were intact, and a pair of those in good shape are worth buying on their own.
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