Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011 – ‘Tis the season for giving, right? And it is better to give than receive? Or in ham radio terms, it’s better to send than receive?? Yeah, I thought so too … well, its justification for my admittedly rather impulse purchase tonight of a Vibroplex Iambic Presentation on eBay. The seller had a price on it that was less than what you see a DeLuxe Iambic sell for …. and you seldom see an Iambic Presentation sell on eBay at all. I just don’t think there are that many sold.
The Vibroplex Iambic Presentation is identical to the Iambic DeLuxe; the only addition is the 12k brush-finish gold plate on top of the key’s chrome-plated base. As you might guess, the retail price between the two models is currently $90 — and that’s a lot of money for the simple addition of the gold-plated top plate that is simply eye candy. Frankly, I snapped it up because the retail price is way, way, way more than I would ever pay for an iambic key. I could relist it on eBay and easily make my money back on it.
1959 ORIGINAL DELUXE. I finally have gotten around to taking a closer look at the 1959 Original Deluxe I received early this week … the one packed in wadded-up plastic grocery bags (!). I’m happy to report the key suffered no ill effects of the piss-poor packing job; the key is in exceptionally good shape to be as old as I am. The chrome on the base and other parts is flawless. I’ve decided I need to order a set of finger and thumb pieces in red for this key, and black for a Vibroplex Lightning Bug standard of about the same vintage that’s in excellent shape. I need to check the website for prices, but they ain’t cheap.
The seller e-mailed me this evening to see if I received the key, and why I hadn’t left feedback … lol! I’ve decided to leave her glowing feedback, but I’m also going to e-mail her some suggestions 😉
1936A T.R. MCELROY MAC KEY. Remember this key? I won it in an eBay auction in late October. It is missing the damper assembly, and I will need to create one modeled on the one from an existing key in my collection. Well, it’s going to need a little more help than that as well.
The mainspring is broken, at least partly. See the big-honkin’ weight on the keying lever? The weight end of the pendulum shifts up and down, and it appears to that one of the attachment holes for the rivets that attach the spring steel “spring” to the keying lever is split — the rod part of the pendulum with the weight acts as though it is hinged; it pivots at the riveted attachment point. I’m guessing there was too much weight on the rod (that accessory weight is HEAVY!), leading to the broken attachment hole on the spring steel mainspring.
And the kicker? That big honkin’ weight is stuck … it won’t budge. Can’t remove it from the weight section of the pendulum. I have been putting some drops of oil along the hole and the rod, hoping to get it to break lose. There’s rust, and I do not wish to completely break off the pendulum rod by twisting the shit out of it (though that would make it easier to get the weight removed).
Once I remove that gawd awful extra weight, I can focus on the mainspring fix and the damper replacement. I’m sure I can get the parts to replicate the damper, but first things first.
I still have to get some photography done of a number of keys, particularly the homebrewed one that really looks like a professional job.
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