Monday, March 3, 2014 — It is a snow, icy day here in Central Kentucky, and I am home today watching Perry Mason reruns with my wife and son. She is texting and cruising Pintrest; my son is doing whatever he does on that damnable Nintendo handheld thing-a-ma-bob.
I received an email from one of this blog’s readers who was checking to see if all was well with me; I assure those who read my ramblings here that I am well, just very busy of late. I am finishing up a master’s degree this semester. In addition to the rest of life’s 
activities, I have a full-time internship to contend with. I don’t mind, I’m enjoying it a lot, but I have had to pull back from some things, like serving as NCS of our state emergency net, etc. We all have to manage our time, its just how things work.
Anyway, I still take time at work to browse eBay and follow a few auctions. And yeah, there have some keys I would love to have chased … did I mention this is an unpaid internship?? Hi hi! This final semester’s tuition isn’t completely paid, so I’m not at liberty to chase high-dollar keys … though that fact doesn’t diminish my interest in keys on eBay.
However (and there’s almost always a “however”) , while I can’t afford to pursue highly collectible keys, I can afford to keys I consider “interesting” but are of little interest to big-time collectors. These tend to be homebrew keys, particularly homebrewed semi-automatic bugs. And that’s is what I’m writing about today.
BRASS BUG. The key above is my latest arrival to my collection, and it is an interesting homebrewed bug that is fairly standard in its operation. It does have some interesting features.
The key base is fairly thin brass plate, and doesn’t add a lot of heft; it could use some weight to help its stability (a set of good rubber feet might help that without adding weight).
The pivot frame assembly is interesting; it manages to use brass sheet bent into a u-channel shape with attachments for the travel stops made of the same brass sheet, with nuts soldered to the stops to provided threaded adjustments. Does the top pivot adjustment screw and lock nut look familiar? It looks like a standard issue Vibroplex adjustment screw and lock nut.
As you can see in the pics, the dot and dash contact adjustments are slotted with knurled flat lock nuts to secure the adjustments. The dot lever return spring assembly is designed to offer independent adjustments of both the travel stop and return spring adjustments.
The key features an adjustable damper (which needs adjusting, BTW) and adjustable dot contact with a course and fine adjustment (you can move the entire dot contact assembly or fine tune the adjustment with the contact screw). The dot contact assembly is interesting too … rather than add one from a Vibroplex key, the builder crafted his/her own and soldered it to the same spot where the leaf spring is soldered to the weight rod.
I’m not sure of the age of this key, but it is reasonably well designed and built. I have done little beyond unboxing it and giving it a good once-over. I’m considering giving this key a good polishing; if so, I’ll post photos of the final product.
UP NEXT. I got crazy and won an auction for a Vibroplex clone of unknown origin in an auction over the weekend. I like the look of the key, which has a blue over black base, and the upper parts appear to be brass rather than nickel or chrome plated. The knurling of the adjustment screws and the lock nuts make it clear the key isn’t a Vibroplex, but of some other origin — though the key’s piviot is the “bent lug” design rather than “pinned hinge” … post early 1920s of one manufacturer or another. Pics coming soon.
73 es CUL
de KY4Z … dit dit
-30-