Sunday, Aug. 9, 2015 — On occasion I receive email from readers who often find my blog through one of a variety of search engines while looking for information on various and sundry Morse code keys. And I have to credit one of my readers who recently suggested I write something about proper packing of a semi-automatic Morse code device (no doubt prompted by my many rants about inadequate packing!).
After giving it some thought — and recalling my howls of displeasure at the lame-brained packing jobs I’ve had the misfortune to experience — I figured why not?
For many eBay sellers, it seems that shipping a semi-automatic Morse code key involves little more than dumping the key in a UPSP Priority Mail flat-rate box with a few wads of newspaper and sending it on its way. While the key will very likely arrive, the odd are high it will suffer some damage before it reaches its destination.
Rather than regale you with “The Zed’s Tales of Semi-Automatic Woe” (or “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Delivery Driver”), let’s just cover some basic steps to help make sure that key arrives safely.
THE PROBLEM. Bugs and I share the same problem: weight. The base of a Vibroplex bug is machined steel or cast iron, (depending on the year and model) and very heavy. It makes for a very small, dense item to pack — and packing it correctly is crucial to avoiding damage in transit (my base is heavy too, but my wife suggests its made of lead rather than iron or steel).
THE SOLUTION. I’ve purchased several keys over the years from Tom French, W1IMQ, and Tom’s shipping practices are second to none. Based on his methods, here are my suggestions (if I leave something out, please let me know).
Step 1: Remove the bakelite/plastic finger pieces from the key. Place the pieces and screws and place them in a small ziplock bag. With some very old keys, rust may prevent their removal. Leave them in place rather than risk damaging them or their screws.
Step 2: Remove the weights from the keying lever. Package the weights and their screws together in a separate baggie. Wrap them in large bubble bubblewrap. Set aside.
Step 3: Remove the keying lever. On standard Vibroplex keys, loosen the round lock nut on top of the pivot frame and turn the pivot screw counterclockwise. Once it backs out far enough, the pivot pin will be released from the screw. On deluxe keys with jeweled pivots, you will need to loosen the lower pivot screw, which is locked in place with a small phillips head set screw on the rear of the pivot frame. DO NOT force the pivot screw to turn until the set screw is loosened.
The keying lever on non-Vibroplex keys can usually be removed by loosening the top adjustment screw.
Step 4: Using 1-inch bubble bubblewrap, wrap the base in several layers. The goal is to be certain the base is cushioned and cannot bounce around inside the box. Use enough bubblewrap so the key fits snug. Pack the lever and the other parts with a wrap of bubblewrap and pack them in the box. I prefer to use bubblewrap packed tightly to prevent movement inside the box during transit. WARNING: Do not use wads of newspaper for packing! The key will bounce around inside the box and compress the newspaper flat during transit. Continued bouncing in the box will lead to damage the key and the box.
My kids quickly learned the telltale signs of a bad packing job from getting our mail out of the mailbox when they got off the bus — if you see splits in the middle of one side of the box, that’s often caused by the keying lever. Or if they could shake a USPS priority mail box and feel anything move inside, it was a red flag.
Simply removing the keying lever from a key goes a long way to preventing damage, even if the packing material allows the key to bounce around. There’s not much to damage on a bug base. I prefer to wrap the base so it fits snug in the box (front to back), then I put the other parks on the sides, then fill the void (if any) with additional bubblewrap.
I have used packing peanuts to fill the void around a bubblewrapped base, but only to keep the other parts (wrapped securely) from moving around. I’m NOT a big fan of packing peanuts for packing in general for anything heavy.
As a substitute for large bubble bubblewrap, I supposed you could use styrofoam board, just as long as the base is secured so it can’t break free and move around. Disassembly and copious amounts of bubblewrap are the best bets for my money.
EPILOGUE. As much whining as I have done about packing keys and all things purchased (and sold) on ebay, I learned a valuable lesson as a seller about proper packing.
I sold a fellow in a Scandanavian country (I forget which) a Japanese Skillman bug. For starters, I have had enough trouble buying them without damage in transit, so I should have known to pack it more securely than I did.
COMPOUNDED ERRORS. The plastic paddle on a Skillman bug can be very fragile, and a hard hit can shatter one into a bazillion pieces. I have superglued two successfully after gathering up all the shards of plastic. The problem with the Skillman is that there are no aftermarket replacements.
Sometimes the seller will leave the weight on the keying lever and assume since it has a nice plastic cover, it will ride just fine in some wads of crumpled newspaper.
WRONG.
I had one Skillman bug arrive with the weight bouncing around the box — it had come off the keying lever AFTER it beat the plastic cover into tiny pieces. The finger piece broke, but cleanly. The keying lever had been knocked loose, but no damage done there. The weight had bent up the metal adjustment scale on the bug while it bounced around. Some fresh crazy glue and I had a working key again. I found a cover and had a complete (if not worse-for-wear) key.
The one I sold I THOUGHT I had packed securely. I packed some peanuts under the cover to hold the weighted keying lever still. Can’t remember exactly how I packed it (bubble wrap or packing peanuts?), but a couple of weeks later, I get an email from the buyer who — in a close approximation of English — told me the key had a very hard time in transit. Apparently the box was smashed to hell; the finger piece was broken off and the weight had come off and broken the plastic cover. I offered to refund his money, but he said he would fix the paddle and wanted to keep the bug.
After that experience, I decided not to ship overseas again. I also make it a practice if I buy a Skillman bug and I can’t tell if the seller is a collector, I will email him or her instructions for shipping it without damage. (A WORD OF CAUTION: I’ve angered several sellers by doing this, they assume (quite correctly) I doubt their ability to properly pack the key. Stand your ground, and make sure the seller knows your goal is simply to have a smooth transaction and to leave glowingly positive feedback).
WORSE CASE SCENARIO. I have had two Speed-X bugs (the Vibroplex bug style, not the t-bar bugs) arrive with broken pivot frames — broken from taking some very hard hits to the business end of the keying lever. The pivot frames on those keys is some sort of cast pot metal, and what I’ve learned is that is can be very fragile.
On the first broken Speed-X Model 510, the pivot frame was shattered into four pieces; I sent it back for a refund. On the second one (broken into three pieces), I repaired it with super glue. The frame broke right in the middle of the top where the top pivot screw is located. That was nearly 10 years ago, and its held fine ever since.
It’s kind of funny to think of how fragile the Speed-X pivot frames are compared to, say, the 1930s McElroy Mac Key castings. Those things will break a toe if you drop it on your foot!
SPEAKING OF MAC. Yes, and speaking of my Mac-Keys makes me wonder: Why can’t we as key fans and history buffs get some sort of bio pic about Ted McElroy? It’s a movie with a screenplay that’s simply the pages of recorded history: The main character is a self-made, larger-than-life man, who — after winning the title of the “World’s Fastest Radio Telegrapher” — parlayed that into manufacturing success, beginning in his garage and home, and later in successively larger businesses, becoming quite a communications vendor for the U.S. during World War II.
If we can put together such a biopic, I want to be cast as an extra or bit player. I’ll even lend the prop guys my keys for use in the film. What say you, boys?? Whose with me??
73 es CUL … de KY4Z SK … dit dit ….