Wedneday, Oct. 14, 2015 — The hunt for the $&@*& Beugler pinstriping tool continues while my patience grows increasingly thin.
After another coat of paint late Monday, the base looks excellent; all I need is to pinstripe the thing and its ready for the clear coat. Another revelation … why the hell didn’t I drill all the holes I needed prior to applying paint? It isn’t a huge deal, but I’ll just need to be VERY careful with the base in the drill press. Wish me loadsa luck, hi hi.
I did some earthmoving in the shack, clearing out some more “stuff” … I actually found a Heathkit SB-102 I bought on eBay in 2013 … still in its unopened box. I couldn’t remember what the hell was at the bottom of this stack of stuff, so I decided to clean it out and move all of it into more appropriate storage.
The SB-102 is in good physical condition. The tuning knob skirt is warped, but I think that may have happened during shipping (though it was double boxed, there was no padding whatsoever between the front panel and the two layers of cardboard — duh!). I remember this rig because of one very ugly feature — someone had mounted a large 110 AC computer cooling fan to the TOP of the lid right over the finals.
Other than the fan, the rubber O-rings are toast, and the cord connecting the Final tuning shaft with the shaft below it is missing. The only other problem is that a medium-sized upright cap in the right rear corner seems to have broken one lead.
The other problem is that the VFO slips. If you apply a pulling pressure away from the front panel as you rotate it, everything functions as it should. All it all, it was a complete rig in decent shape at a decent price.
I have at least one other SB-102/101 out in the barn that’s in much sadder physical shape. I may have a second one boxed up too. At one point I wanted to recreate one of my favorite early ham stations — the Heathkit SB-102 and matching speaker/power supply. I still want to recreate that station … the rig, with CW filter, was a hell of a lot of fun to operate on CW. Of course, that’s with the Nostalgia Filter fully engaged, too.
I unboxed the SB-102 and left it in the shack. I opted NOT to send it into storage oblivion … it represents the easiest path to recreating my “Benton Harbor S-Line.” The only other accessory I would really like to add would be the external VFO, but first I want to get the rig working correctly. The first step is o-ring replacement and the dial cord restringing, then on to repair the broken cap lead.
Beyond the ugly-ass fan attached to the lid, the rig appears original and unmolested, and if that’s true, its fairly rare among these 40-year-old rigs.
ASSAULT WITH A (SET OF) BATTERIES. While sorting through a stack of stuff I found a small box that contained my KATSUMI EK-108D KEYER and another old 
iambic keyer I boxed up to take to a past ham radio club meeting (one I missed).
On closer inspection, I found some white, powdery deposits on the rear edges of the Katsumi keyer … it looked like battery corrosion. WTF??? Well I found out — for the first time — that the Katsumi had the option of operating from DC with 2 “D” batteries in an internal battery holder. That was news to me — as well as the source of the corrosion residue all over the bottom of the keyer’s case.
The corrosion took off the paint on the inside of the bottom cover, as well as some at the front and rear exterior of the bottom cover. No damage was done to the electronics or other parts beyond the bottom cover. I’m just glad I found it when I did.
VIBROPLEX BASES — CAST OR MACHINED? With all the work I’ve done on this old Lightning Bug base, I’ve been wondering about how Vibroplex manufactured the bases.
Clearing, the bases used with the standard finish keys were cast; the edges on most standard finish keys of the past are rough and they didn’t take time to finish them perfectly smooth. The nickel and chrome plated bases are another story — those appear to be machined/cut from steel and then plated. The edges and corners are all well-shaped and finished.
I may be all wet on this, but I can’t help but wonder if Vibroplex had two different types of bases — cast for standard finish and machined steel for deluxe. At some point in the company’s history, they appear to have run out or quit using cast bases on new keys. The difference between today’s painted vs. plated keys amount to little more than the finish. I don’t know what year that change may have occurred, and I suspect some lower volume keys may still have some cast bases in inventory (that’s just a guess).
Anyway, it also brings up a question about Vibroplex cast parts for keys still in manufacture — is there a danger of losing a source to create these parts? I can imagine that casting them isn’t cheap, and that it requires an order of sufficient size to make it worth a foundry’s while. Maybe next time I get to Dayton I’ll check with Scott on this and other questions.
73 es CUL … de KY4Z SK CL … dit dit