Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2011 — Finished my radio show at noon, and after lunch decided to continue some projects in the shack related to my bugs.
My long-term goal is to clean, document and photograph all of my keys. Elsewhere on this site you’ll find my list of keys by serial numbers; that list is incomplete, as I quit adding keys to it nearly two years ago. It also doesn’t contain the keys that weren’t issued serial numbers. I hope to update that list with the rest of my collection with photos too.
I have a 1916 Vibroplex Original that suffered some damage in shipping — believe it or not, the damper was actually bent due to a hard hit the key took. I should have filed a complaint and gotten Paypal to refund my money, but I wanted the key anyway. Since then I picked up a key a couple years older as a “parts key”; at some point the pendulum had been broken off at the main spring. My goal was to repair/replace the pendulum. Unfortunately, the key has collected dust under my desk. I saw that key and realized I should do the smart thing — repair my damaged 1916 key with the damper from the donor one. At first I really had to look over the keys to see which one should be the “complete” key; the older key won out, though the donor key has a very rare (though worn) Vibroplex logo paper sticker on the base.
In the process of working on that key, I ran across pieces of a broken paddle; I remembered where the key was that the piece went to, so I removed that paddle and repaired it. During that repair, I found part of another broken paddle and realized its mating part was on my computer desk. I just repaired that one.
I started to take some photos of the keys after I cleaned them up, but my camera is out in the car; more of the documenting-my-keys work to come in future installments.
Speaking of Vibroplex bugs, I’m about “this close” to ordering a new bug from Vibroplex; yes, another 100th Anniversary bug, but with the jeweled movements. I think the new keys come with the new “Knoxville” serial number plates. Collectors don’t think much of the new plates; silk-screen aluminum just looks cheap compared to the brass stamped keys.
I have to wonder how much profit there is in a key, and how many they sell in a year’s time … the keys don’t exactly where out. I wasn’t aware that Mitch advertised the company for sale; I wish I had seen it, lol!
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