| THE G3YUH MASTER KEY |
| This Page describes my Master Morse Key Mk1 After trying hundreds of straight Morse keys and designing and building many of my own it became obvious that a Perfect Master key would be impossible, Mainly as the roles it would have to fill would be to many for one design, I mean by this sheer physical restrictions such as size, cost, and such specialist requirements as say flameproofing or harsh environment usage etc. That apart I thought perhaps it may be possible to design a key which would suit a high percentage of Straight Morse key users, even this is no mean feat, the reason being that after many many tests and discussions with key users I came to the conclusion that a good 70% of key preferences i.e. size, weight, type (finger or brass pounder) even looks and reputation cannot be measured they are simply a preference based on the operators background, such as Military or Commercial training and such keys that were used during training or service, even keys that the operator had heard about but never owned!!! They often quote the usual format of a key must have a heavy mount, zero sideways movement easily adjustable and so on, parameters that 99% of most keys can meet. So it became obvious that any Master key design was going to to have to be pretty flexible and adjustable to even start to deserve the description of a Master Key. So my first priority in the Mk1 design (yes there will probably be others :) was adjustability, i.e. the key could very easily be adjusted to suit a preference, by this I mean it should be adjustable between a very hard action to a light sprung action, its center of gravity should also be adjustable, its bearing pressure which relates to its stiffness of action movement should also be adjustable along with all the usual adjustments of contact gap and spring return tension, also the weight of the actual key as regards the balance of the key over the center of gravity should also be adjustable, and last but certainly not least it should be able to operate as a finger key or as a heavy brass pounder, quite a list and I like to think this key meets all those requirement and more. So before I go any further I'm sure you will want to see this so called Master Key and either love it or hate it, but before you make a decision please read on and absorb the facts :) Here is the key |
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| This is how the key looks (above) as a key NOT set up for any
particular role, its extensions are closed and both its operating knobs are
attached, set like this the key has a very hard and top heavy feel to it, the
idea of the two knobs is to provide either, or, the two modes of use that is
as a brass pounder or as a finger key, both knobs can be present or either
one can simply be removed as they are adjustable, or the lower knob can be adjusted
around its axis providing a counter weight to the action in Pounder mode, or
simply set so that it lives under main shaft of the key. the adjustable shaft extensions provide an infinite amount of variation to the key, fully extended the key is over 10ins in lenth see picture right |
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In this mode (above) the action has a huge amount of bounce, mainly as the eighth brass top extension is fully extended this acts as an adjustable amount of suspension to the feel of the action, if it were to be completely closed but the second quarter brass extension fully extended then there would be very little bounce providing a much harder feel, but because the quarter brass is extended it also gives the action that large key feel where a slight movement of the knob results in a large movement of the contacts owing to the now increased ratio of the length of the key to bearing pivot point and also the inertia of the weight of the brass around the pivot point also alters the feel of the key considerably a closer view of the adjustments can be seen left |
| Of course the key could be used in Very Basic mode, (see
right) where all the extensions are removed and the knob fitted to the basic
action, this is easily done as all attachments on the key including knobs and
knob extensions can be interchanged as they all use a standard thread
throughout, the extension clamps can also be used as knob fittings or weight
adjustments, even now I'm still finding combinations of assembly which give
different adjustments and so feel to the key They are endless and great fun to try |
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| So there it is, I could go on endlessly about all the
different types of key that I have tried to emulate with this key and
most I can, even reproducing that "Dead" feeling of some military
keys that have flameproofing by over tightening the bearing holders, I could
also show hundreds of pictures of the combinations of adjustments of the
extensions etc, but that is best left to the imagination. There is of course in Any project room for improvement, I would like to improve the fineness of the gap adjustment and also the spring tension which are on this Mk1 key pretty basic, the reason being they really didn't appear to affect the feel of the key, only its ease of use which is another avenue to explore perhaps in the Mk2 :) also I've stuck to quality ball bearings as the pivot, I suspect a frictionless torsion system would be an improvement, yet another road to explore. Anyway I've had a great deal of fun making this key, it has taught me so many lessons in key design and construction, I like to think I have made a Master Key but only time will tell I suppose.. Any comments will be gratefully received |
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