With this key No 058  I shall write it up as I plod along through the designing and building stages   I've long wanted to build an old style lever key, but haven't done so for two reasons mainly, one is that the main arm of the key seems to be a piece of cast brass to a particular shape, which I would be unable to replicate, and the other is I can't help feeling by the look of the lever key design its action would be quite poor, having now gained some experience in working brass I thought I might make up the arm from a few prefabricated pieces and fit it together to make the required shape, also modify the design to a more modern action, so it would be another "in the style of" G3YUH keys :)) here you can see the shaped arm with the brass button cut in, and the adjuster bodies in place, so far so good..

Adjuster bodies now threaded and one knurled adjusted made and fitted just to see how it may look, also the bearing block has been cut and drilled out to take the small ball bearings which will be hidden under the bearing plates later

Adjusters made, the bottom tightener was a bit of a problem as I had no means of locking the adjustment and keeping the large knurled nuts so after a bit of experimentation I decided on small knurled lock nuts with an extended bar to make locking easier I could have used other methods but this made a nice YUH touch, the bearing side plates are made, the large M8 bolt being threaded into the plate and then turned down to fit into the bearing, I'm not sure if this is a good idea yet, until the bottom plate is fitted and the plates bolted on and the movement tested, it seems a bit unsteady, maybe a bit of redesigning needed, all part of the fun :)

Bearing plates now fixed to the bearing holder, quite a few problems getting the whole thing lined up, this design is pushing my shaky metalworking skills to the limit, but the ball bearings are now hidden away and working reasonably well, I've decided to fit the tensioner to the contact gap adjuster, its an idea I've used before and works well, also it should give a nice action to the key, more than a big bent flat spring would, and yet still retain that vintage lever look, contacts and stops next.

And here it is almost complete, just a terminal and a clean up to finish, and it works very well as I hoped it would, the quality bearings and coil spring give it an excellent action, the tommy bar type lock nuts also work well and give it a special enhancement and it still retains that vintage lever look, even though technically it isn't a lever key I suppose, time to move on now this key is history, I have purchased some small magnets and now itching to have a go at a magnetic key action in my next key :()

Finished