Morse Key

Morse Key

This topic has 3 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 6 April 2025 at 14:59 by Steve Withnell.

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5 April 2025 at 11:06 #792075
Steve Withnell
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@stevewithnell34426
Always wanted to make a morse key. This is scratch built to my design, starting with some salvage mahogany. I made good use of the KX1 to get the base profiled and then machine some of the trickier pieces like the cast iron saddle and to profile the main lever.

All the drawings I did using cut2d, I haven’t managed to cross over into 3D cad yet.

The base carries 200g of lead ballast, which brings the overall weight upto around 850g. The pcb was cut using one of those chinese CNC engravers and again cut2d for the drawings.
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5 April 2025 at 11:43 #792078
SillyOldDuffer
Moderator
@sillyoldduffer
Drool! Lovely job. I particularly like the knob and spring bridge, never seen anything quite like that before.

Small point, does the lever only earth through the bearings and spring? If so, might be worth adding a braid strap to provide an earth immune to wear & patina building up over time and eventually causing intermittent keying. Or will it live in a display cabinet because it’s too beautiful to use?

Dave
5 April 2025 at 18:20 #792102
Mike Hurley
Participant
@mikehurley60381
Very nice piece of work Steve.
6 April 2025 at 14:59 #792187
Steve Withnell
Participant
@stevewithnell34426
Thank you!

At the minute the earth path is through the lever pivot. I’ve hesitated to add an earthing strap to avoid spoiling the look of it, the best place I can think of is directly under the spring where it might be less obvious.

The exposed spring was deliberately for show – just to add a bit more interest. It does mean that the pivot shaft is pulled up by the spring and then pushed down when the key is down. Not sure that’s a good thing generally, but for this application it probably doesn’t matter at all.

First contact was John, N3WT on 15 metres. Proved a) the key works and b) my morse is in need of significant improvement 🙂
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