About a month ago, I blogged about finding the carcass of a Les Logan Speed-X bug in my father’s garage. It was in pretty rough shape (see below), but I really hate to throw these things away, so, I posted this story to the CWOps mailing list, and asked if anyone thought it would be worth trying to restore.
Jim, N4TMM, replied that he had just acquired and restored a similar key, and told me the story of how he did it. He added:
Here is another thought. If you don’t want to go through rebuilding, I am happy to buy it from you, because the screws are what I need, primarily. I will pay you whatever is fair, somewhere between $50 and $100, for instance.
As much as I love ham radio, I’m really not very good at restoring things. I have a bunch of old electronics on shelves here waiting for me to get around to them. I could have added the Speed-X to the list, but it would have been so far down that I rather doubt that I would have gotten to in in my lifetime. So, I offered to sell it to Jim for $50, plus shipping. He sent me $65, and I sent him the key.
About a week ago, I got the following email from Jim:
I completed the Les Logan today, after letting the red engine paint cure for 7 days. I am attaching two photos. I wanted you to be the first to see them. What I did was to mill the top of the pendulum frame with a diamond burr to a Fibonacci 8:5 bridge curve, then take the trunnion frame and base down to the metal with Strypeze and sandpaper, then 2 coats of primer followed by 2 coats of Rustoleum engine red enamel. The pendulum, posts, screws, springs I hand polished with Flitz – the nickel plating was fortunately in great shape so took the polishing well. New finger/thumb bulls eye pieces, and new feet, from Donnie at 2B Radio Parts. Donnie gave me a great deal of advice and parts for this key, including a new base when I broke off a thread tap in one of the nameplate holes. The hairpin spring and weights came from the other Les Logan, in which I had replaced them with a 1.9oz weight from Donnie and Vibroplex spring. This particular key had a bent pendulum blade, which is tough to replace, and which reduces somewhat the frequency at which the pendulum oscillates. But it’s perfect with the weights you see on it for 20wpm or so CW. As I had heard would be the case, and like my other Les Logan, it runs really smooth, very forgiving and a pleasure to operate. I wanted you to be the first to see photographs of it. Thanks again for letting me take it off your hands.
Here’s what the key looks like now:
What I say is thanks, Jim, for doing such a great job restoring this key to its former glory.
Whether it’s homes, cars, vintage electronics, or keys… the art of restoration is truly fascinating. I’m always amazed by the talented individuals who are able to bring these treasures back to life. Especially those who have the skills to restore objects both functionally and aesthetically. In this case, it looks like that talent plus a good dose of patience and elbow grease paid off. Thanks for sharing.
I have a Speed X Les Logan model 500 1 with the serial # A 1.
I believe it is the 500 series prototype. My question to you is,….do you recall the serial # on the label of the 500 in the article. the tag is on the wrinkle finish reverse(bottom of bug) I have attempted to reassemble the bug with the tag on the top but the holes do not line up?
I would appreciate any information I can get on this bug.