Well, after taking that Morse test about 10yrs ago and never really bothering with it on the air, I decided that I should get me a paddle key - After seeing the price of them, I opted to make my own so if I got bored then I'd not lost out. I challenged myself to construct it from bits and pieces that I had available - some chunks of wood, a strip of veroboard and a few screws/solder-tags.

Midway through construction:


The completed beast:


No prizes for precision but it'll get me on the air without having to resort to a straight key or getting the computer to send it. What has surprised me is that my speed is still rather respectable, around 22wpm. It also gives me an excuse to put the 300Hz filter in on the FT-450D

Cool,
10 out of 10 for ingenuity
A veroboard key, nice one!

Thats nearly as crude as my old two drawing pins, and a paper clip, straight key! I knocked it up to demo at a radio talk, to show how versatile and simple CW was, and could virtualy be achieved with two bits of bare wire!
Nice one, 10 out of 10 for "kitchen top" construction!

Thanks for the comments - Just need to get used to using it, now. I've also put a short video up to show it in use: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hc-18SgL60

There is a lot of people using home made keys out there , they can be expensive . I spoke to a guy yesterday using a single lever made with a hacksaw blade . My first paddle was made from copper clad board as my straight key kept falling apart mid qso

I love things like this, very inventive.

This is my effort made from a scrap bit of brass, double sided PCB, and the contacts salvaged from relays, I used it for years. It is still in the garage if I care to dig it out.

couple i made , the single lever i used for ages ..

Love the two coins!
Now if you had used a couple of Gold Sovereigns, that would have been classed as an "upmarket" key!

That cost me 12p thing is it actually works ok ..