Recycling K1 leftovers

[Mike Markowski]

After finishing my K1 a couple weeks ago there was one tiny thing
bugging me.  There is a small gap between the front panel board and the
chassis fasteners so that when uppermost buttons are pushed, even
gently, I could see the display slightly pushing backwards.  Not liking
how it took away from the otherwise solid feel of the rig, I looked for
something to fill the gap without overdoing it.

Luckily I had saved the leftover adhesive neoprene washer material for
the speaker in the KBT1 kit.  It's just a touch bigger than the gap, so
I cut two small pieces and attached the adhesive side to the fasteners.
  Now there's no flexing of the front panel board when pushed.  It looks
better and is probably better structurally for the board as well.
Nothing major, just a 'for what it's worth' comment.

By the way, yesterday with an 80m long dipole I made a 100 mW qso on the
K1 here in southeastern Pennsylvania to a Rockmite in Maine!

73,
Mike  ab3ap
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[Matthew D. Pitts]

Mike,

Nice going; I can't wait to get my K2 done and start doing the same.

Matthew Pitts N8OHU
K2 #5956 (Currently unassembled)

Mike Markowski wrote:

> After finishing my K1 a couple weeks ago there was one tiny thing
> bugging me.  There is a small gap between the front panel board and
> the chassis fasteners so that when uppermost buttons are pushed, even
> gently, I could see the display slightly pushing backwards.  Not
> liking how it took away from the otherwise solid feel of the rig, I
> looked for something to fill the gap without overdoing it.
>
> Luckily I had saved the leftover adhesive neoprene washer material for
> the speaker in the KBT1 kit.  It's just a touch bigger than the gap,
> so I cut two small pieces and attached the adhesive side to the
> fasteners.  Now there's no flexing of the front panel board when
> pushed.  It looks better and is probably better structurally for the
> board as well. Nothing major, just a 'for what it's worth' comment.
>
> By the way, yesterday with an 80m long dipole I made a 100 mW qso on
> the K1 here in southeastern Pennsylvania to a Rockmite in Maine!
>
> 73,
> Mike  ab3ap
> _______________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Post to: [hidden email]
> You must be a subscriber to post to the list.
> Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.):
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> Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
>
>

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[Mike Morrow-3]

Mike wrote:

>After finishing my K1 a couple weeks ago there was one tiny thing
>bugging me.  There is a small gap between the front panel board and the
>chassis fasteners so that when uppermost buttons are pushed, even
>gently, I could see the display slightly pushing backwards.

>Luckily I had saved the leftover adhesive neoprene washer material for
>the speaker in the KBT1 kit.  It's just a touch bigger than the gap, so
>I cut two small pieces and attached the adhesive side to the fasteners.
> Now there's no flexing of the front panel board when pushed.  It looks
>better and is probably better structurally for the board as well.
>Nothing major, just a 'for what it's worth' comment.

This was a well-known issue back in 2000 with the first K1s, like my no. 175.  At certain speaker volumes and audio frequencies, a rattle would be heard as the corners of the front panel board would vibrate at the corners.  I'm sure there is a write-up on this on the Elecraft website somewhere.  I fixed the problem with a small square of double-sided adhesive foam tape on the front-facing surface of *all four* of the chassis fasteners, leaving the film that covers the adhesive on the front side on the tape in place.  I think you'd profit from putting space fill material on the lower fasteners too.

As you mentioned, the great side benefit was the added firmness to the feel of the panel pushbuttons.  

I've not seen anyone complain of this in six years, so I had assumed Elecraft had added this material to the K1 to correct this aggravating problem.  Guess I was wrong.  If you've got a K1, this is well worth doing, even if you haven't had an audio rattle problem.

Mike / KK5F
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