So now it is time to make the contact post where some form of gap adjustment takes place, these can be very tricky items to make, especially if they are fairly complex as in these old Vintage style types, I could say I have wasted more time on these parts than anything else, the reason as you will see is the whole thing has to be made before you can  perform some quite difficult operations to finish it, one false move and you scrap the lot and start again, Anyway I am making a start by cutting a piece out of a brass T shape.

Below you can see the rough cut piece sitting where it will eventually go, the original is in the background where I can get the odd visual reference although I am not making a copy I want 141 to be a representation of it.

So here is the contact post, things have moved on a bit, as you can see I cut off the internal leg of the T piece shaped in the upright and slotted the top to take the horizontal bar, as this top post will take quite a bit of use I have drilled and tapped the top bar into the upright, next I shall clean it up and solder it, so it will be belt and braces, the little flaps left of the sides are more for decoration when it is finally cleaned up

And here below is the post soldered and cleaned up, already quite a bit of work has gone into it and now it has to be drilled and slotted both quite tricky, a goof here and its wrecked

Now below the post is be drilled to take the top gap adjuster, sorry about the poor picture but my little camera insisted on focussing on the rusty filing cabinet behind dang digital thing!!  Time must be spent getting this just right the drill must go in EXACTLY vertical, nothing is worse believe me when you finally assemble the key to find the adjuster is leaning to one side or backwards, if you are a tiny bit out you can correct when you tap it but even so it's a fudge.

And now it has to be slotted as this is the way the adjustment was tightened, as you can see this is a much finer slotting saw, and cutting a fine slot is an art form, I often think I have done well and then look at the fine slots on some of these vintage keys and give up, take it very slowly it is so easy to rush it and break the blade or wander off course, slowly slowly catchee Monkey.

You may notice I havn't tapped the hole before slotting which is the prefered way I'm told, in this case I'm doing after fitting the tightener see below I've found doing it before slotting means the tightener has to take up a lot of slack and the slot looks V shaped when tight, it's just a preference really, before is easier.

Below you can see where the post will fit later in the construction

Now here comes a really tricky bit and boy have I goofed on doing this a few times, the tap has to be VERTICAL here you can see I have shown it it bit out, and believe me that will look BAD when the adjuster is in place

Here below it is almost right a fraction of a lean to the right if you can't see it you have a long way to go, you can use a square on the base and then sight the tap along the square vertical but it is a bit messy doing it by eye is best but it is practice makes perfect

Now is the time to fit the brass contact spring, two holes are drilled to take a 6ba tap, NOW the two holes are drilled tap size first, then the TOP of the slot AND the brass spring are drilled to 6ba clearance NOT the bottom of the slot that is the bit that is tapped if you tap the whole lot it will not tighten up, I remember that confused me quite a bit when I was a lad in Metalwork class :()

Below you can see the bottom of the slot being tapped (not my thumb)

And below you can see where it will all eventually go together the brass contact spring has been shaped to hopefully give a pleasant liveliness to the action when it is completed, a temporary screw takes the place of the adjuster that is yet to be made

Now you can see the two keys below and of course the major differences in the knob shape and bearing block etc, but I can only repeat it is not a replica it is after all a G3YUH special, but I will make a replica (one day :)