Well my wife was away for the weekend so once the kids were in bed I had nothing to do....okay lets build something. (Or blow something up!?!) I 've wanted to try a cootie key so I opened the junk drawer in the kitchen. Hmm... paperclips, eyelet screws, unused mousetrap, masking tape, Gorilla glue, that ought to be enough to play with for now.
After a few different configurations my Cootie Mouser was born. I used the base of the moustrap as the base for the key. Placing the eyelet screw in the middle, I then ran the paperclip from the bottom through the staple in the back and through the eyelet (thus I had two posts for the price of one connection). A little glue to hold the clip in place. A little masking tape wrapped around the paperclip and I was in business.
I grabbed an old piece of speaker wire and solder to the paperclip and the eyelet. Then just in case the whole thing fell apart I ran it right off the posts to my straight key.
Last night I tuned up the old Swan 500C and gave the new cootie its maiden QSO. It handled like dream and the best part is it took five minutes and only about $1 to build. After a 75 minute QSO I was impressed with my junkdrawer key. Man---I love Ham Radio.