Making MR-1 dials.

[Gerald Lemay]

I finally arrived at a solution on making a replacement dial drum for my
basket case MR-1. A while ago I used a scanner to capture each band scale in
a file. That is, align 80m on the scanner bed and scan, align 40m etc...I
then imported each file into Visio where I duplicated each band calibration.
It was laborious but worth it. Visio will let you "draw" over another
graphic file, in this case in the TIF format and give much better resolution
than any other graphic drawing program I know of. After each scale was
completed, the related graphic file was removed leaving only clear, crisp
dial markings. After I got 80-10 meters and adjusted scale spacing from
band-to-band I was able to print my Visio file and verify that it matched
the MR-1 dial. There it lingered for a while (several months) while I looked
at a readily available source of 1 1/2 inch tubing without buying a large
quantity or making inquiries all over the place. Today I found the last
piece of the puzzle. For the princely sum of $5.57 Wal-Mart sells a "Handi
Works 1 1/2" Twin Waste End Outlet" stock or part number WM30992. So it was
made for double bowl sinks, so what. There is enough tubing to make at least
2 dials with material to spare. I printed the dial calibrations on Avery
8665, Clear Full Sheet Labels. At home I have an Inkjet which is not the
best choice for permanency but if the dial lasts 10 years, I'm sure by then
I'll have the latest printer which will probably blow anything I now have
out of the water. The same technique just described could just as well be
applied for making HG-10 dials but I don't have a need right now.

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