[Elecraft] IC-706 Tuning Knob on a K2?

Wed Jan 2 07:14:00 2002

John,

I have installed the IC-706 knob on the K2.  It works fine for me.  I very 
much like the soft tactile rubber ring with grippy surface and edge plus the 
spinner indent.   I find the Yaesu knobs to be harder rubber and not as 
grippy for spinning with one finger or thumb on the outermost knob corner.

You can use the rubber ring from the 706 on the stock K2 knob and that works 
well, minus the spinner indent.   Or you can install the whole knob as 
described below - but it is challenging.

The 706 knob will run you $33USD plus any shipping.   The 706 knob uses a 
flat spring to press fit onto the shaft.   You will have to grind a flat 
spot on the encoder shaft for its full length, about 1/3rd the shaft 
thickness.  Further, you have to remove the inner knob flat spring plate, 
drill the center shaft hole deeper, extend the spring plate grooves deeper 
(using a very fine dremel router tip), drill out the center hole wider at 
the back to clear the encoder nut (leaving a paper thin or no original knob 
thickness in this area), and then reinstall the flat spring into the 
extended grooves. You can slip the knob onto the shaft now.   This is all 
plastic.  There is brass weight inside but you will not need to touch it.

The diameter of the 706 knob skirt is just a touch wide and will just rub 
against the LCD plastic lens cover so you need to avoid pressing the knob 
all the way to the panel leaving a small gap.  An extra layer of felt 
material will help with this.  The back of the knob is very slick and you 
can slide the knob on the shaft slightly to adjust the tension.  I find this 
handy.  You could elect to carve the display window edge slightly to clear 
the knob skirt as well.

Unless you are good with a Dremel tool and have a drill press or have steady 
hands (keep the drilling centered or your knob will wobble) this is a 
challenging modification since it requires so much detail grinding and 
drilling.  It is easy to see your expensive knob purchase go to waste.  You 
can still use the original knob with the set screws on the flatted shaft 
later if you happen to destroy the knob.  Use the 706 rubber ring (make sure 
to use double sticky tape between the ring and the knob).

Mike, WB7OSE

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Date: Thu, 27 Dec 2001 01:06:25 -0800
From: "John Clifford" <[email protected]>
Subject: [Elecraft] IC-706 Tuning Knob on a K2?

Has anyone used a tuning knob off of the Icom 706 or 706MkII on their K2?
The reason I ask is that Icom is right down the street from me and I really
like the 706 knob... especially the rotating finger detent and the soft
rubber trim ring.  My thumb has actually polished a circle on the front of
the original K2 knob... and the knob has polished a portion of my thumb,
too!

The IC-706 knob looks to fit on a keyed shaft (?... one side of the shaft is
flattened) of the same external diameter as that of the K2.  The knob body
appears to be made from some sort of cast metal, but before I haul the thing
down to work and start boring holes in it, if anyone else has fitted one of
these knobs to the K2 I'd sure appreciate some input.

- jgc

John Clifford KD7KGX

Heathkit HW-9 WARC/HFT-9/HM-9
Elecraft K2 #1678 /KSB2/KIO2/KBT2/KAT2/KNB2/KAF2
                  ...waiting _eagerly_ for KPA2!
Ten-Tec Omni VI/Opt1

email: [email protected]

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