[Yaesu] re ungluing plastic knobs

[waltah@earthlink.net]

Fern Rivard asked:
> Has anyone had the experience of ungluing the metal inserts out of some
> plastic knobs without damaging the actual knobs.

You don't say what year of Yaesu set is involved; my experience is  
all with FT-101 and earlier vintage radios and things could be different 
for later rigs.   I have had to enlarge the hole for the shaft from 6mm 
to 0.25 inch to accomodate U.S. controls when I couldn't find (in the 
KJ4KV junkbox) a suitable metric control for a project.  

In the Yaesu knobs I'm familar with, the knobs are molded bakelite 
and the brass inserts are molded in -- they are knurled, as I recall.   
You can forget about taking them out, short of destroying the knob.

The insert holes can, however, be drilled for larger shaft sizes.  The 
best way would be with a lathe but because of the irregular shape of 
the knobs, it wouldn't be easy, even then.   You might be able to get 
hold of the flange on the knob with a collet.   Or careful work with a 
small 4-jaw chuck would probably do the trick.

Second best (my way, since I don't have the lathe) was a drill press.  
But getting the hole straight is a real chore and of course it is easy 
to either cut through the face of the knob or smash up the whole 
works.   I ruined about 2 for each one I drilled successfully but my 
ratio might have been better if I had been doing more.

Be sure to take out the setscrews before drilling.   Good luck!

Walt Hutchens
KJ4KV