First thing to do is take the thing apart so you can work on the base. I used JB Weld to seal the spring tension post hole and the two holes for the two contacts for dit and dah. I then sanded the base to remove all paint and the smooth the epoxy fillings.
I used the one dollar and some small change paint from Wal*Mart to prime and paint the paddle a Royal Blue. You can make it what you want if you do the mods. Neat stuff. Do the painting in open air.
Use an electric toaster oven, also from Wally*World, to bake the paint for several hours at 140 to 145 degrees. Make sure you suspend the base so that nothing touches the paint. And when you remove from the oven, let it cool to room temperature for at least 30 or more minutes. Don't rush this or you will have to redo it all over again. Trust me.
Moved the back spring tensioning post towards the yoke about 1.6cm so that I would have a light touch with the paddle. It is just too heavy handed the way it comes from the factory. I'll come back and do a writeup on a couple of other points in the next day or two. Be patient.
Here are the arms straightned out. I first used a vice to bend as much as possible without having to scar the chrome. I then carefully tapped the arms with a small hammer to get the straight. It doesn't have to be perfect. The chrome plating will crack anyway. I see no way around that.
Here are the spring post, spring, yoke and paddle arms reinstalled on the base.
Here is the bottom of the paddle after everything is installed.
I eliminated the screw adjustments on each of the contact posts. So I use the hex screw in the yoke to set the spacing as close as possible.
Here is the end of an audio cable that usually comes with CD/DVD players for computers.
Final paddle photo.
