Except for the base, most of the parts on this paddle are aluminum. Aluminum has the advantage of keeping the mass of the moving parts low. For weight, the base is steel (not stainless unfortunately) that I sprayed with a clear coat to keep it from rusting. The paddle levers pivot on shafts supported at both ends by sealed ball bearings which are glued into the central bearing block. Small setcrews and some glue hold the levers on the shafts. The levers themselves are made from slices of large extruded aluminum angle. The contacts are silver buttons scrounged from relays and are soldered to the stationary adjustment screws. The contacts on the aluminum levers couldn't be soldered, so they were left attached to pieces of the relay armature which were then screwed into the levers. Tension is provided by ballpoint pen springs which are coaxial with the tension adjustment screws. The springs also give a more reliable current return path for the moving contacts in addition to the path to ground through the ball bearings. All adjustment screws are held in place with jam nuts. This method is simple to construct, but adjustments can be a tedious trial and error procedure. A better way would be to use split posts with a pinch screw like Bencher does. The white caps on the return stop screws are Teflon bumpers to quiet the return click. I haven't noticed a contact spacing drift problem, but you could argue that Teflon isn't the right material to use here. All parts except the tops of the round posts were rubbed with sandpaper to give the brushed finish. I left the tops alone so they would shine from the lathe machine marks.