I picked up this CAN-5001CW keyboard with an integrated calculator. The box says "mechanical feeling" which is the same as a sticker saying "duck flavor" on a pack of cheap, chinese soup. I popped off a keycap and to my surprise there was a spring underneath! So far, I only knew of IBM, Brother and Alps buckling spring switches. My initial enthousiasm quickly faded away when trying the keys: the ones at the outer regions of the keyboards (like A and Num-) are clicky and tactile but the keys toward the center do not click but feel rather mushy. The inside of the keyboard looks OK in a mechanical sense, the plastic is not warped so that should not be the reason for the lack of clickyness at the center.
The spring-and-hammer assemblies can be taken out of their barrels from the top. They are literally drenched in oil; at least they do not squeak.
Oh, and the whole thing doesn't work - hopefully I just need to replace the NiMH rechargable battery to get it going.

OK, looks rather similar to these ones:
http://deskthority.net/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2041
http://deskthority.net/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=82

Interesting variant!

it is a Ya Sheng buckling spring...generally considered a horrible copy of the IBM BS. Someone here poured ligher fluid over theirs and burned it for our pleasure. Pics are somewhere, I've lost the link.

Ascaii wrote:it is a Ya Sheng buckling spring...generally considered a horrible copy of the IBM BS. Someone here poured ligher fluid over theirs and burned it for our pleasure. Pics are somewhere, I've lost the link.

Mmmh, burning it, surely a thing to consider. There's so much oil on the switches that you won't even need the lighter fluid

Just don't burn it while it's on your desk...
(from geekhack)

JBert wrote:Just don't burn it while it's on your desk...

dsc00128x2pdcrop.jpg

(from geekhack)

That's a Cherry G80-3000...

I was well aware of that, thank you. It went up in smoke and made a mess, which was my point.

Why exactly are these so terrible?

Looking at the mechanisms, I can take a guess:



These guys make Model M hammers look like mighty Model F flippers!



Certainly fits with my theory: more flipper = more feel.

I think you are right on that muirium! I wonder what the Ya Sheng keyboards sound like?