deskthority

Some people have simply pressed art-style modeling clay into the case to add weight and dampen the odd vibrations. Might be a bit of a chore to scrape/wipe/wash out if you don't like it. Personally, I have used felt fabric or "waffle" rubber sheets laid flat and/or rolled into cylinders of the prope...

depletedvespene wrote: ↑

14 Jan 2019, 03:29

Now you need to compare them against the units made in Mexico as well...

I have seen Mexican-made Ms but never used one.

It may sound like a pathetic cop-out, but IBM's concept of M/F stems + caps with everything in the same profile is profoundly efficient and elegant.

I think that it is a buffer to keep the parts from chafing too much.

The thin latex ones do make the keyboard feel crisper.

Yes, that is the mat and it is one of the nice new thin white type.

You will also want to get a chisel-tip Xacto blade and shave off all those "mushroom heads" so that you have nice flat surfaces to drill.

High time you tackled a bolt-mod. Strip it completely apart and dust off / wipe down / and/or scrub with soapy water each individual part and put it all back together using the sandy55 method. Considerable work but that is the ultimate upgrade to a Model M. PS - if you are really serious replace the...

Did it have the space bar spring?

This is mostly all good and I appreciate the diligent work that has gone into it. I much prefer the old logo, this missing chunk in the "D" does not particularly bother me but the broken "T" definitely does. But my real concern is the abominable font that seems to only appear as thread titles, a ver...

That Code key is also considered desirable. If you buy the typewriter, be sure to look under the space bar. It will not be compatible with a Model M, but sometimes you find a little spring around the space bar barrel which stiffens it up by a good it. That can be a big help, and I like having a heav...

Howard81 wrote: ↑My 1986 IBM XT “enhanced” keyboard (Model M without the LED panel) states Model G in the inner sticker..

That would usually be a 1390120.

Could you please post a photo?

I'm sorry if this is a question that comes up a lot, but is there a big difference between NOS Alps and 'reasonable condition then cleaned' Alps feel? I have been increasingly hyped to get a board after seeing Chyrosran's reviews, but I have this nagging fear that I'll be underwhelmed and end up al...

Dang all my model M's are Greenocks, sucks being an euro I guess The early ones may well be equal in quality to the US-made ones (I have never had any of the Mexicans) but somehow the peripheral business was spun off to Lexmark some time around 1992, here, but apparently they kept chugging along as...

Even my NIB SSK is a bit iffy, thanks to the scampering of tiny plastic rivets inside its untouched case I got one of the NIB SSKs from Cindy's sale a few years ago, and over half of the rivets were broken, including almost all of them at one end. My process now, when I get a Model M, is to either ...

Model Ms can deteriorate badly in ways the M2 seems to be more resilient against. I agree that the M2 could have been a success if they had simply shrunk the M without monkeying around with the fundamental construction concepts. But I am curious about your statement above, I would have said the exa...

"If there were a Weight Watchers Club for keyboards, Keyboard F would get the annual award.
It weighs half as much as earlier keyboards and stands only 1-1/4” thick."

swampangel wrote: ↑
If you open one up without realizing the springs are under pressure from the caps,

You have to pull apart any IBM buckling spring keyboard without first removing the caps and stems, once, to learn beyond any shadow of doubt that it truly is a mistake.

It's a little surprising that after years of keyboard work you have never bolt-modded a Model M. For some (many) of us, speaking for myself in particular, that is the first major project that we undertake. The first time or 2 is intimidating, but after that it becomes pretty much routine, although i...

Ignore the haters and buy a new Unicomp with native USB, warranty, and Windows keys.

If it turns out that you like Model Ms, then get into vintage stuff.

I was thinking about getting 100 of them. Are you saying that I wouldn't just order them from you?

Dirt can be washed away but wear can't be re-grown. Part of the problem is friction, there was voodoo involved. Apparently Alps used a mysterious lube in the early days, then went to a plastic that was inherently more slippery, but nobody has successfully re-created or re-discovered them in modern d...

The Alps love has been growing steadily for at least 5 years. Both DT and GH have "Alps Appreciation Threads" going back years with thousands of entries in each. They have been branching out somewhat, recently, with new clones and more exotic modifications. And the Chryos videos continue to stir up ...

You will have to take the space bar up as the first step in anything that you do. It is not unusual for a piece to sit slightly misaligned, but it should feel the same on both sides when you press it. If one side feels "right" and the other side feels "wrong" or if they feel significantly different,...

My son uses a Filco with black MX and O-rings and he is very happy with that.

ANSI Enter and 2x Backspace are essential to me.

Adding Alts requires Dremel work but moves it into the modern world.

Beautiful work, by the way.

Chyros wrote: ↑
The post is fucking me over of late, I NEARLY lost two almost irreplaceable boards in the mail recently as well!

You have to give the US Post Office credit. People love to hate on them, but they almost always come through, eventually.

If you mean the plastic tab, in the Imperial system there is a washer called 7/16" SAE that slips over a barrel and works well, but I don't know whether there is a metric equivalent.

If you mean the wire, you may have to bend one yourself. The wire is much thinner gauge that on the Model M.

Whoa!

That mat looks very thick and stiff.

Some few hundreds of dollars. Blue Alps keyboards are going for absurd prices, and I stopped even trying to keep up.

Nobody will know until it goes up for auction on ebay, since it is so rare.

If you can accept a key that works but doesn't say "Control" on it I think there are several with legends such as "Enter" or "Reset" that would fit that position.