deskthority

Shift Happens: A book about keyboards "The history of keyboards – from early typewriters to modern mechanical marvels – told in two beautiful volumes." Some here may already be aware but the Kickstarter recently went live for Marcin Wichary's upcoming book about the history of keyboards. https://www...

Wow, that is an unbelievable find. Where on earth did you get this? My very early M that you cited in your post has the same giant rivet at the back, by the way. I have no idea what it could be for. From the local recycling center of course! These are common as dirt around here. Heck I'm not even s...

I guess I should have known that nothing is clear cut when it comes to IBM. I think that is a great way to put it as the IBM rabbit hole goes deeper. At the price tag of this one it certainly pays to be skeptical. For me the evidence was too overwhelming, yet at the same time and even now I also ca...

Meet "Black Betty" - A stunning example of a pristine/NOS very early production IBM Model M born in Nov 1985 with part number 1390110, an unusual part number which seems to be undocumented anywhere online until it's recent rediscovery. This uniquely ultra-rare unicorn sports a seemingly modern black...

Congrats!

Seemingly the only mu cap in my collection which so happens to be on a very special Micro Switch board.

Sorry to be a contrarian but I feel that this project is a bit misguided. Procuring these switches is nearly impossible and chopping up a vintage board is heresy. :x Additionally the sensors in these switches can be particularly prone to heat damage from the desoldering process. There were some vint...

Just purchased a 5170 system that came with this keyboard. Kind of a strange part number and very low serial number. Any thoughts? Wow that is nice! I don't believe this part number is documented anywhere so thanks for sharing. :) It certainly is fine specimen of a very early IBM industrial Model M...

Love the fresh look of a painted barrel plate. An often overlooked detail that you don't really see once everything is put back together. Also it looks like I am going to need to find more clamps...

Are you sure your industrial XT is even a Model F? IBM sourced the switches for those from Oak . These IBM Industrial XT's are a bit unique and unusual it seems since they typically feature a keyboard module manufactured by Oak. I have heard that these don't seem to work with a Soarer's but I've no...

Such a beautiful keyboard. Thanks for sharing it.

Can confirm. This is peak keyboard right here.

I've never seen this keyboard before but also make sure there is nothing beneath those black rubber foot pads.

Robotron K7672.04

Muirium wrote: ↑

14 Dec 2022, 22:26

Cool. Wonder if my SD-16604 could work with this? I’m not knowledgeable enough to even begin to know.

Like this: viewtopic.php?t=25038

Muirium wrote: ↑

14 Dec 2022, 21:36

Needs a Rosetta Stone or greater minds than I’ve tapped.

I guess I am a tomb robber

The Rosetta Stone

https://github.com/MMcM/parallel-ascii-kbd

Uncommon/Rare Lexmark branded SSK from Ohaimark. Sad to see this collection sold off but such is life. Also NIB cable in box which is something I've never seen before.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/334665875943?h ... 4deba401e7

What a looker! I could not pass this unique Micro Switch board. It seems that this keyboard was never used, let alone entirely finished back in 1982. The module itself just sits inside the case without any screws with just a bit of old newspaper to help keep things in place which doesn't do a great ...

This is one of my favorite mods:
viewtopic.php?t=18194&start=30

IBM 3277 - Beamspring or Micro Switch?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/155260580873

the route of blasphemy as JP suggested :lol: :lol: :evilgeek: I have no idea on the PCB repair so perhaps someone else can better advise. In most cases I doubt this part is truly unique except in my case where my early revision uses a different PCB color. Using a vintage replacement is not as impur...

One beef I have with acid is that it indiscriminately attacks the good metal but probably not really an issue here. One thing to be mindful of is that once you pull this out of the acid bath is the metal could develop flash rust as it dries (factors such as humidity can exaggerate this) so you may n...

I believe all of the US made AT's that have passed through my hands 5+ have had the textured plastic cases while my UK made early production date QWERTZ AT has textured paint. With the paint removed the plastic case is completely smooth.

This is coming right along. A filler primer or glazing putty over the pitted areas should hide the imperfections.

Here are the innards of mine as a bit of eye bleach. It is currently in a box awaiting for me to continue with restoration. The ink marks on my keys washed off pretty easy so this board should look mint once it's finished. It seems these early UK produced boards were painted and suffer from the pain...

Woof! That is a rough one. I'm all for tough projects but I think this one is a goner. As a consolation I am surprised that the springs seem to be in good condition. A simple soak in some Evaporust would clean these up. These German F AT's are rare as hens teeth in my experience and I am fortunate e...

White whale spotted!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/115569659376

Even vintage boards got chips and needed touchup paint. Have the paint matched and carefully dab a little on that spot. I wouldn't sweat it too much and worst case the entire case could eventually be repainted.

I love Apple picking in the fall. I just got one of these :D Notice a couple differences from the marketing photo such as the nav keys and the wider stepped keys. Edit: Pretty sure now that the Apple badge in place of the Keytronic badge was lifted from an Apple IIe. The Apple pin in the center I be...

Non-3278 style is much better

I Googled "mbm2716" that's Fujitsu. "8152 857" just specifies more Fujitsu. "8034EV 350m chip" came up with "Top 100 movies with real sex scenes" so that's probably wrong. "AMI" is a BIOS creator, although I don't know if this is the same one. "026-0884" comes up with an autographed floppy disk fro...