What is wrong with these caps?

elecplus · 27 Jul 2016, 04:03

We are cleaning buckets of keycaps from Model Fs, and suddenly there is a group of caps that has smudges around the legends. What is up with these? The smudges do not clean off.

: IMG_5500.JPG (429.57 KiB) Viewed 3323 times

002 · 27 Jul 2016, 04:23

Damn, they look terrible. They make me want to put my glasses on.
Do you think they might all be from the same keyboard and it was just a terrible dye-sub attempt? I've never seen ones that look that bad before.

elecplus · 27 Jul 2016, 04:28

So far not enough of them to populate a whole board. I am used to clear, sharp legends on IBM caps.

mike52787 · 27 Jul 2016, 04:39

Some of the legends on my f xt look like that, but not as bad. The printing is sharp but they have that nasty yellow "halo" on them.

Engicoder · 27 Jul 2016, 05:04

I have an entire NMB board with similar issues. NMB dye subs are usually pretty good.

I assume its some sort of manufacturing error. Possibly incorrect temperature or pressure.

terrycherry · 27 Jul 2016, 08:10

The 1987-1989 made NMB RT-101+ keyboard sometimes have this problem. That's not rare to see but model m does.

Chyros · 27 Jul 2016, 10:43

Dyesub legends sometimes smudge, the green NMB boards are especially notorious for it (see Ben's picture). Also dyesub can bleach.

zslane · 27 Jul 2016, 19:21

Double-shot FTW...

LewisR · 28 Jul 2016, 05:18

zslane wrote: ↑Double-shot FTW...

They have benefits, but my XTs legends are still pristine after 30+ years with no shine or yellowing in sight. Something just ain't right with these examples.

elecplus · 28 Jul 2016, 05:25

Well, we have almost enough to populate an entire board now. Yuck! Anybody want some caps, free for shipping?

LewisR · 28 Jul 2016, 05:33

elecplus wrote: ↑Well, we have almost enough to populate an entire board now. Yuck! Anybody want some caps, free for shipping?

I may pass, thanks though

Here's a pic to help people's eyes. Sorry it's a soggy potato, but hopefully it helps!

: xt_keysl.jpg (833.71 KiB) Viewed 3095 times

Touch_It · 28 Jul 2016, 16:24

elecplus wrote: ↑Well, we have almost enough to populate an entire board now. Yuck! Anybody want some caps, free for shipping?

I might be interested.

kokokoy · 28 Jul 2016, 18:48

My Model F 5155 have the exact same thing on all its keys.

elecplus · 28 Jul 2016, 23:02

The fuzzy caps have been claimed.