deskthority

Just thought I'd share a few pictures of this fantastic board. The barrel frame was sanded and primed, but I didn't bother painting it as I think the greyish-white actually looks nice. I cleaned the case and keycaps thoroughly and changed the two-piece alphas to some Wheelwriter keycaps with nifty sublegends. I also had a custom metallic gold badge made by TCE Ltd. (http://www.tce.uk.com/)

I knew straight away when I got it a month ago that the foam was screwed. I enjoyed typing on it for the weekend before I committed to the job. I made four different mats until I could finally reassemble the keyboard. I used this 2mm neoprene: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BLACK-NEOPRE ... 2749.l2649

I drilled through 6 clear of the clear PCB areas shown in Fohat's guide: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=48786.0 I then added M3 screws and nuts, tightening them right down initially. After 48 hours, I loosened all of them, especially the ones near the three latching tabs in the middle of the assembly. You don't want the screws to be too tight, as this deadens the key feel and sound from my experience. You want to pull the plates back into their natural curvature, or just tight enough so the barrels do not wobble.

Typing test: https://youtu.be/Yd3vwp_thcI

Probably the nicest F122 I've ever seen. Very nice work, dude!

//gainsborough wrote: ↑

05 Jun 2019, 17:37

Probably the nicest F122 I've ever seen. Very nice work, dude!

Dooooon't. There are people who have actually bothered to paint their keyboards. xP

//gainsborough wrote: ↑

05 Jun 2019, 17:37

Probably the nicest F122 I've ever seen. Very nice work, dude!

Thanks anyway. Also, I think yours sounds fantastic. I've listened to your typing demo one-too-many times, I must admit...

Do you still have yours? Did you need to change the foam?

I have actually purged myself of all model Fs =( Sold them off to fund other alps projects or buy other alps boards. Admittedly, I do really miss them (the f122 in particular) but when I had them I always found myself wanting to use an alps keyboard after a few days of using cap. BS. I've been slowly going down the Topre rabbit hole also...

When I first entered the hobby I thought to myself "any serious keyboard enthusiast should have a type of buckling spring keyboard," and now look at me.... Hahaha.

Wazrach wrote: ↑

05 Jun 2019, 17:44

Dooooon't. There are people who have actually bothered to paint their keyboards. xP

Also, this is probably the reason I like yours so much. Not over the top! Just a very elegantly remade badge and some sick caps!

//gainsborough wrote: ↑

05 Jun 2019, 19:06

I have actually purged myself of all model Fs =( Sold them off to fund other alps projects or buy other alps boards. Admittedly, I do really miss them (the f122 in particular) but when I had them I always found myself wanting to use an alps keyboard after a few days of using cap. BS. I've been slowly going down the Topre rabbit hole also...

When I first entered the hobby I thought to myself "any serious keyboard enthusiast should have a type of buckling spring keyboard," and now look at me.... Hahaha.

Wazrach wrote: ↑

05 Jun 2019, 17:44

Dooooon't. There are people who have actually bothered to paint their keyboards. xP

Also, this is probably the reason I like yours so much. Not over the top! Just a very elegantly remade badge and some sick caps!

I'm the opposite! I can't use anything else for too long without wanting to go back to a Model F!

Thank you for your kind words though. :3

Damn. My F122 doesn't look nearly as nice. I'm gonna give it a much needed cleaning before I rotate it back into the daily driver position. I think I'll compensate by putting a red Atari logo in the Esc position.



Also, I said it elsewhere and I'll say it here too:

Dat badge... (I'd take the quotes out of «"Battleship"», though - YMWSV)

depletedvespene wrote: ↑

05 Jun 2019, 21:30

Damn. My F122 doesn't look nearly as nice. I'm gonna give it a much needed cleaning before I rotate it back into the daily driver position. I think I'll compensate by putting a red Atari logo in the Esc position.



Also, I said it elsewhere and I'll say it here too:

Dat badge... (I'd take the quotes out of «"Battleship"», though - YMWSV)

Hehe.. thanks again! I had a quick look at that link you sent me. Really digging the red sublegends. How rare are they? Never seen them on an M before.

Those are the APL keycaps.

Nice to see you've even documented the board on eBay ! how nice of you

Myoth wrote: ↑

13 Jun 2019, 19:58

Nice to see you've even documented the board on eBay ! how nice of you

I can't tell if you're being funny or not.

Those are some fine ass keycaps.

Wazrach wrote: ↑

13 Jun 2019, 20:04

Myoth wrote: ↑

13 Jun 2019, 19:58

Nice to see you've even documented the board on eBay ! how nice of you

I can't tell if you're being funny or not.

too bad

Myoth wrote: ↑

13 Jun 2019, 20:09

Wazrach wrote: ↑

13 Jun 2019, 20:04

Myoth wrote: ↑

13 Jun 2019, 19:58

Nice to see you've even documented the board on eBay ! how nice of you

I can't tell if you're being funny or not.

too bad

is there a problem? it seems like there is. care to tell me what is bothering you?

Wazrach wrote: ↑

13 Jun 2019, 20:04

Myoth wrote: ↑

13 Jun 2019, 19:58

Nice to see you've even documented the board on eBay ! how nice of you

I can't tell if you're being funny or not.

Have you put the keyboard up for sale on eBay?

depletedvespene wrote: ↑

13 Jun 2019, 20:11

Wazrach wrote: ↑

13 Jun 2019, 20:04

Myoth wrote: ↑

13 Jun 2019, 19:58

Nice to see you've even documented the board on eBay ! how nice of you

I can't tell if you're being funny or not.

Have you put the keyboard up for sale on eBay?

I did

depletedvespene wrote: ↑

13 Jun 2019, 20:11

Have you put the keyboard up for sale on eBay?

He indeed has: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/IBM-Model-F- ... ctupt=true

is that an issue...? or...?

Wazrach wrote: ↑

13 Jun 2019, 20:11

Myoth wrote: ↑

13 Jun 2019, 20:09

Wazrach wrote: ↑

13 Jun 2019, 20:04

I can't tell if you're being funny or not.

too bad

is there a problem? it seems like there is. care to tell me what is bothering you?

absolutely no problem sir, glad you're passing it on a lucky someone who'll cope it at a decent price for the work put into it !

Myoth wrote: ↑

13 Jun 2019, 20:30

Wazrach wrote: ↑

13 Jun 2019, 20:11

Myoth wrote: ↑

13 Jun 2019, 20:09

too bad

is there a problem? it seems like there is. care to tell me what is bothering you?

absolutely no problem sir, glad you're passing it on a lucky someone who'll cope it at a decent price for the work put into it !

how sweet, thank you for your kind words.

I'm just wondering who else I can put in the Top 10 Friendliest Deskthority Users list. So far I've got Myoth, Anders...

why stop at 10 !? we have a feature like that, use it extensively

Wazrach wrote: ↑

13 Jun 2019, 20:35

I'm just wondering who else I can put in the Top 10 Friendliest Deskthority Users list. So far I've got Myoth, Anders...

I don't have an issue with you selling it at all. I just wanna know where you found those blue lettered keys...

I had a Wheelwriter with pretty much the same keycaps. Maybe this thing was adapted to be used with some kind hybrid between a typewriter and a computer.

PlacaFromHell wrote: ↑

14 Jun 2019, 02:55

I had a Wheelwriter with pretty much the same keycaps. Maybe this thing was adapted to be used with some kind hybrid between a typewriter and a computer.

I put them on myself, harvested from a dead Wheelwriter module

Wazrach wrote: ↑

14 Jun 2019, 15:59

PlacaFromHell wrote: ↑

14 Jun 2019, 02:55

I had a Wheelwriter with pretty much the same keycaps. Maybe this thing was adapted to be used with some kind hybrid between a typewriter and a computer.

I put them on myself, harvested from a dead Wheelwriter module

Both the alpha keys with green sublegends (easy to come by) and the keys with blue sublegeds (never seen 'em before!)?

Why does one bolt-mod an F? Bolt-mod on an M is to replace failed heat staking, F has no heat stakes and operates on a different principle. What does it do?

Red_October wrote: ↑

14 Jun 2019, 17:20

Why does one bolt-mod an F? Bolt-mod on an M is to replace failed heat staking, F has no heat stakes and operates on a different principle. What does it do?

Because these fucking things never feel good after reassembling with new foam. Ever. I had no choice.

Wazrach wrote: ↑

14 Jun 2019, 21:24

Red_October wrote: ↑

14 Jun 2019, 17:20

Why does one bolt-mod an F? Bolt-mod on an M is to replace failed heat staking, F has no heat stakes and operates on a different principle. What does it do?

Because these fucking things never feel good after reassembling with new foam. Ever. I had no choice.

This is true. The F122 feels noticeably loose in the middle when you reassemble it with new foam with no screws. The FXT and FAT feel a lot crisper with new foam as they have much fewer rows and height to the whole module.

SneakyRobb wrote: ↑

14 Jun 2019, 21:27

Wazrach wrote: ↑

14 Jun 2019, 21:24

Red_October wrote: ↑

14 Jun 2019, 17:20

Why does one bolt-mod an F? Bolt-mod on an M is to replace failed heat staking, F has no heat stakes and operates on a different principle. What does it do?

Because these fucking things never feel good after reassembling with new foam. Ever. I had no choice.

This is true. The F122 feels noticeably loose in the middle when you reassemble it with new foam with no screws. The FXT and FAT feel a lot crisper with new foam as they have much fewer rows and height to the whole module.

Even the XT, none of my foam replacements worked. The closest one was this relatively firm art foam (not the Michael's stuff everyone's banging on about), but the center row was noticeably mushier. It just never works, it's depressing.

in fact, the XT I tried to service recently failed miserably. i drilled holes through it to do a bolt mod as an experiment, with the hopes of removing them later once the plates have aligned. it is inconsistent and rubbish. I'll have to try again with the same 2mm neoprene I used in my F122.