engr's Alps (and more) collection

[engr]

I think I have an Alps problem...

Top left: Omnikey 102 with bamboo white Alps. I got it NIB and left it stock with the exception of tri-lingual keycap stickers. I have not used it in a while (the bamboo Alps are meh, and the layout isn't ideal), but I don't want to part with it due to sunk cost fallacy.

Top middle: Avant Stellar outfitted with blue Alps, keycaps and a badge from an Omnikey Ultra-TP. Lubricated stabilizers and added several layers of 1/8" PE packing foam to improve sound. My favorite keyboard.

Middle row: Omnikey 101 put together from two 101's I got on eBay in various degree of disrepair. Overall in a pretty good condition, aside from a couple of rusty spots on the plate. Pine white alps feel nice after soft cleaning.

Bottom left: Gold badge Omni Key/102 with blue Alps. Got in on eBay in a good shape, gave it some cleaning, replaced a cracked foot, and retrobrighted it the best I could. It would have been my go-to keyboard if it wasn't for the Ctrl/Alt/CapsLock position that I never got used to.

Bottom right: Another Frankenkey-101: Case and PCB are from an Avant Prime, double-shot keycaps from several boards taken apart for parts (don't worry, the other parts went to good use), and blue Alps. Packing foam and lubed stabs for sound.

[engr]

FrankenStellar up close:

[engr]

Avant Prime:

[engr]

Omnikey 102 (gold badge):

[engr]

Omnikey 101:

[engr]

And the Gen 3 102 with bamboo white Alps:

[engr]

This Focus FK-8000 has clicky Alps clone switches, a working calculator, and a pretty good layout. It may be a great platform for a switch transplant... if I find a PS2-to-USB converter that actually works well with it.

[engr]

This FK-9000, on the other hand, is pretty good as is (minus a few rust spots on the plate), and has nice feeling and sounding pine white Alps switches. It even has a working calculator! It comes very close to my ideal keyboard - except for its star navigation cluster.

[engr]

This Ortek MCK-142Pro came to me not quite NIB but very clean. I replaced its simplified white Alps switches with pine white Alps and replaced almost all of its pad-printed keycaps with double-shot keycaps from various non-working Focus boards, or with relegendables. I know earlier versions of this board came with pine white Alps and double-shot keycaps, but I have yet to see one of those in a good shape on eBay.

The programmability feature ended up less practical for my daily used than I thought.

[engr]

I got this Leading Edge DC-2214 with one broken switch and missing key but otherwise in a pretty good shape. After some repairs, a thorough cleaning (including soft cleaning the switches), and lubricating the stabilizers, the blue Alps in it sound and feel... OK, but not as well as on DC-2014 and DC-3014 I saw on YouTube. I suspect it has to do with the case (the case on 2214 uses clips while 3014 and 2014 uses screws, which, based on Polecat's experience with FK-2001, makes a big difference in sound). I outfitted it with the SGI Granite keycaps, but sadly they make the yellowed case stand out more.

I would really like to get my hands on a nice, clean, non-yellowed DC-3014 that doesn't cost a million dollars and outfit it with these Granite keycaps.

[engr]

And, finally, two Dell AT-101W boards. The beige one is NOS; I bought it as a chassis to transplant better switches to, but never got to it, and at this point I might just end up selling or trading it for something else.

The black-ish one, on the other hand, wasn't in a perfect shape, but I like the color so I used it as a platform for some experiments. I put TaiHao black keycaps on it and top-modded the switches to convert them basically into pine white Alps with lighter springs (I think I used Sprit's 40g ones) and a small amount of NyoGel 760G lubricant. That made the keys feel and sound nice and pleasant (albeit a bit inconsistent - I should have been more careful when lubricating them), very similar to blue Alps.

[Polecat]

I think I have an Alps problem...

The only problem I can see is that you haven't tried them all.

When I worked at a recycler in a former life I got to try (for free) every keyboard that came through the door. And I got to keep whichever ones I wanted, at our cost, which was usually nothing. Dangerous situation, because I quickly accumulated more keyboards than I had room for. Some of them are buried in storage to this day. That's a much worse problem, trust me!

[rezenew]

That gold badge omnikey with its keycaps is absolutely gorgeous