deskthority

Thanks shreebles. Good to know. I took some time to sand the backplate this weekend, and polish the barrel frame cut, but nothing else. If I catch time, I'll check the fit today.

What did you use to drill that second hole?

hypkx wrote: Thanks for the feedback, I had also to modify booth holes and after the first test the spacebar wasnt right in place and stuck with the case. Now everything fits, currently I try to program it, I will post more pictures from the finished keyboard. I used a table saw for the metall plate, so it was easier to chop it. Btw nice keycaps shreebles, I use the keycaps from my model F bigfoot.

Ah, good to hear it. So I'm not alone, then.
I will also convert this SSK to FSSK once I get my controller, already have all the other parts.
Wish I had had a tablesaw, but I don't have the space or the money for "real" tools yet, so I just use whatever tools I have so far.
Thanks for the compliments on the keycaps, got them from plasticchair a few months back. I bought a complete M from him just to get these awesome APL caps, ISO-DE to boot
For some reason there are no nubs on the F and J keys. I need them for touch typing so I swapped them from another M.
I also have a few one-piece caps from two bigfoots laying around, how do you feel about those caps?
Do you think one-piece is in any way superior to two-piece?

alh84001 wrote: Thanks shreebles. Good to know. I took some time to sand the backplate this weekend, and polish the barrel frame cut, but nothing else. If I catch time, I'll check the fit today.

What did you use to drill that second hole?

I used this And two metal drill bits, and it was probably the easiest part of the whole mod.
I used a size 5 for the small hole on the right, but had to make the hole bigger afterwards with a metal file.
For the rectangular cutouts, I made two small holes next to each other with the size 5. Then I took a size 8 drill bit to make both holes big enough to match the size I needed. Then I sawed off the gap between them and took a file to make the cutout rectangular instead of round.

Thanks! I definitely need some new drill bits. I plan on using a dremel, then files for the cutouts.

alh84001 wrote: Thanks! I definitely need some new drill bits. I plan on using a dremel, then files for the cutouts.

Btw I used this to make the holes: but I made the most with the file, including the cutouts, first I used a metal cutting shear and then the file.
@shreebles
I have also seen plasticchairs apl model m and loved it immediately, cool that you bought it. I think one piece keycaps are a way better than two piece ibm keycaps. I never thought that people who has said this were right, because I loved the two piece design when I got my first model m a year ago, but now, after I got my two model F's I changed my mind (or even before that, beause my SSK has also one piece keycaps and after changing all to two-piece, I changed them immediately back). The one piece caps are snapier, I use current a combination of two piece and one piece on my FSSK and I can hear and feel that the one piece caps are a way smoother. If I hit them offcenter nothing happens, but the two piece caps scratching a bit at the inner side of the barrel. I think I will use on my FSSK only one piece caps (except rgb mods ).

Crap, I need to get out the one-piece caps, then. Well, at least I have one-piece in ISO-DE thanks to the Bigfoots.
But they don't look nearly as nice as the APL ones, which are unfortunately two-piece.
Well, maybe that's the reason my cut-down ISO SSK still doesn't feel as nice as the stock Lexmark SSK which has one-piece caps.
Or maybe it's the floss mod I had done on the former, that kills the tactility as some say.

I dont like the floss mod, I got my SSK premoded and dont like that the keys are such inconsistent. Maybe I will undo it or redo. I think you should test what feels better.

The problem is that the age or use of the flippers seems to play a part as well.
I always look for the lightest, snappiest feel in Model Ms. For this reason, I have preferred newer M's over older ones, and Lexmark ones over IBM.

On a bolt-modded one, you could simply swap out the flippers, then you don't have to throw away the mod (cutting those bits was a lot of work!).
But if you use different flippers it's not comparable anyway.
Probably, most likely, I will just tear out the floss in the end and live with the ping

Updated the post (with controller soldering), now everything is there.

Really nice job with the cables.

Here are a couple of my pics from yesterday.

Test fitting the plate to the case. I widened the left hole to the right a bit.



Testing some keys.



Keys on the right seem to fit better than keys on the left. A bit confusing, but I guess a bit of a movement to the left is still needed. Also, the barrel frame obstructs the top case on the right a bit. Nothing major, I just need to press the case with hand for the last milimeter. I think that after screwmodding, that will not be an issue.

Thanks for the pictures and I will update this thread again in some days, after the discussion about the cable lengths and groundind issue, I will remove the connectors and solder the controller with a very short cable direct to the pcb. Also I will tape the controller on the isolated plate and try to improve the grounding. Pictures will follow.

updated again, now everything (except the key "T" works), I used a greenock spacebar grounding cable and a shorter cable for the controller.

hypkx wrote: updated again, now everything (except the key "T" works), I used a greenock spacebar grounding cable and a shorter cable for the controller.

A very nice job, indeed.

I have checked again your pictures and realised that you have painted the back plate. Are you sure that the metal is grounded ? You may need to scratch the paint to ensure that there is good contact.
If this is the problem, my recommendation is to test it. To do it, I would scratch the paint in a different place and check for continuity.

idollar wrote:

hypkx wrote: updated again, now everything (except the key "T" works), I used a greenock spacebar grounding cable and a shorter cable for the controller.

A very nice job, indeed.

I have checked again your pictures and realised that you have painted the back plate. Are you sure that the metal is grounded ? You may need to scratch the paint to ensure that there is good contact.
If this is the problem, my recommendation is to test it. To do it, I would scratch the paint in a different place and check for continuity.

I scratched the plate at the point for the grounding screw, I will test what I can do if I have more time, maybe a bad flipper cause the problem.

removed.

Thanks.

so cool how this turns out!

I'm also playing on my fext on a unicomp case, now I found the holes on the plate to be a bit shifted too much, being the fext quite wide in the holes on the extremes you really see it not to fit perfectly.. did you also observe this?

Yes, if there is nothing important (like traces) just screw the screw in. If you are not sure you can ignore it, I think it will work also without all screws. I think it dont will damage the pcb when you screw in the screws, even you have shifted the pcb in some places a bit, I did the same and it worked perfect in the end.

and the foam you put between back metal plate and the pcb? 'cause I tried between flippers/barrels and pcb and the sound of the keys are quite "strange"..

Its a original model m "foam" idk how I should call it (the black which is normally above the membrane sheet). I put them between pcb and metall plate. I used two sheets I had laying around. I think you can also use thicker foam to dampen the keystroke, something like (we call it in germany moosgummi ) 2mm/1mm thick foam.

Btw I dont own this keyboard anymore, its now in the possession of a other user and makes him happy, I just dislike the tkl form factor (even if I own two tkl keyboards, but the novatouch and SSK sadly don't come in a smaller layout).

Currently I modify a model F AT to normal german iso, with normal spacebar and additional alt/ctrl keys. The layout of the F AT satisfies me more.

hypkx wrote: Currently I modify a model F AT to normal german iso, with normal spacebar and additional alt/ctrl keys. The layout of the F AT satisfies me more.

I'd like to see a picture of that!

Techno Trousers wrote:

hypkx wrote: Currently I modify a model F AT to normal german iso, with normal spacebar and additional alt/ctrl keys. The layout of the F AT satisfies me more.

I'd like to see a picture of that!

I will post some, today I brushed the plate and desoldered the controller to make place for a xwhatsit (even if it would be also worked with a soarers, but I want it easier to program).

My inspiration: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=48288.0