deskthority

I'm about to dive into the heart of my newly acquired beamspring, and I'd like any pointers the collective knowledge of DT has to give! Any tips are welcome!
I understand that when separating the backplate to access the pad card and switches I need to make sure no switch gets pressed, or fly plates fly!
I have a couple of bent switch "stems" and a rusted one. Is there any safe way remove them?
Should I keep the Illinoisan spider as a pet?

A beamspring can be a delicate beast, i have had mine apart but never removed the switches so i cannot say how you disassemble them but i would not press the keys when you have the back off.

be VERRY careful when removing the caps, under no circumstances move them from side to side, if you need to wiggle them to get them to move push them up and down a tiny little bit, dont use huge amounts of force to pull them up , use a firm force and just keep it there , don't pull harder and harder.

Remove the stupid dust cover form the outside in.

tighten all screws evenly ( like when you change the head gasket of a car)

I had one bent switch and i used a set of pliers to bend it back in not by putting lateral force on it but my squeezing it. WARNING!! DO NOT DO THIS. It worked out just fine for me but it is very very easy to break the switch , find a guide on dissembling the switch and do it that way. This is a case of do what i say not as i do .

If you have side printed green text on your caps ( very rare i have only ever seen it on mine) or caps with the F1 -F12 on the side DO NOT SOAK THEM IN HOT WATER. Its only pad printed and it will come off.

Wash with warm soapy water VERY cairfuly.

Thanks Andy!
All caps are off, the only really stubborn one was the rusted switch, but came off fine with a bit of persuasion!
The contamination shield had already disintegrated so that was easy!
No green side legends, but many with white, and I'm cleaning them now, just lukewarm water and a couple of drops of dish soap to break the surface tension.

I shall join your quest chzel since I have a very similar task ahead of me. I acquired this beauty from a certain Scott recently, originally it was part of Havar's haul I believe. I need to do a complete disassembly, cleaning and configuration of controller.

Take a look at my 5100 thread. I used a wire key puller with no problems and separated a couple of key switch stems with the amount of force I used on rusted key switch stems. No problem putting them back together once I soaked them in CLR and then lightly sanded down any remaining rust. The fly plates coming off are sometimes a pain but they can be put on if they come off. Just try to keep them on to save you some time.

I was able to get a solidly rusted switch on the keyboard to work just fine. The spring was rusted but this came off with CLR after soaking for a while.

Good luck and do take some pics.

Yeah thanks snuci, I have bookmarked all relevant threads including yours.

Have fun putting together any of those springs if they come apart. That is a pain.

seebart wrote: I shall join your quest chzel since I have a very similar task ahead of me. I acquired this beauty from a certain Scott recently, originally it was part of Havar's haul I believe. I need to do a complete disassembly, cleaning and configuration of controller.

IMG_20160120_190716.jpg

A Scot, not a Scott! I was wondering how you'd stolen my nice German beam spring without me knowing...

scottc wrote: A Scot, not a Scott! I was wondering how you'd stolen my nice German beam spring without me knowing...

Great Scot(t), it wasn't stolen, I paid heavily for it (in scottish gold).

vivalarevolución wrote: Have fun putting together any of those springs if they come apart. That is a pain.

Sounds bad. I'll be careful. I had some fun getting my Micro Switch Hall Effect springs back on the slider.

I already managed to test my skills of reattaching the fly-plates, and while the first was somewhat difficult, the second and third where a piece of cake. Once you understand what you are trying to do it's easy.

Fiddly easy. I learned the skill with that fixer upper of Seebart's, that's for sure!

Made any progress yet? I'm pretty sure that a good deep OCD grade clean is what that board needs to behave itself well enough for Xwhatsits Controller.

IT IS ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just finished the software configuration and I'm typing on it right now!!
I'll snap some more pics and post soon enough!
BTW what's the attached image limit per post?

I forget (doesn't apply to admins) something round like 5 or 10 megabytes. 2 if you're unlucky! I always upload 1600x1200 on medium JPEG quality anyway, which comes in under a megabyte and still looks perfect.

Congrats on the revival. Beamsprings lurch into the 21st century with delicious anger!