deskthority

Hi people,

I got my first Model M (an SSK from '87, which makes me feel a bit lucky) last thursday, and I've been wondering a few things:

Both shift keys are harder to press on one side (namely on the switch side and not the stabilizer side, if you know what I mean). Is this normal? Depressing it with a lot of force makes it go down and feel better for a while, but after some time it's hard to depress yet again. Actually, the right Shift key got stuck at first when I got the keyboard, but I managed to fix this by cleaning the switch and stabilizer parts, or rather removing dust from them, with a cotton stick thing (seriously my English skills aren't sufficient for these - I have no idea what they are called really ).

The other problem I have is the right Ctrl key, which I found extremely hard to depress. I don't know how (and whether it's common or not), but the spring in this switch had managed to jump off the stem (pivot plate thing?) and gotten stuck between the keyboard's case and "plate". Therefore, I pulled it out, and managed to stretch the spring while doing so, since it had gotten stuck rather hard. The problem now is I can't seem to get it to stick to the stem where it should be, which makes the Ctrl key either hard to depress or to not work at all. What am I supposed to do with this? Is my only solution to buy a spring from Unicomp for $.20 and pay $20 shipping?

I hope my self made buckling spring terminology (and way of writing just before going to sleep) doesn't confuse too much!

Otherwise, I must say I'm extremely happy with the keyboard. I thought it would be nice, but I still got surprised by how nice it actually was. And when the keyboard itself only was like $55, it just feels even nicer.

Thanks for reading.

Any bs experts out there?

Check the plastic rivets? If most of them are missing, that could be your issue. The springs may be out of alignment.

The common way to get a new spring in there without disassembling and bolt-modding is to use a thin piece of wood like from a toothpick and set it on the old plastic hammer and then slide the spring down along it and onto the plastic hammer.

After cleaning the left Shift a bit more, it feels a lot better actually. The right Shift is still pretty hard, even after some more cleaning, to depress on the right side, but it doesn't concern me too much.

486, I'd thought of doing that anyway, just to get to know my keyboard a bit better. Don't really know how to do it though!

Icarium, thanks for the tip. Managed to get the spring to stick to the plastic hammer. The Ctrl key still doesn't feel good though. Well, actually, it currently doesn't work at all, since the spring doesn't "snap". I think this could be because the spring is about half a centimeter longer than the other springs in the keyboard, which just doesn't seem right to me.

congratulation on the purchase. i have not seen a price that low for an SSK in a very long time.

if you are handy, you could search for "IBM bolt mod" to fix these problems. it is not very difficult, but does take a few hours to do well. if you do not have the tools, time or the skill, you could post a request for service in the Deskthority Marketplace. anyone who has done this before will probably have many extra springs on hand. i would do it for $25, but shipping would be prohibitively expensive. you should be able to find someone relatively near you.

fruktstund wrote:Depressing it with a lot of force makes it go down and feel better for a while, but after some time it's hard to depress yet again. Actually, the right Shift key got stuck at first when I got the keyboard, but I managed to fix this by cleaning the switch and stabilizer parts, or rather removing dust from them, with a cotton stick thing

I've seen this before. It can result from the dried sugary residue of a spilled drink inside the key stem and barrel (i.e. the hole into which the key goes). You've cleaned it, which is the right thing to do. However I had a keyboard where the keys were so stubbornly gummed that repeated cleaning didn't make the problem go away entirely, and the keys would still intermittently bind up. So I cleaned and lubricated the affected keys with Inox MX3 (a thin, plastic-safe oil) and that fixed it. (Note: if you lube a keystem do it very sparingly. Don't let the oil get under the barrel plate into the membrane.)

fruktstund wrote:but the spring in this switch had managed to jump off the stem (pivot plate thing?) and gotten stuck between the keyboard's case and "plate". Therefore, I pulled it out, and managed to stretch the spring while doing so, since it had gotten stuck rather hard. The problem now is I can't seem to get it to stick to the stem where it should be, which makes the Ctrl key either hard to depress or to not work at all. What am I supposed to do with this? Is my only solution to buy a spring from Unicomp for $.20 and pay $20 shipping?

A stretched buckling spring will never work properly again. Suggestion: if you don't want to get a replacement shipped, remove a spring from another key that you never use (such as Pause/Break or Scroll Lock) and fit that to the Ctrl key instead. Use Sandy's Chopstick o' Death method. http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=526 ... 1#msg77401