I finally restored my IBM 3276 Beamspring

codemonkeymike · 15 Apr 2018, 22:52

So it has been a 2 year journey, most of that time this beauty spent in storage as I moved to an apartment with limited space. How this went was that I basically took everything apart, tried cleaning the switchplate with goo gone and failed. After that I moved and it went in a box. When I got back around to this project about 3 weeks ago I knew I needed some more muscle on the plate. That damn plastic coating blocked any chemical cleaning solution so I had to bring out the big guns. I brought it to the wire wheel which worked fantastically. After the plate was treated with anti rust I had to clean it and paint it. I chose some white rusto paint as getting an original finish probably would have took me another 2 years. All the caps except for the ones with front printing were cleaned in ultrasonic baths and every piece of each switch was cleaned in the ultra sonic bath as well. The stems and springs were rust treated as well. Everything was put together and now is working great!... but one thing is missing. I somehow misplaced the plastic stabilizer mounts

. If anyone has a solution for this I would be forever grateful. If not I will just have to spend a few dozen hours at storage sifting through the haystack for them.

Myoth · 15 Apr 2018, 22:55

but that's not a 3278 ... that's a 3276 ...

codemonkeymike · 15 Apr 2018, 22:57

Fixed thanks

Myoth · 15 Apr 2018, 22:59

no problem ! nice restoration btw !!

zool · 16 Apr 2018, 10:18

nice work, I like it. : )

pr0ximity · 16 Apr 2018, 12:57

Looks like it came out great! Did you touch up the paint on the case around the keycaps? I'm confused -- the last picture of the top case it looks like the paint is solid around the main opening, but in the first picture it's flaked off around the edges.

andrewjoy · 16 Apr 2018, 18:27

Nice work.

I almost feel like i was robbed of the pleasure of a full restore of a beam spring , all mine need was a good clean.

orihalcon · 17 Apr 2018, 08:14

This beamspring looks very familiar! I think I sold one of these about 2 years ago to someone, but don't remember who to!

Excellent restore for sure!

Any plans to potentially repaint the top case?

codemonkeymike · 20 Apr 2018, 13:36

orihalcon wrote: ↑This beamspring looks very familiar! I think I sold one of these about 2 years ago to someone, but don't remember who to!

Excellent restore for sure!

Any plans to potentially repaint the top case?

Hey! Yep I got this from you about 2 years ago, and I thank you. I do plan on redoing the top case, I am hoping to tag along with someone who has a better sense of powder coating to redo the coating on mine. Beige will be fine, buuut if someone gets a couple metal flaps made I wouldn't mind getting painted IBM industrial grey.

pr0ximity wrote: ↑Looks like it came out great! Did you touch up the paint on the case around the keycaps? I'm confused -- the last picture of the top case it looks like the paint is solid around the main opening, but in the first picture it's flaked off around the edges.

My bad I posted the images backwards, yah I haven't redone the paint yet. One day.

seebart · 20 Apr 2018, 13:41

codemonkeymike wrote: ↑My bad I posted the images backwards, yah I haven't redone the paint yet. One day.

That's fine, great work.

orihalcon · 20 Apr 2018, 19:35

I might have some spacebar stabilizer plastic inserts floating around somewhere, otherwise, you could probably bend some sheetmetal to fit in the same place as the original plastic ones I'd imagine.

tron · 21 Apr 2018, 18:46

codemonkeymike wrote: ↑
orihalcon wrote: ↑This beamspring looks very familiar! I think I sold one of these about 2 years ago to someone, but don't remember who to!

Excellent restore for sure!

Any plans to potentially repaint the top case?
Hey! Yep I got this from you about 2 years ago, and I thank you. I do plan on redoing the top case, I am hoping to tag along with someone who has a better sense of powder coating to redo the coating on mine. Beige will be fine, buuut if someone gets a couple metal flaps made I wouldn't mind getting painted IBM industrial grey.

pr0ximity wrote: ↑Looks like it came out great! Did you touch up the paint on the case around the keycaps? I'm confused -- the last picture of the top case it looks like the paint is solid around the main opening, but in the first picture it's flaked off around the edges.
My bad I posted the images backwards, yah I haven't redone the paint yet. One day.

I will have my full size 3278 stripped and powder coated when I decide which color I want to go with. The original beige is hard to beat IMO.

Sinbad · 02 May 2018, 02:00

Myoth wrote: ↑but that's not a 3278 ... that's a 3276 ...

The 3276 and 3278 used the same keyboards. This model is a data entry keyboard and not used by programmers. But one could plug this keyboard into either a 3278 or 3276 display. (Not sure if it would work in a 3279 or 3290 though.)