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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: Domo929 on Tue, 07 July 2015, 21:11:26
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Hey guys,
I need a little bit of help. I got an IBM SSK which I went to Bolt mod (rather badly). In the process of cleaning I somehow warped the front panel.
I tried taking a hair dryer to it, but that hasn't helped. It wont click into place at all. Even if I could force it itd be hitting the left Control Key and making it unusable.
I also seem to have cracked the black plastic piece in a few places. Just my luck. I've needed to loosen the bolts a lot to stop the keys from touching due to the impacted and now rather bendy plate. However I've gotten it to the point where I can use it without issue.
Anyone have any suggestions for the front panel? I can post pics if you'd like.
Thanks in advance.
EDIT:
Pictures are attached. It got worse. By that I mean I tried to fix it, and it just absolutely failed. There's just no chance of fixing it now I think.
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I think some pictures would be very helpful.
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I edited the original post with an update and pictures.
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I have the feeling you may need Phosphorglow to take a look and see what he can do for you.
Send him the pictures and hopefully get you all fixed up!
http://phosphorglow.net/
Click on Contact Me!
If anyone can fix that, he can.
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Oh god, that's awful. Was it bent before you hairdryer:ed it? (How?)
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Oh god, that's awful. Was it bent before you hairdryer:ed it? (How?)
The same way I bent this so badly. I took off the key caps and the front panel to clean them. Put them in warm water. The heat caused it to get bent out of shape. Hair dryered it, didnt work. Put it in hot water for a few minutes and it worked....way too well
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I have the feeling you may need Phosphorglow to take a look and see what he can do for you.
Send him the pictures and hopefully get you all fixed up!
http://phosphorglow.net/
Click on Contact Me!
If anyone can fix that, he can.
Thank you! I'll send him an email.
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Damn! I have cleaned dozens and dozens of keyboards cases and never had one warp.
My standard method is to scrub it in the sink with hot soapy water and a sponge or brush, then rinse well and air dry.
I always though that old IBM gear was particularly tough.
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I feel for you. We have all been working on something an had it go terribly wrong. That looks pretty bad. You must have used quite a bit of heat of some sort. I agree with fohat, I have found the best method of cleaning cases is to use hot tap water, soap, brush ( I use a toothbrush) and elbow grease. There have been very few boards that didn't clean up completely using this simple method.
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I've had some experience with deformed plastics and fitting.
The issue I was dealing with was a deformed door panel for my friend's car that I had helped retrieved from a junk yard. He had a gray interior and the junkyard one had a black one. He wanted black. Maybe not 100% applicable to your case but maybe its worth a try? This is what I did.
Tools:
Heatgun
Compressed Air Canister
A lot of time and patience, and a friend to help hold stuff down. I suppose you could use 4 clamps in this case. Make sure you pad the clamps so they don't make indents.
I attached one side (bottom left) to a clip on the door panel and had my friend hold it down while I focused on having the top right clip into place. I did the corners diagonally. I had the heat gun set to low and about ~6 inches away from the plastic, heating it as I slowly pushed it into place. I didn't just heat the side, I was heating the side all the way to the middle. So as to not get the plastic too hot, I would turn my air compressor upside down and spray to release some super cold air that would cool the plastic down in a hurry.
When I got the side I was working on to click into place, I had my friend hold that side down too, while taping down the side he was previously on. Then I repeated what I did until all 4 sides were clipped on. This unfortunately led to some gaps between the panel and the door. We taped down the four corners as snugly as we could and heated and cooled the whole door panel. End result? It worked pretty well. Not 100%, as you could still see some small gaps here and there, but it wasn't noticeable unless you were looking for it.
This may apply to your case as well. Just keep in mind, the part I was clipping the door panel to was a car door, so not too affected by heat. You have a chance of deforming the bottom part of the case if you apply too much heat.
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Got that Salvador Dali exclusive ****
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.
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The same way I bent this so badly. I took off the key caps and the front panel to clean them. Put them in warm water. The heat caused it to get bent out of shape.
You put it in the dishwasher, didn't you.
Not exactly.... I put it in a pan of boiling water.
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That's not exactly warm water
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boiling water
well there's your problem...
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I've bent and broken more space bars than I care to admit. At this point, I don't use water warmer than 70C (158 F) on any key caps, and won't immerse anything larger than a 3u key in hot water. This means that Space bars and cases get a careful hand cleaning, and that I never use boiling water.
If you don't have a thermometer on hand: don't use anything warmer than hot water coming out of the tap.
Yes, warmer water will help accelerate the cleaning process, but I've found it to be too much of a risk. I also use unscented dishwasher soap in favor of hand wash dish soap.
For drying, a hair dryer on low is okay, just make sure to keep some distance from the dryer so that the temperature does not get too high. I just use a drying rack and time, or if in a hurry, a fan.
I don't have any further repair suggestions, sorry.
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I put it in a pan of boiling water.
I have found SSK cases to be the most finicky of all. The one I have near my desk now would not sit flat with even a small amount of padding inside the case, and the "faux-SSK" I tried to build would not engage the tabs at the front being even a millimeter or 2 off alignment.
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What type of plastic is the Model M's case made out of anyway? The one I've got disassembled here atm doesn't have it stamped into it. I'm pretty sure it's not the standard PS, though.
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What type of plastic is the Model M's case made out of anyway? The one I've got disassembled here atm doesn't have it stamped into it. I'm pretty sure it's not the standard PS, though.
I believe it is PVC.