Hey guys,
A while back I posted about a Unicomp 122 I found and cleaned up for a friend. He's enjoyed it since, but has also been hankering for a 101 or 104. (And another MK mania is born...) Last week he found a Unicomp Ultra Classic (UB40P4A, 2012) at a local recycler's. It was just $10 because:
• The top (F-key) row keys were in contact with the case opening, making them stay down when pressed.
• The spacebar didn't work.
He opened the case, figuring (correctly) that the top-row keys were jammed because the key assembly wasn't fully seated in the bottom brackets. But unfortunately, rather than removing and inspecting the assembly, he tried pushing it down to seat it.
As some of you know, the Ultra Classic's assembly isn't attached to the case by notches over pegs, like a standard Model M's. Instead, it's held in place by some tenacious double-sided mounting tape. So when my friend grabbed a couple of spring barrels and tried pushing the assembly down to seat it, the barrel plate moved and the backplate didn't.
You can probably guess what happened: This efficiently sheared off all but a few of the plastic tabs holding the assembly together. (It worked so well, I can recommend this mounting-tape/ barrel-plate-pushing method as an easier alternative to cutting tabs off one by one!) At this point he took the board to me and I deduced what'd happened.
Obviously this board must now be bolt-modded—I'm looking forward to that, as it'll be my first. But I've noticed something odd: There's a bit of membrane protruding below the left side of the spacebar:
I'm guessing this is why the spacebar doesn't register. Has anyone seen this happen? Is it likely this KB will need an entire new membrane, or is it fixable? I just thought I'd ask
before I open the assembly and start fooling around. Thanks, A.
