geekhack Projects > Making Stuff Together!
Buckling Spring Floss Mod
skcheng:
Got a tip today from fellow Geekhacker Phoenix. So.....you don't like the springy twang of the IBM Buckling Spring. Yearn for a soft and quiet actuation but like the precise feel and typing speed of the good ol' buckling spring? Don't feel like messing with grease??
Here are the directions given to me from Phoenix:
I tried a silencing mod on the model m that's easy and actually works.
Use fluffy floss, cut the fluffy part into uniform sections of
slightly less than spring length, hold the spring straight, gently
inert floss sections into the spring, and you are done. The residual
vibration of the spring is greatly reduced. Now the key sounds more
like Alps.
I also tried folding and inserting twice as much (I used a long and
thin piece of plastic to push the center of the floss section in
first). Now it sounds kind of like Cherry brown. It's that quiet. I
also tried using a washer from the wheelwriter in addition to this,
which further dampened the bottoming out noise. Didn't have time to do
it to the whole board, but I highly recommend that you try it. Huge
difference, and key registration is absolutely unaffected (at least on
mine). Should work on the Model F, too. Much less hassle than the
"little piece of foam in the spring near the hammer" thing people did
according to one of the patents online.
So floss is one thing that I have a LOT of and in various types.
Enter.......Super Floss!!!
Super Floss is something that I dispense frequently in my office for aiding in cleaning under implant restorations, bridgework, large embrasures etc... The floss has a thin, stiff leader segment, followed by a soft, spongy region and then some stiff, but more standard dental floss.
The spongy region is what you want to use:
Simply chop off a piece around the length of the buckling spring and insert into the center of the spring. That's it. When you're done, it should look like this:
Closer up:
Now the keyboard thocks and the higher pitched "ping" is completely gone. The actuation is somewhat damped in my opinion, but Phoenix didn't seem to feel any difference. Maybe it's because I had some extension of the floss past the uppermost height of the spring.
Now it's quiet, and soft. Difference is NOT subtle. Preference is another thing. I've come to expect the good ol' buckling spring ping. Just seems odd typing on a dampened IBM buckling spring board. According to Phoenix, doubling up on the foamy floss will soften the sound/feel to something similar to Cherry browns. I don't doubt it.
Try it. It's clean, simple and easily reversible. If you don't like it, simply remove with a toothpick or other small implement. I used college pliers to pick out the spongy floss. Use SHARP scissors (I used small surgical scissors) to cut the floss cleanly. Otherwise, the floss frays and it won't simply drop into the center of the spring.
Tomorrow I'll perform the mod on an entire Space Saving Mini and report back.
Fun mod!!! Give 'er a try and post results.
skc
wellington1869:
fascinating mod, great pics, awesome write up :)
btw can you post a sound sample (with and without mod) when you get a chance?
I can totally see this working, tho in comparison to the silicon grease mod, I imagine dental floss mod would be much much quieter. With silicon grease mod one can "tune" both the sound level and the feel by increasing or decreasing the size of the grease blob. My guess is that the dental floss mod's results might be more radical than that. (As you said, "the difference is not subtle".) And that said, if I were looking to quiet down my M, I'd most definitely try this mod on for size.
Thanks for the great writeup, sk!
skcheng:
--- Quote from: wellington1869;177725 ---fascinating mod, great pics, awesome write up :)
btw can you post a sound sample (with and without mod) when you get a chance?
I can totally see this working, tho in comparison to the silicon grease mod, I imagine dental floss mod would be much much quieter. With silicon grease mod one can "tune" both the sound level and the feel by increasing or decreasing the size of the grease blob. My guess is that the dental floss mod's results might be more radical than that. (As you said, "the difference is not subtle".) And that said, if I were looking to quiet down my M, I'd most definitely try this mod on for size.
Thanks for the great writeup, sk!
--- End quote ---
I just tried stuffing more floss in there and you can completely deaden the sound. I mean, we're talking Topre quiet.
What do I need to do to provide sound samples?? I guess I need a mic (can you recommend one?) and a link to the sound bar that everyone here uses.
Thx,
skc
wellington1869:
--- Quote from: skcheng;177735 ---
What do I need to do to provide sound samples?? I guess I need a mic (can you recommend one?) and a link to the sound bar that everyone here uses.
--- End quote ---
re: mic: I simply use a relatively well reviewed computer external microphone (it sits on the desk, 1/8" plug, tho they have usb ones too obviously). The same mic i use for skype, basically. I dont think you really need to spend a lot of money on it if you dont want to; mine cost $10 and sounds good enough to give people a rough sense of the sound difference. I dont think anyone's expecting Cd quality results or anything.
Alternately if you have a digital voice recorder for instance, just use that. Prop it up above the keyboard and go nuts.
Some people have used the built-in mic in their computers but I guess i'd avoid that if possible, at least with an external mic you can place it at the right distance after some testing of the results.
People have different ideas about the best mic placement. If its too close to the keyboard, you pick up extraneous irrelevant noises from the keystrokes and the differences in sound (mod/no-mod) become hard to detect. If its too far, same problem. The idea is to place it in such a way that the two recordings (with mod/without mod) to your ears "demonstrate" the difference in the sound as you perceive them. Nothing scientific about this, just use your judgement I think.
Re: the sound bar, I believe it appears automatically when you upload an mpg file. Just upload an mpg as an attachment to a post, just like you'd do with a pic. The sound bar is generated automatically.
phoenix:
Nice photos, skc! I look forward to the sound samples.
I recommend cutting the floss a little shorter than the spring minus hammer stem. Roughly 14 mm is good. If you want to insert bifolded floss for slightly stiffer but even quieter clicks, use 28 mm. That way the floss doesn't stick out of the spring when you put the cap on. If you have too much floss sticking out, the spring might not align well with the little dimple inside the key cap stem.
With 1x floss the keys are free of high-pitch reverberation. It's a good balance between silence and key feel. With 2x floss it may be too stiff and muffled for some people.
Unicomp should find a cheap supplier for the material that the floss is made of or something similar and make this a $10 option. QuietClick and SilentClick, maybe?
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version