Thanks to some addicting reviews by Chryosan and patient gold panning on ebay, I became the proud owner of an IBM F-122 today!
The keyboard is in good shape overall, but as with 33 year old electronic device, it is not mint condition. The most noticeable issue is with the 'C' key. It registers, but feels gummier than other keys. No amount of re-seating helps it. My fear is that there is a small object (probably deteriorated foam) caught under the flipper. Alternatively, it could just be worn out from heavy use (the ebay seller told me that the AS/400 terminal this thing hooked up to was only taken out of commission last week. Yeesh!)
Either way, I'm going to have to open this thing up sooner or later. A bit scary considering the size of the board and my previous "luck" opening up Model M's. I know there must be guide or thread on this process from some brave keyboard pioneer, but I haven't been able to find it.
Does anybody have any advice for opening one of these monsters? What is the overall difficulty level of deconstructing, cleaning, re-foaming, and reconstructing an F-122 compared to, say, a run-of-the-mill capacitor replacement job or perhaps re-foaming a speaker? I have wood clamps and a housemate to help hold things together while I refit things, if that makes a difference.
I appreciate any help, even if it's just a link to a guide that I missed. Thanks!
