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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: khriys on Sun, 19 January 2014, 09:26:00

Title: My first mechanical keyboard, DIY key puller, and a cry for help
Post by: khriys on Sun, 19 January 2014, 09:26:00

Hi everyone!

Here's my first mechanical keyboard since childhood, a Unicomp Ultra Classic Model M 104:

(http://i.imgur.com/sDnFd3k.jpg)

Here's my leather-trim DIY key puller, if you like it I can share how I made it on another post:

(http://i.imgur.com/fW5refy.jpg)

And finally, my cry for help:

Many of the keys of my new model M come unset easily. Currently my spacebar, right alt, keypad -, and a number of letters. When I pull them and reset them, sometimes they set, sometimes they don't, and sometimes a different key becomes disrupted.

Have I bought a lemon? Have I killed the Keyboard of Ages in less than a week? How do I fix it?

Please save me from this fate:
(http://i.imgur.com/jk1AS2t.jpg)

Title: Re: My first mechanical keyboard, DIY key puller, and a cry for help
Post by: fohat.digs on Sun, 19 January 2014, 10:32:09

When you say "set" remember that that there is a key stem and a key cap. The cap is just decoration, but the stem has to seat properly into the barrel (aka chimney).

I would recommend that you bend your puller square at the bottom, just barely one mm wider than the bottom flange of the key. You will want to grab corners, not edges.

Take the cap off the stem and get the stem right, you can put caps on later. Sometimes, I find that standing the keyboard upright on the front (spacebar) edge and letting the spring flop forward (down) enables me to install the stem easier. And yes, it can take several tries.

Title: Re: My first mechanical keyboard, DIY key puller, and a cry for help
Post by: minium on Sun, 19 January 2014, 14:51:39

I wiggle the stem and spring before I push down and 'set' the stem. Before I started doing that, I managed to jam a spring down to the membrane. It was a tense minute or two with a mini-screwdriver to get it out.

Title: Re: My first mechanical keyboard, DIY key puller, and a cry for help
Post by: khriys on Sun, 19 January 2014, 17:37:40

Thanks for the advice. I've attempted to implement it on the unset keys, without success as yet. I've noticed a pattern to them-here is an image of the problem keys removed:

(http://i.imgur.com/UAJvOmd.jpg)

Note they cluster at edges. Could this be a rivet issue?

Title: Re: My first mechanical keyboard, DIY key puller, and a cry for help
Post by: jacobolus on Mon, 20 January 2014, 00:50:04

Are you sure when you’re putting the keycaps on, you aren't getting the top loop of the spring caught above the little barrel? That’s happened to me from time to time when putting caps back on Model M/F, and causes the key not behave as expected. Luckily, removing the cap, freeing the spring, and replacing the cap again more carefully fixes that problem. Note: this especially happens for keys at the top because the whole plate is bent, so those springs have a tendency to flop forward more. Try tipping the keyboard backwards a bit when you put the caps back on.

Title: Re: My first mechanical keyboard, DIY key puller, and a cry for help
Post by: fohat.digs on Mon, 20 January 2014, 07:56:56

Turn a key stem upside-down and look at the top (bottom of the hole when upside-down) you will see a little circular dimple. The top of the spring needs to find its way into that dimple. If it is sitting off-center, and they seem to like to do that, then the spring will not buckle properly.

Title: Re: My first mechanical keyboard, DIY key puller, and a cry for help
Post by: khriys on Tue, 21 January 2014, 22:22:25

All fixed! The issue was cat hair. Strong incentive to keep it clean.

Title: Re: My first mechanical keyboard, DIY key puller, and a cry for help
Post by: daerid on Tue, 21 January 2014, 23:11:17

Only downside to mechanical keyboards I've found so far: they are extremely sensitive to dust and hair.