geekhack
geekhack Projects => Making Stuff Together! => Topic started by: micrex22 on Mon, 15 February 2016, 17:07:30
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Model F 122s show up occasionally, and as such I wanted to modify my old one so it wasn't the ugly beige colour. Furthermore since they are painted anyways, they usually have the paint chipping off along with corrosion (so not matter what way you look at it, they're begging for being modded). Here's a complete walkthrough of how I restored mine and what tools were used in the process.
#1
First thing to do is disassemble the F122 (don't bend the tabs, get a rubber mallet and knock the two pieces apart). Then you'll want some salt and vinegar with a cloth to scrub off as much corrosion as possible with minimizing the amount of the oil coating you remove. The oil coating is what protects the metal from corroding in the first place. If you leave vinegar sitting in certain spots for too long it will remove the oil coating. Use a very delicate sanding paper if you honestly must scrub any rust off.
(http://i.imgur.com/lH74eOZ.jpg)
Afterwards neutralize with baking soda.
#2
Get your paints ready. The ones I used are as follows:
(http://i.imgur.com/LZcL22Y.jpg)
A) Rustoleum Metallic 'Black Night' for the final coat.
B) Rustoleum Metallic 'Flat Antique Nickel' for painting the spring board
C) Rustoleum Satin Black for doing a base coat on the beige chassis
E) Rustoleum Metallic 'Oil Rubbed Bronze' for repainting the metal tray
These paints stay on very well and look extremely nice. The metallic flecks are actual pieces of metal btw.
It's always best to put a light coat on, and then I typically like to do three or four coats afterwards. You can do them in 20 minute intervals assuming they're relatively dry afterwards.
(since it's winter I would paint outside and brought the parts in to dry, this way the majority of the VOCS are released outside)
#3
Apply a light coat first, then follow up with three thicker coats. On the last coat get your replacement foam if necessary and use weak tape to hold it underneath, this will create a pattern to stamp out the holes (Harry pioneered that technique; it also coats any exposed foam to be the same colour as well). Allow to fully dry:
(http://i.imgur.com/hikI6v1.jpg)
NOTE: Don't forget to also paint the underside as well, it's important you do to protect the metal from future corrosion.
#4 (optional)
If you need to get replacement foam, I used the mcmaster-carr neoprene stuff. I used a 1/2" leather hole punch and a rubber mallet on a thick stack of paper.
(http://i.imgur.com/UXhpKPi.jpg)
#5 (optional)
Once all holes are punched out you'll end up with your new foam. I do not cut out the 'buttresses', stuffing the barrels into the foam with only 1/2" holes will allow them to fit more snugly and will save you sanity from cutting out that many tiny notches:
(http://i.imgur.com/Tpb0xDo.jpg)
#6
Time to reassemble, since I couldn't find a picture of which pivot plates to exclude for a standard ANSI layout (with a regular numpad), the barrels with the yellow dots are where you *do not* place a pivot plate-- someone may find this useful if they're ever going to do this:
(http://i.imgur.com/PovRzri.jpg)
You'll want to put four clamps on the bottom, two on the top. I used a 24" vice and a rubber mallet to slide it back together. I find using the vice first and then following up with the rubber mallet works the best.
(http://i.imgur.com/wfvRlXt.jpg)
P.S. ALWAYS double check all pivot plates are put back in, otherwise you'll feel some sadness inside when you have to take it apart again and re-assemble:
(http://i.imgur.com/mJh1U8I.jpg)
#7
First I sanded off the old paint of the external chassis (took a long time, remember to get some of the sand paper foamies which can sand in tight places and awkward angles). Then the rustoleum satin black was applied to the bottom and top:
(http://i.imgur.com/wFZzB8Y.jpg)
The best sandpaper are the sand-wet pieces made by 3M, they're rubber as opposed to paper. They *really* do last a long time.
#8
And then finally with many coats of the metallic 'black night' (which is more of a dark charcoal), the finished product was completed. If you don't want the charcoal effect, spraying a light coat of metallic black night over black satin will simulate a straight up black metallic paint.
(http://i.imgur.com/qx7Lfig.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/WfKrg6x.jpg)
(the faces of the push buttons were also painted in silver, but I didn't paint the legs since it's not worth it; they need to have the freedom of movement)
(http://i.imgur.com/UMXtBtO.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/yNtQPd5.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/g2Diwjr.jpg)
(closeup of the 'flat antique nickel' coating, looks very nice)
So that's about it! The paint, clamps and mallet I got from Home Depot-- they should carry all of the products you need. Leather hole punch was purchased on amazon. Foam was purchased from mcmaster-carr:
Foam: http://www.mcmaster.com/#8647k102/=103696u
(I believe I bought two feet / which is enough for three F 122s)
Keycaps were purchased at unicomp along with six stabilizers. I'd be happy to answer any questions to anyone else who is planning on attempting this.
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That looks like a well-executed paint job. I'll keep this in mind if I ever properly restore mine. You listed paint for the metal tray; do you have a photo of how that turned out?
When I read the title, I was hoping someone made a full metal case for an F-122, but this is pretty nice, too.
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Very nicely done! :)
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Very nice, the key colors really make the board 'pop'.
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Nicely done! Very clean paint job.
You mention avoiding stripping the "oil" on the metal that resists corrosion. Is that really necessary if you're coating the plate with Rustoleum afterwards?
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You did very well on this! Awesome job, and beautiful board!
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you did it much better than me. Sigh. :'( That said, did you teensy mod it? mine is USB plug and playable and choke full of my own macro inventions and custom layout. :thumb:
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Gorgeous. Yummy. I don't know what else to say.
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Man, this looks amazing. The first board I typed on was a F 122, I'll have to do this one day :thumb:
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That looks like a well-executed paint job. I'll keep this in mind if I ever properly restore mine. You listed paint for the metal tray; do you have a photo of how that turned out?
When I read the title, I was hoping someone made a full metal case for an F-122, but this is pretty nice, too.
It's fairly close to the original paint in terms of colour, although not multicoloured sadly:
(http://i.imgur.com/knRr8Do.jpg)
The plastic chassis still works pretty well, and the rustoleum paint is very solid so it should hold up as long as the keyboard does. If a metal chassis were to be machined there are some improvements that could be done. It would also catastrophically increase the weight of the keyboard (although some would probably enjoy that).
Very nice, the key colors really make the board 'pop'.
Yeah, took a bit of inspiration from your Model M (which you should convert to a model F when idollar makes the PCB group buy for the 101).
Nicely done! Very clean paint job.
You mention avoiding stripping the "oil" on the metal that resists corrosion. Is that really necessary if you're coating the plate with Rustoleum afterwards?
The oil helps protect the layers of metal; you could strip it all off if you wanted to but you'd lose that 'extra' protection. As you can see how volatile it is even with the oil...
you did it much better than me. Sigh. :'( That said, did you teensy mod it? mine is USB plug and playable and choke full of my own macro inventions and custom layout. :thumb:
I went down the teensy route again:
(http://i.imgur.com/6WjGJao.jpg)
If anyone needs help with soarer's remapping I can assist. This is my configuration:
#F122 fixed layout
remapblock
PAD_PLUS PAD_ENTER
PAD_ASTERIX PAD_PLUS
ESC NUM_LOCK
NUM_LOCK PAD_SLASH
SCROLL_LOCK PAD_ASTERIX
EXTRA_F10 MEDIA_VOLUME_UP
EXTRA_F9 MEDIA_VOLUME_DOWN
EXTRA_F1 ESC
F13 LGUI
F24 PAUSE
F23 SCROLL_LOCK
F22 PRINTSCREEN
LANG_4 DOWN
EXTRA_SYSRQ PAD_MINUS
EXTRA_F7 MEDIA_WWW_BACK
EXTRA_F8 MEDIA_WWW_FORWARD
F17 MEDIA_WWW_REFRESH
F19 MEDIA_MY_COMPUTER
endblock
Unfortunately some of Soarer's 'soft names' have caused some confusion, the middle key in the arrow diamond arrangement is "LANG_4", I have it set to down so I can use it in the regular inverted T form factor or in its diamond shape. That configuration also fixes the numpad and adds print screen / scroll lock / pause above F22, F23, F24.
I do have an xwhatsit, but I'm saving it for turning my SSK into an FSSK along with a solenoid from a blueswitch:
(http://i.imgur.com/BNRrXMz.jpg)
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Thanks for the comments everyone, glad to know that the colour scheme wasn't a total miss.