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geekhack Marketplace => Great Finds => Topic started by: didjamatic on Sat, 30 January 2010, 19:14:09

Title: Steampunk Model M
Post by: didjamatic on Sat, 30 January 2010, 19:14:09

Steampunk Model M (http://cgi.ebay.com/Antique-looking-keyboard-Steampunk-Model-M-keyboard_W0QQitemZ120524706593QQcmdZViewItemQQptZPCA_Mice_Trackballs?hash=item1c0fd51321#ht_500wt_1038)

Price is very high, but depending on the hours put into it, the seller's earnings could be pretty minimal.  Glad to see things like this out there.

Title: Steampunk Model M
Post by: trievalot on Sat, 30 January 2010, 22:51:28

awesome looking board....i do wonder what these would feel like to type on ??

Title: Steampunk Model M
Post by: kishy on Sat, 30 January 2010, 23:05:51

Hmm, this doesn't look as good as the previous ones that have shown up...I seem to remember a monochromatic black/silver one.

Problem seems to be TOO much work put into this one...it looks overdone. Amazing results of course, but too busy.

Edit:
(http://steampunkworkshop.com/images/Kb41.jpg)

Title: Steampunk Model M
Post by: trievalot on Sat, 30 January 2010, 23:26:15

i agree, the "original" by von Slatt looks much better.

Did you see the one he did with the ergo M with touchpad in the middle?

Title: Steampunk Model M
Post by: kishy on Sat, 30 January 2010, 23:55:06

That's...

(http://winarco.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/IBM-M-15-ergo-after-01.jpg)

...correct?

Very nice board for sure.

Keep in mind it does slope the opposite direction a typical keyboard slopes which really hurts usability (more ergonomic shape, but your chair needs to be REALLY high up for it to be a natural angle for your hands). That said, usability is clearly not the goal here.

Title: Steampunk Model M
Post by: Mental Hobbit on Sun, 31 January 2010, 09:20:50

Maybe it's just the bad flash pictures and the wood of the long keys - but this one looks to me like it's been put together in half an hour with a hacksaw and a sledge hammer.

Title: Steampunk Model M
Post by: ricercar on Sun, 31 January 2010, 10:38:33

The wooden keys cheapen the effect into cheezy. It's like the maker gave up after spending days on the 'board, and made the wooden keys just to be done with it. Even the plastic-keyed picture looks better than the OP.

Were I to make wooden keys, the entire key set would need to be wooden. That's the difference between having an aesthetic, and being clueless. YMMV.

Title: Steampunk Model M
Post by: kishy on Sun, 31 January 2010, 10:59:07

The wood keys look like they came off one of those entirely wooden keyboards. If the maker of this contraption bought one of those things first to source the keys (a decision that I'd call poorly-thought-out at best), then this pricetag still doesn't cover the costs of building it (which makes it even more absurd if you ask me).

Title: Steampunk Model M
Post by: Mental Hobbit on Sun, 31 January 2010, 15:55:16

I want ivory keys too. I've yet find an understanding elephant though.
Or cannibalize some useless old Steinway?

Title: Steampunk Model M
Post by: ak_nala on Sun, 31 January 2010, 20:46:39

Would have to be an old Steinway as they have been sheathing them in plastic for quite a few years now.

If this builder was going to make the long keys out of wood, he should have done what the original typewriter makers did, contour them and dye or paint them black (or make them out of Gabon Ebony - the really black kind). The way these were done make it look like a cheap afterthought, destroying the effect of the work done on the rest of the board. The sides should have been carved, or at least more sculpted, as well.

Comes down to the difference between somebody just doing it to do it and someone who has a true sense of the esthetic like Von Slatt or Datamancer. Let's hope this maker will learn from experience.

Edit: It also makes me cringe that three old classic 'writers were destroyed to make this mixed-bag of a board. It could have been so much better.