geekhack
geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: OldIsNew on Sun, 29 January 2017, 00:18:03
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I recently obtained an IBM model F XT keyboard and rushed into cleaning it up. I took off the keys and the spacebar a well (because I didn't do my research!) . It was immediately obvious that this was going to be a problem. I started looking into doing a complete tear-down/rebuild but decided I just wasn't up for the attempt at this point.
Since I was looking at just living with the unstabilized spacebar I decided to try something that might work OR break the clip on my spacebar - and settle the issue. Luckily it ended up working and I had the space bar back on the stabilizer fairly quickly.
I had just re-seated some springs with the ChopstickODeath and decided to use the tapered end to VERY gently and slowly dilate the "mouth" of the stabilizer bar clip on one end of the spacebar an additional 1 mm or so by sliding it into the clip from the side. After that with the space bar aligned over the spring barrel, and the stabilizer clip against the back wall of the stabilizer bar well, I was able to push down and slightly forward and successfully clip onto the stabilizer bar. Then while keeping the attached end of the spacebar in place, I repeated this with the other space bar clip and successfully clipped it to the stabilizer bar as well. The spacebar has been working fine for a week now so it appears to have worked.
Of course I could easily have broken the 30+ year old plastic spacebar clips so I`d definitely say this would only be worth a try if you've decided you're not going to tear-down the board to fix it properly and were looking at living with the unstabilized bar anyway.
While this worked for me, I would like to know if there are any safer ways to replace the spacebar on the Model F XT without tearing down/rebuilding the board. I'm not planning on EVER removing it again but it would be good to know any other tricks that might work.
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Khaangaaroo devised a method here: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=41059.0
I had a wobbly spacebar on my XT and today I did what he said and it worked like a charm!
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I finally went ahead and tore down/rebuilt my XT, really more for the experience of doing it than anything else, and it really wasn't that bad to do (and was interesting), but that is a neat trick for getting the spacebar back on and less likely to break the tabs for sure!
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I did it with brute force and lucked out. Basically started with the bar up and off to the front and got the wire lined up at close to the edges of the plastic as possible... then kinda yanked and mashed it back into place so it snapped around the plastic and worked. I should have used the floss idea though. thats smarter/safer. :thumb: