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geekhack Marketplace => Great Finds => Topic started by: ch_123 on Thu, 04 March 2010, 05:14:16

Title: Going soon - €1 Ambra Model M
Post by: ch_123 on Thu, 04 March 2010, 05:14:16: http://cgi.ebay.ie/IBM-Model-M-Ambra_W0QQitemZ150417910173QQcmdZViewItemQQptZKlassische_Computer?hash=item23059b299d#ht_708wt_1165 (http://cgi.ebay.ie/IBM-Model-M-Ambra_W0QQitemZ150417910173QQcmdZViewItemQQptZKlassische_Computer?hash=item23059b299d#ht_708wt_1165)

Two catches -

Some keycaps are missing
Seller doesnt take paypal.
Title: Going soon - €1 Ambra Model M
Post by: Half-Saint on Thu, 04 March 2010, 07:09:15: Been there, bid that :D
Title: Going soon - €1 Ambra Model M
Post by: Mental Hobbit on Thu, 04 March 2010, 07:51:39: Congrats! Hope you'll find a good way to "whiten" some Model M keys.
Title: Going soon - €1 Ambra Model M
Post by: Half-Saint on Thu, 04 March 2010, 08:14:04: Thanks! I'll try to find some real Ambra keys.. they'll turn up eventually :D

SainT
Title: Going soon - €1 Ambra Model M
Post by: meltie on Fri, 05 March 2010, 03:56:03: Have fun with it! I was the one who bid 1 EUR :-)
Title: Going soon - €1 Ambra Model M
Post by: Half-Saint on Fri, 05 March 2010, 04:30:48: No hard feelings, I hope! :-)
Title: Going soon - €1 Ambra Model M
Post by: meltie on Tue, 09 March 2010, 03:06:39: Quote from: Half-Saint;161931
No hard feelings, I hope! :-)

Of course not, I got a complete Ambra already.
Title: Going soon - €1 Ambra Model M
Post by: itlnstln on Tue, 09 March 2010, 11:00:24: Quote from: meltie;162691
Of course not, I got a complete Ambra already.

Read: "Have fun finding those missing keycaps, a*shole."

(Just kidding, of course... well, maybe).
Title: Going soon - €1 Ambra Model M
Post by: Half-Saint on Sat, 27 March 2010, 14:24:11: Took a long time to arrive.. wasn't packed especially well and it quite dirty. Three keycaps are missing.. oh and it has a detachable cable!

Cheers
Title: Going soon - €1 Ambra Model M
Post by: Mental Hobbit on Sat, 27 March 2010, 14:47:12: The cable alone is worth the price including shipping. So that soon-to-be-white-again beauty is a free bonus. =)
Title: Going soon - €1 Ambra Model M
Post by: Half-Saint on Sun, 28 March 2010, 14:20:42: I wanted to thoroughly clean the keyboard (I usually don't do this before testing) and here's what I found. This was the worse packaging job I've seen so far. The seller just put the keyboard inside two plastic bags (cheap ones mind you) and then proceeded to wrap it in (not enough) cardboard. He did not use any bubble-wrap! On top of that, the post office guys obviously used the package to play football... upon opening the keyboard I found 10 (!!!) broken rivets, one top "pillar" that holds the board in place and one bottom peg.

I believe the seller decided to cover his or her loss from selling at such a low price by declaring higher postage than what was actually paid. I wouldn't mind sending them additional funds to get proper packaging, if only they asked!

I'll see if the keyboard still works after it's dry...

Cheers

P.S. Found two more rivets on the floor under the kitchen table :P

(http://www.shrani.si/t/20/U5/O8eBXZC/junk.jpg) (http://www.shrani.si/?20/U5/O8eBXZC/junk.jpg)
Title: Going soon - €1 Ambra Model M
Post by: J888www on Sun, 28 March 2010, 16:45:20: The "Pillars" can be fixed with a Plastic Weld solution, which can be purchased from any good model shops, apply to both sides to be bonded (it melts the plastic and bonds them together). In regard to the broken rivets, well consider yourself lucky for not needing to break off more when you decide to do a "Nuts and Bolts" mod.
I had 2 NIB Mini Spacesavers shipped from US and both have more than a dozen rivets broken, they just do not travel very well. In my opinion, if you wish to preserve/improve/etc/etc/etc an IBM M, then it is best to do the "Nuts and Bolts" replacement.
Title: Going soon - €1 Ambra Model M
Post by: Half-Saint on Mon, 29 March 2010, 01:45:05: That is a very cute chimp! :)

Anyway, if the keyboard still works, I'm not going to do the mod because it's just too time consuming and I don't have the time, at the moment. I'll look into that plastic weld solution, thanks.

@ripster: in your nuts and bolts mod you mention keyboard ping. What exactly is that? :D

Cheers
SainT
Title: Going soon - €1 Ambra Model M
Post by: Half-Saint on Tue, 30 March 2010, 10:49:32: Thanks. I'm going to order a full set of black blank keycaps and put them on Ambra until I can get the missing keycaps. Will make sure to post some pics after I'm done!
Title: Going soon - €1 Ambra Model M
Post by: Half-Saint on Tue, 30 March 2010, 13:18:11: It turns out that Unicomp doesn't make black blank keycaps for 102-key boards. Bloody great, eh? So, I was thinking.. what if I used blank BLACK keys for everything EXCEPT the large keys around the alpha-numeric area? I remember someone did something similar with a Compaq MX11800 but I can't find that post! What do you guys think?

Cheers
SainT