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geekhack Projects => Making Stuff Together! => Topic started by: malthusthomas on Fri, 21 July 2017, 16:08:35

Title: IBM Selectric II Inspired Unicomp Project
Post by: malthusthomas on Fri, 21 July 2017, 16:08:35

Hi there everyone! I'm pretty new to the world of mechanical keyboards. In fact, I don't even have a mechanical keyboard yet (I currently have an Apple wireless bluetooth keyboard)!

What I do have, is a vision inspired by the IBM Selectric II. I have an image of a tenkeyless buckling spring keyboard with spherical, sculpted keycaps and a case painted in a red, blue, or green that searches for the Selectric II inevitably pull up:

[attach=1][attach=2][attach=3]

My plan is to take a Unicomp board (I'm currently thrift shop spelunking for a model M to use, though it appears some consider it sacrilege to hack up a model M) and mod it to be TKL, paint the case and then deal with the keycaps. I've stumbled across the awesome Spherical Buckling Spring project at DT (https://deskthority.net/workshop-f7/spherical-buckling-spring-thread-t11186-240.html). So that sort of takes care of the keycaps (knocks on wood).

So, since I know very little, I've been doing research and am still doing research. I've bookmarked the wikis here, DT, and over on /r/mk (as well as saved stickied threads with how to or beginner oriented mod advice). I have a list of about 20 projects with Unicomp or Model M mods done by members here or at DT (I'm not sure if it would be beneficial for me to link them here or simply bothersome and cluttering) to help learn the basic steps and hiccups along the way.

Since I'm just beginning this journey, don't expect a result quickly! But I did want to make this post so that I could get feedback and advice from and simply share my idea with the community.

Title: Re: IBM Selectric II Inspired Unicomp Project
Post by: OldIsNew on Sat, 22 July 2017, 19:17:54

Sounds interesting! I do really like the I do love the spherical keys - hope the spherical buckling spring key project comes to fruition. I have seen some Model M TKL modification project pages around - have you seen those?

Title: Re: IBM Selectric II Inspired Unicomp Project
Post by: OldIsNew on Sat, 22 July 2017, 19:24:54

Oops hit wrong button trying to fix this post! I was just going to add that I see in your post that it looks like you have found the TKL mod pages already. I'd be very interested in hearing about your progress with it.

Title: Re: IBM Selectric II Inspired Unicomp Project
Post by: E TwentyNine on Sun, 23 July 2017, 09:03:04

Something like this?

(http://i.imgur.com/Mg3ZJ6L.jpg)

Yeah, you're not the only one...

Title: Re: IBM Selectric II Inspired Unicomp Project
Post by: malthusthomas on Sun, 23 July 2017, 11:10:44

Quote from: OldIsNew on Sat, 22 July 2017, 19:24:54

Oops hit wrong button trying to fix this post! I was just going to add that I see in your post that it looks like you have found the TKL mod pages already. I'd be very interested in hearing about your progress with it.

Yeah, I think I'll edit my original post to throw in the links to the relevant user projects that I've found so far. That way other people can let me know of ones I've misssed without wondering whether or not I've already seen it.

Current status: Have not yet purchased Unicomp to begin the project. I'm still holding out hope that I'll stumble into a model M or something during those thrift shop visits... I wonder how those with a model M or F acquired the keyboard and if they tried to find one at an estate/garage sale or thrift shop, how long it took them to find it. I've seen all kinds of posts about people finding them but I'm not sure how representative those posts are of the population of model M or F owners.

Quote from: E TwentyNine on Sun, 23 July 2017, 09:03:04

Something like this?

Show Image

(http://i.imgur.com/Mg3ZJ6L.jpg)

Yeah, you're not the only one...

That 's...that's pretty much it. It's glorious!