Very rare Polish layout IBM Model M

[czarek]

Found that and bought instantly yesterday:

http://allegro.pl/klawiatura-pc-ibm-orginal-i2559564096.html

It's very rare to find Model M locally in Poland (most of my Model Ms were imported from USA) and it's hard to find any keyboard with classical Polish typewriter's layout - most keyboards use Polish Programmer's layout which is based on US ANSI layout. Finding combination of those 2 is just a pure luck

[damorgue]

For close to nothing too, congrats

[486]

Good job. Another number to add to the wiki page.

[czarek]

I received this board. It was very dirty, shows signs of spills of some liquids in the past and smelled really badly. I gave her a good cleaning in a dishwasher (only plastic parts of course) and used some WD40 on a corroded metal plate. The good news is that only one rivet is missing, but the bad news is is that there is a lot of corrosion on metal parts, also on springs. But after cleaning I can tell you that the plastic parts are immaculate.
I was wondering if it's normal on UK made European Model Ms or is it something uncommon, but this board, being built in 1993 had detachable cord with AT (bigger DIN) cconnector. I thought Lexmarks had non-detachable cord and were all PS/2 connectors (small DIN). Apart from that obviously the keycaps are weird. Even for me as I've never really seen Polish Typewriter's keyboard apart from some pictures on the net.

[dorkvader]

I believe lexmark didn't get rid of the SDL connector until shortly after they took over production from IBM. That said, the ones made in the UK (Greenrock) are very different than their brethren across the pond. Check, for example, if your spacebar is ABS or PBT: I have read that many are ABS. Given that, and other differences, I would say it's not too unheard of to find one with an SDL connector. IBM keyboard differences are very erratic. The terminal 'boards, especially, are very different (on the DT wiki, it says that the 122-key F's all have model numbers like 611034*, whereas I have a 122-key 6110866 that came with a 3179. I would also like to mention that John Elliott's pages also feature a 6110866, so I'm somewhat confused as to why the DT wiki is wrong)

That said, I'm not an IBM expert by any means.

I'm glad you got your keyboard. Make sure to post more pictures of it.

[czarek]

Yes space bar is indeed ABS, it's different in color and feels differently (I don't want to put any acetone on it to try for sure). It also has this little corrroded metal clips that connect it to the metal plate underneath the keyboard.
As with Model Fs, I had Polish terminal Model F in completely weird layout that I sold to fellow geekhacker. The weird thing about it apart from having crazy layout was that it was an XT board - I tested it with stock IBM PC XT and it worked without any adapters! That made it relatively easy to connect to my Mac

[dorkvader]

Yes space bar is indeed ABS, it's different in color and feels differently (I don't want to put any acetone on it to try for sure). It also has this little corrroded metal clips that connect it to the metal plate underneath the keyboard.
As with Model Fs, I had Polish terminal Model F in completely weird layout that I sold to fellow geekhacker. The weird thing about it apart from having crazy layout was that it was an XT board - I tested it with stock IBM PC XT and it worked without any adapters! That made it relatively easy to connect to my Mac

John Elliott says that the F AT also supports XT natively.
http://www.seasip.info/VintagePC/ibmat_kbc.html