Inspired by the knowledge of chloe and the work of billw from
this thread, I went about the process of transplanting the original rubber-dampened white Alps from a SGI bigfoot keyboard into the body of a new Filco FKBN87Z/EB.
I'm happy to report that it worked.
Some notes:
Step 1: Obtain a pair of new-in-bag SGI bigfoot keyboards.
I found these new for US$40 apiece. Nice clean boards filled with pristine, unused original white Alps switches with rubber dampeners. These keyboards are not the PS/2 variants, but the ones with proprietary SGI interfaces for the Indigo/Onyx computers. Otherwise -- in terms of switches -- they're essentially identical. I think the only difference is the color of the rubber dampeners. These keyboards aren't exactly useful for using with modern computers, but they're truly awesome for salvaging vintage parts.
Step 2: Order a pair of Filco FKBN87Z/EB from Elite Keyboards.
I guess I'm lucky, in that elitekeyboards sold out in only a few days.
Step 3: Compare.
I have very fond memories of this keyboard, during my time as an SGI hobbyist. Even so, it's been 5+ years since I got out of the SGI game, and before dismantling these pieces of hardware, I wanted to make sure that I wasn't just blinded by nostalgia. Now that I've been playing with buckling springs and Topres, would the white Alps hold up?
While I didn't completely melt over the SGI board with love and honey, I prefer it tremendously over the stock Filco. I'll post an in-depth comparison later under the reviews section, but I found the touch of the Filco switches to be too light to my preferences, and they're loud in a way that sound cheap rather than industrious.
Still, the Alps in the SGI board felt very nice, and certainly worthy enough to proceed, if for no other reason than scientific curiosity.
Step 4: Depopulate the switches from the SGI board.
This was pretty easy to do. Note that I'm an intermediate (or at least advanced beginner) solderer. Some of the switches had their pins bent back pretty severely, which made them less-trivial to remove, but they still didn't present any heady obstacles.
Step 5: Depopulate the switches from the Filco board.
In theory this should've been easier than the previous step, as the switches were perfectly orderly, nicely labeled on the PCB, and all had straight pins. However, I was having problems with my soldering iron that created some heavy frustration until I bought a $10 replacement from Rat Shack. So this took maybe an hour longer than it should've.
Unlike billm, I used desoldering braid instead of a desoldering pump, but I think that's just a matter of taste. The braid worked great, especially if you were generous with it.
Step 6: Populate the Filco board with the SGI switches and resolder.
Blink and it's over. Piece of cake. Below is the repopulated board. If you look closely you can see the "Alps" logo on the bottom of the switches.
Step 7: Re-assemble.
For some reason I'm slightly put-off by the all-black Filco look. I can't say why, but I think it looks cheap; it might have something to do with the fact that the Filco keycaps are pretty flimsy, literally half as thin as the SGI keycaps.
To accommodate this, I put on a mix of SGI/Filco keys. The mix was determined by necessity (none of the SGI keys would fit on the bottom row, and the SGI CapsLock key wouldn't fit as well), and aesthetics (while the SGI shift keys would've fit, I thought the Filco ones look better, given that I'm constrained by some of the surrounding keys needing to be black). I think I like it, and that the mix of key styles isn't too tacky.
Step 8: Test/Evaluate.
So far, so good. I did some continuity testing during the soldering process, to make sure I wasn't screwing up, but you never know. Some of the keys are less-trivial to test (e.g., "Print Screen", function keys), at least on a Mac, but so far it seems to have been a successful procedure. (While I wasn't tracking, it probably took 4-5 hours total.)
And I love the feel of the switches. I'm now totally gooey over this keyboard.
Update: for testing I used the Unix command line utility "xev". It works great, even with the bizarro keys (e.g., "Pause", "Scroll Lock").
Step 9: Repeat steps 4 through 8 with the other keyboard.
This leaves me with one for home and another for work. After all, the best things come in pairs. Like Stormbringer and Mournblade.