Does anyone know the grease IBM used on the Model M Soft Touch 8184692?

[dante]

There is very little info about this keyboard; even clickykeyboards.com acknowledges that they don't sell many of these.

Does anyone know what grease was used or what would be the best modern equivalent for this task?

[fohat.digs]

I once bought a dead Model M very cheap on ebay which I assumed was a casualty of a botched grease job.

I took it apart and threw the spring hammers into the garbage. They were truly horrible. I replaced them, cleaned it well, bolt-modded it, and sold it for some small profit.

Doing that grease mod, by hand, outside of a factory environment, would seem impossibly fussy.

If you dis-assemble it you might do a reasonable grease job, but then you would have to be very very very careful during assembly to not get horrible grease everywhere.

Squirting grease into the center of the springs in situ without getting it anywhere else and making a mess .....

Slightly easier than transporting into a spaceship moving at warp speed.

[dante]

Thanks for the info!  I think you're right; I wish there was some super cheap easy mod for these boards to make them silent - or at least quiet enough that you could bring them into a typically quiet office.  If Unicomp couldn't make a new SSK well OK I understand tooling is expensive - but if somehow they could create a new silent bucking spring  that would be pretty cool.

I did send off an Email to clickykeyboards.com to see if they wouldn't mind doing a comparison video to show the differences between a standard M and the soft touch just out of curiosity sake.

[0100010]

I thought Unicomps soft touch boards were rubber domes?  Don't know much about the old IBM greased boards.

I want to still try floss modding and adding O-rings on the outside of the barrels to see how much it quiets down the buckling noise.

[dante]

I thought Unicomps soft touch boards were rubber domes?  Don't know much about the old IBM greased boards.

Unicomp sells the "Quiet Touch" as rubber domes.  The IBM Soft Touch greased Model M's were made by Lexmark from 94-96.

[fohat.digs]

I want to still try floss modding and adding O-rings on the outside of the barrels to see how much it quiets down the buckling noise.

I have never gotten satisfactory results with any kind of O-ring scenario on the Model M.

Floss modding is not nearly as effective and satisfying on the M as it is on the F. It may not decrease the actual decibels very much, but it does take out most of the overtones.

And do use a mat under your keyboard, even if it is not one of mine.