Apple M0116 with orange alps

[mr.squishy]

Not too long ago I was given a dirty, beat up, old Apple M0116 by my art teacher. It was in pretty bad shape; the teacher had been letting students use the keycaps to make molds, and therefore there was a lot of plaster and clay on the caps that were there, but it was also missing a few keys and other parts as well.
This is what it looked like before:

Fohat then reached out to me offering to sell me a spacebar that he had saved from an M0116 he stripped a while back, and he graciously agreed to sell me the other missing caps and stabilizers as well. Today I got those in the mail, and went to work with a magic eraser doing a deep clean, and ended up with this:


It currently sits on my desk, looking pretty, however, I plan on putting a teensy 2.0 in it, converting it to usb, maybe snagging a nice custum coiled cable for it, and using it as a daily driver. The orange alps feel very very nice. It's a very nice keyboard for having been free 
Anyway, I'd like to thank Fohat for helping out with the keycaps and also offering a very fair price for them with great service to boot 

[mougrim]

It sure looks nice! Haven't tried an orange Alps yet, but keen to

But it's a pity manufacturers used plastic that yellows IBM boards made in 80-s still white...

[fohat.digs]

Glad it worked out!

Orange Alps are my 2nd favorite after blue. In theory, the specs are similar to black, but they almost always feel much better.

Please don't start writing me for strange spacebars and odd parts, that one keyboard that I stripped was a one-time thing.

Apparently the yellowing culprit is bromine, added to ABS plastic for fire retardancy. The Apple factory must have gotten carried away with it in the late-1980s-early-1990s and added too much.

[hwood34]

Ooh, nice board! Just got one of my own recently as a donor board, but ended up keeping it (mostly) intact cause the quality and feel was so good.

[mr.squishy]

Glad it worked out!

Orange Alps are my 2nd favorite after blue. In theory, the specs are similar to black, but they almost always feel much better.

Please don't start writing me for strange spacebars and odd parts, that one keyboard that I stripped was a one-time thing.

Apparently the yellowing culprit is bromine, added to ABS plastic for fire retardancy. The Apple factory must have gotten carried away with it in the late-1980s-early-1990s and added too much.

Hahahah sure thing. And yeah, orange alps feel great! 

[nubbinator]

Glad it worked out!

Orange Alps are my 2nd favorite after blue. In theory, the specs are similar to black, but they almost always feel much better.

Please don't start writing me for strange spacebars and odd parts, that one keyboard that I stripped was a one-time thing.

Apparently the yellowing culprit is bromine, added to ABS plastic for fire retardancy. The Apple factory must have gotten carried away with it in the late-1980s-early-1990s and added too much.

Hahahah sure thing. And yeah, orange alps feel great! 

Alps in general are superior feeling to MX, IMO.  Linear Greens are the best linear switches I have used (aside from Alps SKFL switches), Orange Alps are awesome (and so are Brown Alps), and many prefer Blue Alps to MX Blues.  On that last one, I actually think click modded Orange Alps are better sounding and feeling than Blue Alps, but it's a preference thing. 

[mr.squishy]

Glad it worked out!

Orange Alps are my 2nd favorite after blue. In theory, the specs are similar to black, but they almost always feel much better.

Please don't start writing me for strange spacebars and odd parts, that one keyboard that I stripped was a one-time thing.

Apparently the yellowing culprit is bromine, added to ABS plastic for fire retardancy. The Apple factory must have gotten carried away with it in the late-1980s-early-1990s and added too much.

Hahahah sure thing. And yeah, orange alps feel great! 

Alps in general are superior feeling to MX, IMO.  Linear Greens are the best linear switches I have used (aside from Alps SKFL switches), Orange Alps are awesome (and so are Brown Alps), and many prefer Blue Alps to MX Blues.  On that last one, I actually think click modded Orange Alps are better sounding and feeling than Blue Alps, but it's a preference thing.

I've had an uneven experience with click modding orange alps. not all of them actually end up clicking when I put the switch back together. Is there a secret to get them even and uniform?

[nubbinator]

Not really.  You just have to futz with the leaf.  Sometimes part got a little bent and ruined the click.  Find a couple that click well and try to make all the leaves within that tolerance.  Some won't click well no matter what though.  The same thing happens with all clicky switches.  When I built a Kingsaver with Blues for ComradeSniper, some didn't have a click, some had a poor click, and they were kind of all over the place.  Fortunately, a majority were good.

[mr.squishy]

Not really.  You just have to futz with the leaf.  Sometimes part got a little bent and ruined the click.  Find a couple that click well and try to make all the leaves within that tolerance.  Some won't click well no matter what though.  The same thing happens with all clicky switches.  When I built a Kingsaver with Blues for ComradeSniper, some didn't have a click, some had a poor click, and they were kind of all over the place.  Fortunately, a majority were good.

Alright, thanks for the tips!

[nubbinator]

Just be careful.  Messing with the leaves too much can break them or get them out of spec enough that they ruin the feel.

[mr.squishy]

Just be careful.  Messing with the leaves too much can break them or get them out of spec enough that they ruin the feel.

Again, thanks for the tips. Do you know if there is a signature graphic for the M0116? Like, one of those cool little sprites I'm seeing in people's signatures, but for the M0116?

[hwood34]

Just be careful.  Messing with the leaves too much can break them or get them out of spec enough that they ruin the feel.

Again, thanks for the tips. Do you know if there is a signature graphic for the M0116? Like, one of those cool little sprites I'm seeing in people's signatures, but for the M0116?

Someone did one, but it got lost somewhere along the way. You should just be able to ask for one in the thread though. I guess I'll be needing one too now

[RoflCopter4]

Nice. IMHO the Orange Alps even rival buckling springs as far as the pure awesome feel goes, and I love their weighting. It's just perfect for my small but imprecise hands.