Don't have anything in terms of actual content, but I have 2 Realforce Uniform 30g coming in from Japan ($117 shipping from Rakuten :( Ouch!) and a Realforce 87U variable and by the end of this project will have a Realforce 87U in uniform 30g.
Update 1:
So the 30g Topre boards have arrived from Japan. Quicker than I expected them too. But I guess for the shipping cost, it had better be quick! Now to wait for my 87U to arrive, and then time to cut rubber! The Topre 30g boards I got a 108 key. They were the cheapest 30g boards I could find, and the extra keys are only useful in this case. I had almost forgotten how large full sized boards are compared to the tenkeyless I've been using so much recently. It's probably 3 times the surface area of my HHKB.
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Update 2:
My first 87U Variable arrived today so I jumped right into the work. I started with opening up the 108 board first. Figured this was my first time cracking open a Realforce, I should do it on the donor board first.
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Was happy to find the cable detaches very easily. Just a plug and a single screw and the PCB+Plate combo are loose.
Then come all the screws. There are soooo many screws. This is the pile from just the 108.
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Luckily the wholes are marked for which whole is a dark screw or a silver screw. The dark screws have an area of no thread towards the head of the screw while the silver ones are threaded the entire way.
I used a couple of cubes as a makeshift stand to keep the plate floating in the air upside down so all the switch casings were out.
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I used a cutting board and an X-acto knife to cut my cup rubber. The 108 didn't have LEDs in the switches for caps lock, etc., so I had to cut new wholes for those.
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And then I laid the springs in the rubber domes.
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Ooh shiny. And that's all for tonight! Tomorrow I put the PCB on face down, put all the screws back in and hope for the best. This one was pretty easy, as I just stole the sheet from the 108 board. However, I verified the 30/35g keys on a Topre Variable match my Uniform 30g (via Ripometer) which is what I was hoping for. Since there are 17 30g keys on a variable, I need to replace 70 switches. The two 108 boards total 216, which means I can do 3 boards, for only 2 donors. The last one is going to be the worst, since I won't have a sheet to use, and will be using individual rubber domes for pretty much the entire board. I should have 2 87U anniversary edition coming shortly, to complete the mod. Now the only question is, which one do I keep, the black or an anniversary?!
Update 3:
So from the picture above, I layed the PCB down on top. I double checked all the springs to make sure I didn't have 2 in any rubber dome because the springs stick together quite easily. I put in all the silver screws first, since there were less of them, and flipped the board over. Everything looked straight and smug so I put it all back together and I'm typing on it now! It feels greats and I'm finally not spamming typos because of the weird Japanese layout! I realize I didn't take any pictures in my excitement to put it all back together, but good news for anybody reading this is that I have 2 more of these to do and so I can get pictures then!
