Help needed from IBM collectors/pros

[bazemk1979]

Just received today my IBM Silver metal logo with LED overlay made 1988, keyboard is in maculate condition, lil dusty underneath and only 1 broken rivet but there are few things that makes me wonder:

1. Numpad on right, the numbers and the legends are same Black color, while suitable for keyboard made this year is for the legends to be light/faded gray.

- On another note the enter key and the + key have the metal stabilizers which is very normal for that year but not normal for the color of the legends being also dark as the numbers.....

2. I thought that the square metal logo comes with the shiny colorfull metal plate? maeby the shiny metal back plate was made in year 86-87?

-I did small research on the sticker product number thats on the metal plate and it says part number: 1386085, lots of researches took me to cliky keyboards website and other websites and that number was related to the silver square logo.


Whats your opinion on this one, I'm confused about the numpad legends being dark gray color same as the numbers, but not quite sure if starting from 1988 silver logos has the normal back plate and not the shiny one....

Currently cleaning up the keyboard if you want any pics I can post them later, just let me know what you want to see.

EDIT: I compared some of the keys from the keys from the square logo vs some of my Lexmark Model M's and I can see that the legends,numbers,signs etc etc etc are thicker and not just dark gray but vs the Lexmark legends they look BLACK.....

[fohat.digs]

My 2 oldest Ms, a 1391401 and a 1390131 from 1986, both had the shiny yellowish heavy metal plates. The rest of my 1391401s up until about 1992 had the medium-heavy plates, and after that they got lighter. I have only owned about a dozen Ms total, so I am not as knowledgeable as others.

I had a long conversation with clickeykeyboards.com once when I ordered some keys. The salesman was very nice, and recommended that I actually send him photos of the keys I wanted.

In their nomenclature, there are light and dark gray, light and dark brown, and black. And, within those, there are variations of thickness of the letters.

Luckily, with photos, he was able to match me up quite well, but my recommendation would be to collect a matching set that you like, and don't stress over the "original" scheme because there may not really have been one. At least not consistently.

Personally, I think the light gray and light brown are the most attractive.

[bazemk1979]

Just finished cleaning up the board and reasembling it back together, here are the pics of the board and the keycaps.Noticed that the lettering on the keycaps are not the dark/charcoal grey, they are practically black, maeby thats why the color of the PGup,PGdn,home,end etc etc etc on the numpad is darker vs the white label logo. But I have also seen square logos with light-grey lettering on the numpad, or its just my eyes that fool me by looking into the pics. In general legends are noticable thicker than any pill badge shaped Model M or todays Unicomps.

[bazemk1979]

I'm curious though, the cord is in great shape, but a tad bit stretched, is there any trick into getting it back to its original tight curly shape? I tried twisting it inch by inch and it does shows results but would take lots of time to get it back to the factory shape.

[fohat.digs]

I got a wooden dowel about as big around as my little finger. I wrapped the cord around the dowel as tight and consistent as I could, then secured it.

Left it for a month. It was a lot better. Leaving it for a year, through hot-warm-cold-warm-hot cycles would be even better. 5 years better still.

Clean it well and put it on the dowel warm. Leave it in the sun for several hours, several times.

[didjamatic]

Nice board.  Silver metal logos are my favorite M's (other than Industrials with black square metal logo)

I would not recommend putting a cable intentionally in the sun, the UV is not good for plastic, rubber or much of anything.  Once in a while new cables come up on ebay but not so often for the black curly AT style.

[bazemk1979]

curly AT style black cable new ones are expensive, there is new one I found but  at pricey heft tag of $40 + not sure how much is shipping....

[REVENGE]

I support the dowel idea, you could heat it with a hair dryer or hot air gun. IIRC, this is how some of the professional IBM keyboard refurbishers do it.

[486]

I have a March 87 1391401 and it has a shiny metal backplate, greyish legends and blue tinted screws to hold the case together. This is usually uniform with all M's at about that time.

[bazemk1979]

I support the dowel idea, you could heat it with a hair dryer or hot air gun. IIRC, this is how some of the professional IBM keyboard refurbishers do it.

thanks buddy, much appreciated

I have a March 87 1391401 and it has a shiny metal backplate, greyish legends and blue tinted screws to hold the case together. This is usually uniform with all M's at about that time.

did some research previosly and seems all square logo boards that were made from year 1988 and up they idnt got the shiny metal plate, and as for the thick black lettering seems was common with the square logo.