Model M keyboard Steampunked

[Bodibo]

http://www.datamancer.net/keyboards/ergo1/ergo1.htm

[secularzarathustra]

Wow, I can't tell if I like this or the original steampunk board (the one made from a model M) better.

Of course the original is made from an M

[itlnstln]

They did a fantastic job with this board.  I don't know, though, if I can appreciate it as much since they took one more rare Model M15 (which I would give my eye teeth for) out of the wild (at least in its original incarnation).  I wish Unicomp would revive the M15.  

[lowpoly]

Amazing work. It has a downward slope, which will work perfectly together with the touchpad. Someone knew exactly what he/she was doing from an ergonomic point of view.

I see that it's controversial to start with such a rare 'board but it's also cool as hell.

[secularzarathustra]

as long as it works, though, it's still the same board...

[Bodibo]

They did a fantastic job with this board.  I don't know, though, if I can appreciate it as much since they took one more rare Model M15 (which I would give my eye teeth for) out of the wild (at least in its original incarnation).  I wish Unicomp would revive the M15.  

You can buy them from him (http://www.datamancer.net/keyboards/keyboardfaq.htm) for $1200 - $1500, so you can keep your teeth.

[lowpoly]

That price is for a standard Model M. This one will cost a lot more.

[itlnstln]

No, I want an unmodified M15.  I would like the ability to customize the angle and height of the tilt.  That, and I am more of a modern guy (which doesn't really explain my affinity for old keyboards ).  Truthfully, I can find many other things I would rather spend that kind of money on.  I love quality keyboards, but I have a hard time justifying > $100 on one, though.

[philodox]

First post on the forums, though I've been reading around here the last few days.

I've been looking at these as well, but the price is a little out of my range.  I don't think he actually uses Model M keyboards in his mods regularily... something new from Cherry or Unicomp would be my guess.  If you look around on his site, he has some monitor and full system mods as well which are pretty cool.  My favourite is the 'Sojourner' keyboard.  Love the script labeled keys.

Found a couple possibly rare Model Ms here at work and have been using one at my desk for the last little while.  Will likely start a thread about them once they've been cleaned up.  I love the feel of them as I've gotten used to the response from the 122-key version that we use on our IBM iSeries terminal at work.

[iMav]

The steampuck keyboards look cool...but I would never want to have to use one on a regular basis.

I agree with itlnstln that it is a shame they took a M15 out of circulation.  Those are classics.

[xsphat]

I think it's time for something new, like gothic, cyberpunk, James Bond, horror or noir themed designs. Steampunk has it's place, but there are other ways to do things, that and nonworking gears are only cool for so long before they just look stupid.

[philodox]

He does some gothic designs as well for what it's worth.  By 'nonworking gears' I assume you mean the Industrial design?  Not a big fan of that one either.  I do think that the Sojourner is gorgeous though.

[xsphat]

Yeah, they are pretty. I don't like the one with bolts for keys and I don't like when there is a window where you can see gears on, say, an LCD monitor when there aren't even gears in the device. That gothic PC is pretty cool, didn't know about that one. I'm quite the opposite of a Jesus freak, but I can appreciate that PC.

[CaptCarrot]

that looks well cool that

[wellington1869]

lol secularzarathustra, i liked the little note you left for me on the archery2000 leaderboard  Hahahahahaha

[DesktopJinx]

The Datamancer Ergo is beautiful, but it also makes me cry.

All that custom work on all those keyboards, though, makes me wonder if it's not outside that craftsman's skill set to actually build an M15 workalike out of a couple of new Unicomp donors... imagine the M15 hinge rendered in brass...