Harvesting keyboards / electric typewriters keycaps for IBM Model M Keyboard

[babuinix]

Has topic says, what would be good Keyboards/Electric Typewriters that i could harvest with keys so i could use on my model M.

Im from Europe / Portugal so buying them gest costly cause of shipping fees.

I know model Model M2 is also buclking springs and maybe same keys, how about this ones:


or


For instance this typewritter, could i harvest those keycaps? whats the mechanism beneath?



Could get this for 10/15 bucks for example.

Thx in advance.

[BlueBär]

Buckling spring keycaps are fairly unique and the only other keycaps that I know of that should fit are the ones from the IBM Wheelwriter, see this topic: http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=41516.0
However you can get some new caps from Unicomp for a low price.

[babuinix]

Thx, theres some preety good info there.

[babuinix]

So i managed to get this IBM typewritter for 10€ with some interesting keycaps.



Harvested some of the keycaps to use on the model m and star dye experementing eventualy.

Before:



After some changes:





Among the noticeble changes with the white enter/caps/shifts/arrows/backspace is the replacement of the G & H that are from the typewritter and are slightly bolder letters, giving it a nice nuance omage to GeekHack

X was also replaced cause yeah...

Will try and hunt a Model M2 for the all white Fkeys.

Now what to do with the rest of the Typewritter? what more parts should i harvest? Maybe the springs just in case i need some replacements in the future?

The key next to scroll lock that looks like and antena is the key used to change from speakers to headphones and vice-versa, the tab+/tab- regulates the volume, Esc key is used as windows key, as a gamer using the Pause/Break key  in escape makes perfect sense .

[jacobolus]

If you take apart some Wheelwriters to use the keycaps on Model Ms, would you mind sending me the "Code" keys (I’ll pay a few bucks)? Not right away, but at some point I’d like to try to make a custom layout buckling spring keyboard with split spacebars, and that seems like the perfect size/shape keycap.

(Also, it doesn’t really fit anywhere on a Model M.)

[luisbg]

If you take apart some Wheelwriters to use the keycaps on Model Ms, would you mind sending me the "Code" keys (I’ll pay a few bucks)? Not right away, but at some point I’d like to try to make a custom layout buckling spring keyboard with split spacebars, and that seems like the perfect size/shape keycap.

(Also, it doesn’t really fit anywhere on a Model M.)

What was the 'Code' key for? I feel like I should know this.

[babuinix]

Anyone knows if this keycaps are model M compatible?

[fohat.digs]

The Selectric is an altogether different beast.

M2 keys will not interchange properly with standard M keys, although the stems are shaped the same.

Perhaps if you did the entire function row it would look OK.