I bought a Model M on eBay a couple of months ago. A few days later, the seller wrote: "Sorry I'm late shipping this. I'm sending it out tomorrow, and I'm giving you a 2nd keyboard for free."
"Thanks," I said, "but what kind is it? If it's not one I can use, you may as well save the postage."
"It's a QIC, model SK-8802B-1U", she replied. "It's beige and clicky." Well, we all know
beige and
clicky are good, but I'd never heard of QIC. I looked online, but couldn't find a single reference to QIC or the model number.
When the keyboards arrived, I saw she'd been correct about the 2nd one:
...but it was covered with greasy grime, as though it'd been used in a machine shop or garage:
When I opened it, I found it was actually a Silitek SK-8802B-1, which they'd apparently made for for an obscure OEM. I was pleased to see it had vintage Cherry MX Blue switches, and it tested perfectly, so it was up to me to make it useful again.
I put it away for a while, then took it out again yesterday. The inside was even grimier than the outside. It'd obviously been around a smoker, for greasy cigarette residue was congealed around every component on the PCB (I decided to spare you a photo of that. It boggles my mind that people put this sticky brown gunk inside their
lungs... I don't know about you, but seeing one board like this would make me a non-smoker for life!)
I slipped off the key buttons—Cherrys buttons are refreshingly easy to remove, aren't they?—and soaked them in warm water and liquid laundry soap for half an hour, stirring every 10 minutes (complete instructions included for noobs, which I was not too long ago).
Meanwhile, I got busy with some alcohol, Q-Tips and small brushes, and an hour later:
I washed the case with dish soap. I sprayed a few stubborn spots with Windex, gave it a minute to work, then wiped them clean with a paper towel. (Paper towels and rags are better than Kleenex or TP, which are too soft.) I let the key buttons dry overnight, then reassembled:
There are pen marks on a few keys, but they don't bother me.
As you can see, this board has the single-width Backspace and "big-ass" Enter. I never understood why some people disliked them so much. I use my ring finger for Backspace, not my pinky (I find it a more natural movement—try it!); and because Backspace is the last key in the row, I find it by feeling its upper right corner. So to me, there's no difference between 1u and 2u. And okay, you have an Enter you can press not just from the Home row, but from the row
above it. (That's obviously why it has two stabilizers.) How can that be a bad thing?
By sheer coincidence, another one of these
just appeared on eBay with a BIN price of $20 or Best Offer (so, like, $15?) plus shipping. Yep, for a board with vintage Cherry Blues—and it looks a lot cleaner than mine was!
