Make room for me and my mech

[alh84001]

Hi all.

Since my first mech keyboard arrived in the mail today, this is as good as time to introduce myself as any. I'm from Europe, so if anyone has to share any downsides and upsides related to this fact, please do.

Full disclosure, and this might (should?) get me banned. I actually had another mech keyboard before the one I got today. I got it from a friend's mother who worked as an accountant and she got this old computer stashed away and when I saw the keyboard I immediately took it, even though I knew nothing about it. Then it collected a dust a couple of years, and then finally last year I decided to clean it, and possible retr0bright it. However as I was taking the keys off, I broke the little thingies that attach the metal stabilisers to the keycap on Enter and I believe Tab key. I was frustrated by this and didn't know this place existed, and thought I could never get spare keys and threw everything in the trash. :facepalm: I regret that to this day. Physically, the keyboard looked like an IBM Model M (it had that cut on right and left side of the board if you know what I mean), only it yellowed quite a bit, and it had white ALPS switches. It also had a "dtk" brand.

Well, no sense looking back on this. Today my model M, that I snatched on ebay the other day, arrived, as well as some bling keycaps from Unicomp. More on that one in the next post, as soon as I take some pictures.

[alh84001]

OK. So about this model M and my first impressions.

 - it's not as loud as I expected it to be
 - the space bar though sounds completely different and is quite loud when bottomed out
 - the keys are not that hard to press as I expected (maybe when I type on it for longer periods of time, my opinion will change)
 - the keycap tops are somewhat smaller compared to the laptop keyboards I'm used to (thinkpad and especially macbook pro)
 - for all I've read about this keyboard, I didn't know that keycaps are composed of two parts and the legend part is actually really easy to swap (as seen from the pictures, I already pimped it up, but I might return to stock keycaps); or is this meant when saying that keyscaps are double shot? I always thought this meant the two parts are fused together as well
 - I also ordered the switched ctrl/capslock keycaps; I think I'll remap capslock to ctrl and left ctrl to super key
 - as you can see, the label is completely scratched off, so I need some knowledgable people to help me narrow down the exact model; based on the SDL connector I guess it's at least 20 years old, and for that age it looks really, really great; would opening it up give some more information? Though from looking at the screw (with my european eyes, mind you), it seems like a special tool will be needed
 - picked this one on ebay for $60 + free shipping; I would say I got a good deal, no?
 - '+' key on the numpad often gets stuck when pressed  ; luckily, I don't use the numpad at all (hoping to get the SSK one day; or maybe order that 62-key model F replica :drool:)
 - shift keys are somewhat "sticky" to press when applying pressure on their edges, especially when not pressing them for a while

I only have two quarters and two dimes on me right now, and according to US mint these together have some 15 grams, so I can't test the switch. Change is always hard to come by when you need it the most. 

[rowdy]

Welcome to Geekhack!

A nice keyboard you have - a touch of colour makes a huge difference to it too

The Model M is a lot louder than most mechanical keyboards, although depending on what kinds of noise you are accustomed to it might seem quieter than expected.  Still loud enough for me to receive complaints from someone at work.

The space bar is probably louder as there is a lot more plastic to bounce up and down.  You might (carefully!) check that the stabiliser wire is still in place properly.

Perhaps you like stiffer switches   I like MX blacks and greens, so buckling springs are, to me, nothing excessive.

If you remove a keycap and place it up a laptop key, you might find the bottom is about the same size, but the top is a little smaller, yes.  That seems to be fairly common with most mechanical keycaps, in contradistinction to laptop keyboards that are usually scissor switch, and hence have low profile keycaps.

Not all Model M keycaps are two piece.  I have some of each.  And no, they are not doubleshot.  "Just" dyesub (so they won't wear out).

I'll let someone else chime in with identification )

To open the Model M you'll just need a 7/32" (5.5mm) precision nut driver.  You can get one from Clicky Keyboards, but you'll probably find something similar on eBay much cheaper: http://www.clickykeyboards.com/index.cfm/fa/items.main/parentcat/33739/subcatid/0/id/105901

$60 ... maybe good, if it is in good condition, clean, with all keycaps and cable.  I got my first two for AUD$31 combined, but they were both missing cables and both missing a few keycaps.

The + on the numpad should have a stabiliser insert in the second barrel.  Sometimes that can become slightly misaligned.  You can try popping the keycap and wriggling the insert a little bit.  Be careful that the spring is seated properly when replacing the keycap.  Same for the Shift keys.

There is also a post your buckling spring keyboard thread.  If you post the pics there, a few more people might see it and be able to help with identification.

[alh84001]

Thanks on the warm welcome!

I think I will leave spacebar and plus sign alone for now, keeping in mind what happened the last time I disassembled a keyboard.  The first one works like a charm so no need to fix it. The other one I don't use anyway.

Perhaps I do like stiffer switches, but I think that it might be down to me not using a mechanical keyboard before, so I need to get used to not having to bototm out all the time. My WASD with cherry brown is in the mail, so I will have something to compare it to. They ran out of clears the day before I placed an order. This would have been cool as well, since that would be closer to IBM's keyboard and would provide a more "fair" comparison between the two.

The keyboard was all clean, almost shiny, with cable and all the caps in place. Since I'm in the US for a limited amount of time, this was a nice one to grab. Supply here is so much better, and shipping the 2kg brick across the ocean is not a cheap thing to do

Thanks on all the info, it's been really helpful.

[rowdy]

Nothing wrong with bottoming out all the time

In fact about the only keyboard I don't bottom out on all the time is my CODE with MX clears.