2 months into the keyboard hobby I found 60% layout to be ideal for me and about 4 months into it I was lucky enough to find an SSK at an electronic surplus warehouse and try buckling springs for the first time. Also obtained a Model F AT at the same warehouse and instantly became hooked. Since then it's been my dream to own a Kishsaver (the perfect marriage of 60% layout, capacitive BS switch, and rock solid metal casing).
After a futile 7-8 month search through various e-waste facilities and surplus warehouses I put up a WTB in the classifieds for the Kishsaver, to which ninjadoc kindly replied, and yesterday I received my dream board in the mail. I honestly believe this is the last keyboard I'll ever buy.
I'll be documenting my restoration in this thread. I apologize for the ****ty picture quality. Using a 3 year old smartphone as that's the only camera I have. I'm using the following logs as a guide:
https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=75722.0 (thanks pr0ximity)
https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=63267.0 (thanks Pyrelink)
Before:
The case is in pretty good condition. There are maybe 5-6 chips in the paint, with 2 large ones on both bottom corners. I will be keeping the original paint for now, just clean it up a bit. One significant issue is that the whole top of the case curves a bit towards the middle. This is the one thing I won't be able to do myself, and will be looking for a shop to straighten out for me.
Plate Assembly:
As you can see there's major corrosion on the plate. I've never taken any F's apart past this stage so it was definitely a butthole clenching moment. It was nowhere near as bad as expected though. As noted in many restoration logs, out of the 7 tabs, I just had to flip the right corner tab up, then slide the top and bottom plates in opposite directions. Once that was done, I was greeted by this:
I was praying that the foam mat would be in decent condition, but it was not meant to be. Large chunks of the foam ripped off even when carefully removing the barrels:
much of the foam was stuck onto the plate and was difficult to remove:
the stabilizer clips were much easier to pop out using fohat's great advice here:
https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=63267.msg1482912#msg1482912. I just used a small flat-head screw driver, inserted it in the slit in the back of the clips and slowly pushed them out. From what I can tell they all popped out without damage.
plate freed:
all parts laid out:
One of the barrels was broken. Luckily I have a spare AT lying around that I can take a barrel from.
Cleaning the barrels using denture tabs which always gave me good results for keycaps:
I decided to clean the plate of corrosion by soaking it in white vinegar based on the good results livingspeedbump got here:
https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=77644.0.
that's as far as I got today. I'll be checking in on the plate in a few hours and in the meantime researching which foam material to use, deciding on paint color (I'll probably just use rustoleum paint for the plate), and looking into shops that can straighten out the metal case. ninjadoc also sent me an xwhatsit controller which I'll be installing last.