This entire thread is interesting in that IBM essentially went through the same process in developing the model F and model M keyboards. The IBM Wiki by ch_123 located at
http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=IBM+Wiki explains the progression from typewriter to keyboard rather well. I wonder though if using one of the old Selectric typewriters would make a decent keyboard. The thing is, since it uses the electrical actuators, would that be a better typewriter for this kind of conversion? Isn't that what IBM did? Aren't the keys interchangable with IBM AT, F, or M keyboards? Could I possibly use a model M controller board to somehow get it to connect to a computer? Hmm.
I wrote a lot of term papers on that old ugly assed puke green IBM Selectric so it would be a pretty neat project to have sitting on my desk. Of course, I would repaint it if I did decide to undergo that conversion. The IBM Selectric I had used the "golf ball" mechanism to type characters on paper. It was actually Frankenseined together from 3 seperate units my father found on the side of the road. We think they were bought through auction from the Clark County School District, Las Vegas, and thrown out because they didn't work. In fact, none of them would even power on, so he spent an entire day taking them all apart to see how they were supposed to function, tracing wires, looking at the actuators and motor assemblies etc. After that he took another day to swap parts back and forth between them untill he finally had one complete working typewriter. My father was not an especially brillient individual, but he could figure out the mechanical end of things that still dumbfound me.
I used that typewriter all the way from high school where it was used to type reports and term papers, and later when I went to college, I took it with me, where it was used extensively by me and several roomies all doing our homework, writing letters or in one case writing a book. (No, not me, one of my roomies wrote a book during college and actually got it published)
My brother and sister weren't too pleased that the typewriter went away to college with me because they both thought they would get to use it as they started going to high school. We were not very well off money wise so they were even more upset that when my father got them a replacement. It was a used mechanical monster that my sister still has. That's all my parents could afford, and they got that one at a pawn shop for all of $10.00.
The really neat part is that I still have the Selectric, and it still works. It's been a long time since I last used it. I doubt the ribbon is any good though. Durable?!?! Hell yes! Since my father rebuilt it, there must be about 6 or 7 thousand pages that have passed through the rollers.
Oh, and BTW... If anyone is interested, sorry. No, I don't want to sell it.