deskthority

A recent board I picked up for my collection. I have a thing for business keyboards that have custom keys. This one has quite a few unique keys. Cleaned it up today and gave it a health check. Had six missing rivets but the keyboard typed and worked just fine so I just installed screws on the ...

Sounds like you have had a hell of a time with this keyboard the last few days. My guess it's more likely the keys malfunctioning than the membrane. I would look closely at the springs and pivot plates. Also check seating issues with the spring and keycap. Defiantly don't want to over tighten the ...

Ellipse wrote: 02 Oct 2025, 21:19 Major project milestone:

Today the keyboard projects passed $4 million in total orders!

Congratulations. A lot of work to get there.

Normally if there is key to give me a problem its the large shift key then followed by the enter key above it. Alignment issues. Probably more common with later Lexmark and Unicomp keys. Who knows maybe IBM keys had their issues also but had better quality control and never left the plant.

Guessing maybe heat? Does the interior of the van get warm in the summer months? I live in Arizona and temperatures could deform plastic. I have had a few keys that were never right from new. Some defect on the key that would cause issues. Normally after I get a set of keys to work with a board I'm ...

It's a rite of passage to replace the foam on a Model F keyboard. Haha.

Oh, something will come along. Nice board. I have one myself (6110344 May 85).

The sub-legends aren't as black as the numbers in your photo. I own early boards with that color variant. Later keys under Lexmark and Unicomp is when you would find all black on the keys. Wouldn't want to find those on a 131 board seeing they probably wouldn't be original to the board and had been ...

I have to agree it appears to be clean in the barrels, but the foam does appear to be breaking down on that top edge in your first photo.
Just not much to fail on these robust model F boards. Hopefully someone else might know more about this issue. Otherwise I think you might have to open it up for ...

Have you looked down the barrels to see what the foam condition is like. I own one of these myself and the foam was in terrible shape. Debris was in the barrels causing issues with the flappers. That is a common issue with Model F keyboards.

Very nice collection! Thanks for sharing.

Looks good. I like the red command keys and blue arrow keys the most.

This weekend I clean up a IBM Model M 1394412. From my research on the part number it seems to be kind of rare.
Has an interesting key layout and keys. Here some photos.

Thank you for sharing and keep up the great work.

Hopefully these keyboards can stay relevant and useful for another 40 years. Who knows what technology will be like
but I'm sure someone will interface a Model M somehow just for the hell of it.

My Unicomp Mini M was doing the same thing a few years ago but I thought that was corrected back then. What year is the board? My Mini M is a 2022. I had to send it back to Unicomp and have a controller replaced or software installed on the controller. Can't remember. Yea it's a annoying issue.

Nice collection. Haven't got into the typewriters yet and think I should just stay away. At least for now.

Very nice. Done a few myself. Takes some extra patience and little more effort on the Model F.

At least that's the way I feel about working on Model F's.

Well I think you're going to need a lot of patience on this order. If it's even possible at all with Unicomp. Most key caps I have received from Unicomp are the single piece variant. Seeing you want a standard color your chances for two piece caps are probably better.

Good luck.

Tech Time Traveller just put out a video on keyboards. Good Watch

https://youtu.be/P7Em_cHUkRY?feature=shared

Someone on eBay has been selling some of those alternative keycaps. I grabbed a red Total key and a solid black numpad Enter key.


Yea, he was parting them out and I was like these keys should stay together. I purchased the remaining keys out of two boards so I
could make one complete board. I ...

fohat wrote: 18 May 2025, 00:02 Absolutely cool!

And the 1390131 is the best Model M, in my opinion.

I agree. Most solid Model M.

Two of these keyboards were found in this configuration from 1987. Point of sale keyboards at some hardware store or something. All the custom keys are two piece versions. This keyboards part number is a standard 1390131 (ID# 3121665, 15th May 87). Very interesting layout.

Best Regards.

Current work setup. Have the keyboard setup to for Quick Books.

Has anyone seen these black keys. Found two sets on ebay that were taken off Model M keyboards used in the late 80's on a
point of sale terminal. I bought all the keys to recreate the layout which I will do at a later time. Had some ...

Figured you'd end up having to tear it apart again. Been there done that. Glad its working for you now.

Looks like some kind of dielectric grease to me. Somebody probably just trying to protect it from corrosion.

Very nice! Like the setup.

Defiantly a 180 DIN plug in the link Sharktastica. So he should be good if that is what he ordered.

Green Maned Lion wrote: 24 Apr 2025, 20:27 Thanks; is there a reason to premptively bolt mod?

I think so with the environment you're planning on using it in.

Sounds like you need the DIN 240 adapter. Looks like that M122 board came with a 240 DIN cable. I know nothing about Macs.

I own several Unicomps (6) and I feel the same way as you. I normally daily a modern Unicomp at work seeing I'm in a dirty environment at my trailer repair shop. Hard on keyboards. At the moment I've been using a 1994 model M with a speaker in it here at work (51G8572). Gave my Unicomp a break. I ...