deskthority

I already posted a search thread over on the marketplace about this, but I think a lot of people don't click on that for the specific question.

Does someone know if there's a enter/return key with wire stabilizer out there? I know there are left shift (Model F AT), backspace and right shift, which are all wire stabilized, but I never saw an enter/return key with it. IBM did put some plastic tabs on the plate where the wire will be put in for the enter/return key, so it must exist right?

If someone knows anything about it, I would be more then happy to know, as I think it would be quite cool to have a Model F with full wire stabilized keys. I think the feeling of those is superior to the barrel inserts. At least that's my experience with the F122.

Thanks!

Very early M's had wire stablisers on all (wide) keys

They then switched to the inserts

There may be a wire stabilized ANSI Enter but I would be inclined to bet against it. I can't remember seeing one, but I will look in my jar of spares.

Certainly the Left Shift keys in particular are very hard to find and always in highest demand. The F AT had a few keys not found elsewhere that are extremely desirable, but nobody in his right mind would scrap an AT for its caps.

The ISO-style Enter, and/or the bigass, I can't remember, had 2 stabilizer wires at 90 degrees to each other, so the horizontal tabs between Enter and Right Shift may have been to accommodate them.

It seems like I need a very early Model M then if that's the case. That will be a problem though I think. If that really has all wire.

I'm kind of sure that the ISO enter was stabilized only with the two plastic things on the right, so only one wire. At least on my F122 I had. That's why I wonder if there's an ANSI return to find.

And yeah, it seems like I need to find an AT. It's not that bad though, as you can easily put a normal left shift with barrel insert in the AT. It doesn't loose it's functionality.

Edit: Just saw that you also mentioned big-ass enter, that's true I think. But the F122 has this plastic clips as well, and those never came with big-ass enter. Well but maybe they have those clips because of the big-ass enter. That would be quite sad, hopefully those early Model M's have one.

hammelgammler wrote: ↑
It seems like I need a very early Model M then if that's the case. That will be a problem though I think.

And you know that M wires are thicker and don't fit in the narrower "mouths" of the F tabs?

fohat wrote: ↑

hammelgammler wrote: ↑
It seems like I need a very early Model M then if that's the case. That will be a problem though I think.

And you know that M wires are thicker and don't fit in the narrower "mouths" of the F tabs?

Oh, that's really a problem then. But maybe orihalcon can made some custom wires for the enter key too, as he made some spacebar M to F adapter wires. I don't know how much work this is, but it's certainly possible.

Wcass made some 2-size wires by bending the thinner wire for the whole, small at the keyboard side, and slipping tubes of larger diameter on the ends at the keycap side to fit there.

fohat wrote: ↑ but nobody in his right mind would scrap an AT for its caps.

<< Scraped an XT for caps , but in my defense the case was fucked and the plate was so rusty the tabs fell off .

I have three ANSI enter keys with wire stabilizers. They are 2.25u keys from old apple keyboards with keystems that fit Alps switches.

Hammelgammler is specifically looking for IBM keys though..

On topic though, I did not know that the earliest Model Ms were entirely wire-stabilized, I'd be very interested in seeing such a specimen.

Pretty sure ANSI enters never came with wire stabilisers on Model Ms. Even my '85 1388032 has rod stabilisers on the enter key IIRC.

I have a January 13, 1986 standard Model M and it does NOT have a wire stabilizer on the Enter key.

Thanks for the clarifications, I have a few Model Ms from '86 and '87 myself but I thought that perhaps the very very early ones might have been entirely wire-stabilized.

IBM was strange like that, I used to think only early M's had the square silver badge. Not so:

clickykeyboards wrote: ↑The latest silver label model M's that I recall were from 1996.

https://web.archive.org/web/20141011225 ... /id/156756

posting.php?mode=quote&f=2&p=314740

seebart wrote: ↑
I used to think only early M's had the square silver badge.

Those weird 1390131s from 1996 were a strange aberration and it was likely a very short run for a specific purpose.

According to clickykeyboards they were not "real" 1390131s and did not have the heavy plates.

OK well at least that was an exception then. But who knows how many other "exceptions" there were?

Yes, those 1390131s are very unusual indeed. I wonder what the reason for making these were. Weren't 1391401s phased out around this time as well?

emdude wrote: ↑
I wonder what the reason for making these were.

Almost surely a special important customer who needed more and insisted that they match the ones already in place.