deskthority

Hello.

I recently bought this late IBM Model M from a Swedish auction site.
But when I got the parcel it showed signs of shipping damage and when I unpacked it I discovered a big piece missing in a corner.
And when I lifted it out from the box the whole thing almost separated. It made me a little sad because I always wanted to have a nice Model M in my collection.





Now to my question. Is it worth repairing? And if so, what is the best method to use?

Why not fix it, looks perfectly fine other than the chip out of the case. If you have the piece I would just glue it back on but take the top case off with a 5.5mm nut driver first so you don't glue the clip to the case.

You should first check to make sure that the keys around that area work. The second thing to check is if the plastic rivets around that area are broken off. It'd ruin your day if you have a back plate that's bent or a barrel plate that's cracked.

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I had a 6+ inch (4.21 terrawatts in metric) crack in a Model M 122 bottom case and one of the screw mounts was broken off. I asked here for the best stuff to repair it with. The answer was JB Weld original (also on Amazon and probably in most hardware stores). This works EXTREMELY well, but note that it dries grey, so you'd want to do the repair from inside the case. Use as little as possible. Follow the directions closely.

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You can get a brand new case for $30 US on Unicomp's website. However, you should contact them first to make sure your keyboard's core fits. You can also get some caps ("buttons") to replace your missing ones.

If you happen to have the plastic chip out of there, I'd recommend using super glue. In my experience it works well for this kind of repair on plastic, and if you don't use too much it'll be very very hard to even notice.

However, if you don't have that chip, then hellothere's recommendation of JB Weld sounds like a good solution since it adds material. For a screw post I think this was also good because it could reinforce the repair with extra material. Though that's less relevant here. If you're careful you could try texturing it while wet and then sand and imperfections when dry and paint the area with a matching color to make it less obvious than the gray. (Though I doubt it'll be invisible.)

There is also a baking soda and superglue method for building up material, which I have used for something and I know TechTangents on YouTube has done some good videos on it. You could look into that, though IMO I think JB Weld would probably be easier to work with for this and stronger.

My only problem with the JB Weld was that I wasn't as neat as I could have been and some of the grey goo got on the outside of the case. It took a lot of scrubbing and light sanding to get it off. The inside of the case has grey goo up and down the cracks, but I'll only see it until I finish a bolt mod.

JB Weld is really strong. I don't think I could re-break the case in the same place.

FWIW, I just (well, a few hours ago) got in a Modem M 122 that has the same crack as Explorer's, but on the right side of the keyboard. Unfortunately, I don't have the plastic that was broken off. However, the keys in that area seem to work fine and the board has NO missing plastic rivets.