deskthority

I work at a thrift shop and I get to see all of the cool stuff that gets donated to us before it goes out on the sales floor. This was one of those finds. After paying $1 for it, it does work (I'm typing on it right now) but it suffers the same problem that my clone Alps board has: worn out keys.

Several of the keys are either dirty or completely worn out. The A and S keys are temperamental and some of the keys either trigger a second after I press them or they register twice. Some of the keys are just completely worn out; the Delete key in this particular board simply will not work no matter how much force you put into it.

Anyone got cleaning and disassembly tips?

Most important tip: replace the black alps that are probably in it: they're gack

The black case is nice, and the Dell internals are first-rate.

I have one of those, and I transplanted orange Alps from an AEK into it and replaced the caps with beige PBT caps from an early AT101 (with beige ABS 1st-row caps from an AT101W).

To me, black caps on a beige board, and vice versa, look really sharp.

You are sure to see several beige ones come through for every black one.

Assuming you have a soldering iron, I’d recommend just replacing all of the switches. The easiest source for new switches is Matias, http://matias.ca/switches/ $50 for 200 switches. Both the quiet and clicky switches are IMO excellent. You might be able to find particular old Alps switches from other donor boards that you’d prefer, but it takes going through several 25–30 year old boards to find a set of switches in perfect condition, and trying several types to figure out what you like.

Congrats on getting it! I have a beige one with black alps as well, except I'm planning on switching with Matias switches.

They aren't bad boards, one of the few Alps with regular ANSI layout.

I have four of those soon. One black at home now and two more blacks and one beige on their way. Going to mod them and switch keycaps etc put one at work and have at least two different at home. The black one I have home now I just spray painted white. I've also made the Black Alps a lot more tactile and also clicky by switching over the tactile metal leaf from Matias switches over to the Dell board.

The beige ones in particular are going for fairly reasonable prices on eBay. I just got one to source modifier keycaps for my Matias-switch V60. Everything works except the spacebar stabilizer setup is different between the two boards; however, I will be getting a spacebar from Matias. I plan to use alpha and number keys from an IBM 5140. I don't plan to use the Dell AT101W as a keyboard, but I know someone locally who would like to use it. I like to see the older technology being utilized rather than simply being scrapped.

Hypersphere wrote: ↑ I like to see the older technology being utilized rather than simply being scrapped.

This is not old technology I was using one of these at the office for years (15?). My keys are also worn out and the space-bar stop working properly. I decided to test an IBM model m a couple of months ago. This was a one way only path ...