Silver Reed Typewriter [Dome and Slider]

User avatar
zrrion

11 Aug 2018, 08:10

Picked up a typewriter at goodwill today because it had nice caps, the switch feel was interesting, and the dust cover was intact. I'm typing on MX brown at the moment and I honestly prefer everything about these domes as they are louder, more tactile, and bottom out softer.
There's another thread on here that talks about this switch and I think that they are spot on in their analysis of it.

If you remove a cap you must remove the housing to put the cap back on since otherwise the slider travels far enough into the housing that not enough is exposed for the cap to be properly inserted. Fortunately removal of the housing/slider assembly is super simple and after that you can put everything back pretty easily. However since the domes are on a sheet you need to take care to put the switch housing back in correctly or the domes will not line up and won't be tactile. I am assuming that they would not register either but I am no longer able to test this as I have removed the keyboard assembly form the typewriter.

EDIT: As requested here is a video of me typing a little bit on this keyboard.
Here's some pics of what it looked like when I got it:
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A look at that glorious enter:
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The badge on the thing is actually over top of another cooler badge that I only discovered after scratching it a lot. The badge on the dust cover was still in good shape and had the better font and cool logo so I managed to peel that one off without any trouble.
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Here's the thing with the housing/slider assemblies removed, dust cover badge included:
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Sorted the parts to clean them only to find that they were all very clean. I think they might have had a small amount of lube on the sliders to keep the two plastic parts of the slider from rubbing too harshly but it was hard to tell for sure and I may have just been imagining things.
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And here's the final product. Caps cleaned and back on:
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and the chips on the back for those interested:
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I haven't removed the circuitry that comes on this thing yet, but when I do I will see about reverse engineering the matrix for eventual conversion. It honestly types very well. I managed to clean and salvage the front beige section and I think mounting this in a case and reusing that section as the top of the case would make for a pretty cool keyboard. Of course I'll have to retorbrite the beige part as the yellowing is uneven (it isn't yellow at all under the rubber goo) and the blue caps could use some retrobrite as well as they've yellowed into a weird grey-blue. I'm not sure what to do about the switch and the power light but I'll probably figure that out when I get there.
Last edited by zrrion on 12 Aug 2018, 18:28, edited 1 time in total.

JimRes

11 Aug 2018, 15:03

zrrion wrote:
12 Aug 2018, 02:20
I'll continue benefiting from Spam and see what I can do about a video. I'm unsure if I can keep background noise down but I'll see what I can do.
Yeah, those caps look like they're in excellent condition. I wish I could get a feel of how they type. Any chance of a video, Zrrion?


[Moderator's note: ancient spam denied!]
Last edited by JimRes on 19 May 2022, 14:30, edited 2 times in total.

User avatar
zrrion

12 Aug 2018, 02:20

I'll see what I can do about a video. I'm unsure if I can keep background noise down but I'll see what I can do.

User avatar
zrrion

12 Aug 2018, 18:28

Here you go:

User avatar
Sangdrax

12 Aug 2018, 18:48

That has an incredibly nice typing sound. And it looks like the controller board is simple to just straight remove and swap with a teensy loaded with QMK or something.

User avatar
zrrion

12 Aug 2018, 20:37

Yeah, it looks like the 2 ribbon cables on the side lead to the matrix and to the switch/leds so conversion should be relatively straightforward. It feels as good to use as it sounds which is nice too.

sitase

04 Oct 2019, 11:08

Not MX compatible, right?

Findecanor

04 Oct 2019, 11:40

I think the mount is more like Topre.

User avatar
zrrion

04 Oct 2019, 12:56

They are not even remotely similar to topic sliders. I haven't looked at the sliders recently, but IIRC the caps are SKCC compatible. I suspect they would fit M9 switches (haven't checked, won't be able to for a few days) but they do not work on MX.

adueppen

30 Apr 2021, 03:04

How did you take apart the typewriter? I inherited one of these recently and I quite like it, but I need to do some work inside and can't seem to figure out how to remove the platen knobs.

User avatar
zrrion

30 Apr 2021, 06:50

It has been forever since I have had this thing apart. I do not remember how I took that off.

andresteare

30 Apr 2021, 17:46

what the hell, they sound freaking amazing lol

adueppen

04 May 2021, 06:02

zrrion wrote:
30 Apr 2021, 06:50
It has been forever since I have had this thing apart. I do not remember how I took that off.
That's fine, about 15 minutes later I ended up figuring out that what looked like rivets on the platen rod were actually small hex screws.

I do have another question though, how were you able to remove the switch housings from the board? I can't seem to find a way to do it that doesn't involve bending back the metal bits holding the keyboard housing to the PCB which seems like something I'd probably manage to screw up.

User avatar
zrrion

04 May 2021, 06:37

the top housings just clip in to the top plate, you can unclip them from the top and pull the housing out that way. if yours don't clip into the plate in that way it would be unusual

User avatar
zrrion

14 Dec 2021, 06:26

Update while I'm thinking about these again: the 4 blue caps on the bottom row are 1 1/8 units wide. No idea why they're that short. The 2 black caps on the bottom row are 1 1/4u wide which is considerably more typical. weird stuff all around with these typewriters

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