deskthority

So cool, except that it's quite dirty and the cable is falling off. The paper is a cheat sheet for Word Perfect haha. Ctrl is at the right place too!

Any suggestions for how to clean it up?

I usually start removing all the keys and bathing them with dish soap in hot water

Dish soap sounds like a good idea. Sixty found some swell stuff - have to see if there's something similar here..

Looks like it's been damp at some point too. I'd check the innards for corrosion and mould growth/residue. Stuff like that will come off the plastic fine with a soft detergent solution and some elbow grease. If I found something that looked in that condition though it'd be in for a complete dismantle/clean/rebuild.

Good luck!

Gloves and denture cleaning tabs for the keys.

Nice find, by the way!

The common way: isopropyl alcohol.
Gently rub with a dampened cloth and while still moist wipe away with another, clean cloth. Repeat if necessary.
Do not rub labels, though, as it might dissolve printing ink.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isopropyl_alcohol

Concerning Germany, don't know hot it is elsewhere:
Isopropyl alcohol is mostly sold in a 70% concentration. Instead, buy it at your local pharmacy (100%, sometines they sell a 96% solution) for something like 3-4 Euro for 300 ml, that will be enough for lots and lots and lots of stuff.

Very nice find.

Check out some of my disassembly pics here -

http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Island:6580

These are easy enough to completely dismantle. First, remove all four screws on the back. Rest the keyboard on the ground with the keys facing down. Lower the feet on the keyboard, and then press the knobs in, and then lift the back of the keyboard up. When it's about to come apart, you will feel a creaking sensation as if something is about to snap or break, just keep pulling and it comes apart unharmed.

You're now looking at the back of the keyboard assembly. There's two screws holding into the top of the casing, and one holding down the grounding wire. Remove them. Remove the cable and LED wire from the controller (the connectors are keyed so you can't put the wrong ones in the wrong place when reassembling it). Lift the keyboard assembly out of the case. Remove all of the keys with a flathead screwdriver, blunt knife or equivalent. Get two books, and space them apart so that you can support the assembly on them with the backplate facing up.

The backplate is secured to the upper part of the keyboard with interlocking tabs. One of these tabs, located over the F keys is different in that it folds over the backplate. Straighten it out with a pliers. Now, hold the keyboard at an angle against the ground (this works best with a carpet) such that the side that the keys went into is facing you, and the end with the F keys is the one against the floor. Push down on the backplate with your thumbs. (You can use a hammer instead if you want, but make sure you don't break something). When the slides unlock, grab both ends of it, and rest it on top of said books with the backplate facing upwards. Lift up the backplate, and tah-dah, you've disassembled them.

Reassembly is the same in reverse. The only caveat is the spacebar must be reinserted before you put the backplate back on due to the weird design of the stabilizer. When you insert the buckling spring on top of the space bar, it doesn't sit in place. Try and get it as best as possible, then slowly lower the backplate over it. Some use dental floss to hold it in place while reinserting it, I have never needed to resort to this though.

Speaking of that blasted spacebar stabilizer, it makes the spacebar very stiff (about 90g compared to the 60-65g for the rest of the keyboard). There's a means of making the space bar lighter, which is documented somewhere in the bowels of Geekhack. Basically, you remove the stabilizer wire from the housing. The thing when turned up the right way is a very wide V shape. Take the wire, rest it so that the bottom of the "V" is resting on your knee. Then pull down on the sides so that the wire starts to straighten out. You don't really have to over do it, just a little bit should be good enough to loosen it up.

Man, I've dismantled these things far many more times than is healthy.

kbdfr wrote:Concerning Germany, don't know hot it is elsewhere:
Isopropyl alcohol is mostly sold in a 70% concentration. Instead, buy it at your local pharmacy (100%, sometines they sell a 96% solution) for something like 3-4 Euro for 300 ml, that will be enough for lots and lots and lots of stuff.

I use this stuff:

BTW. the reason for 70% is that is has the best disinfectant effect (better than 100% etc)

mintberryminuscrunch wrote:BTW. the reason for 70% is that is has the best disinfectant effect (better than 100% etc)

Of course, but then it contains water.
There's no real need for disinfecting my keyboard, but somehow I dislike the idea of water creeping into it

Thanks daedalus, I'll have a look at your pictures on Geekhack! I had no idea this keyboard was lying around, and the computer it was attached to is thrown away I guess. Very lucky!

Here is the heavy space bar fix that Daedalus mentioned:
Model F Improvement: Space bar mod

I also recommend replacing the Backspace/|/Enter keys. You can reconfigure it into an ISO layout as well using this method.
Model F - Gimme back my Big Backspace Mod

And if you're feeling handy, it is also possible to create a normal alt-spacebar-alt grouping.
Normalize your Model F layout



With the right modifications, it becomes an elegant weapon for a more civilized age.

Daniel Beaver wrote:Here is the heavy space bar fix that Daedalus mentioned:
Model F Improvement: Space bar mod

I should really port that to the DT wiki some time... or watermark my pictures.

If you plan on doing a backspace/enter mod, please let know, I would like the original keys if you have no better use for them.

mintberryminuscrunch wrote:BTW. the reason for 70% is that is has the best disinfectant effect (better than 100% etc)

Only ethilic alcohol is used as a disinfectant.
It s useless on spores, mostly useless on fungi, and not so good on virus.

Gilgam wrote:

mintberryminuscrunch wrote:BTW. the reason for 70% is that is has the best disinfectant effect (better than 100% etc)

Only ethilic alcohol is used as a disinfectant.
It s useless on spores, mostly useless on fungi, and not so good on virus.

and what's good vs that?

daedalus wrote:If you plan on doing a backspace/enter mod, please let know, I would like the original keys if you have no better use for them.

I'll remember you, but I'll probably just clean it and replace the cable. It's not even my property