Restoring my first SSK

[matt3o]

Today I finally got my SSK, I bought it from US at $100.

This is how it looked before the treatment



Dirty but I was aware of that (actually the price was low for that reason)



Look closely... a furball greeted at me as soon as I removed the caps.



Quite a few rivets were missing



Go dental tabs go!



Rivets removed and screw holes drilled with CNC precision



Ready to bolt.



Screws and nuts in position (in the bottom right you can spot my signature and year for future reference)



And here it is my clicking beauty in all its refurbished splendor. It feels great, all keys are working properly. The Enter and Spacebar were not working properly before the renovation, but now they are just perfect. Typing on it right now!

All process took approx 2 hours.

[Muirium]

Great job. With a Topre and IBM TKL now, you're all set up in the compact elite! Comparison pictures of your SSK with your other boards should be good!

2 hours? It takes longer than that just to dry caps up here…

[matt3o]

Great job. With a Topre and IBM TKL now, you're all set up in the compact elite! Comparison pictures of your SSK with your other boards should be good!

yeah I should take some decent pictures sooner or later...

2 hours? It takes longer than that just to dry caps up here…

I tell you a secret... compressor (okay wife helped a bit too)

[tinnie]

Next step, retr0bright it!

[Muirium]

Aaaaaaargh! He's insane!

[matt3o]

ah the heresy!

[Muirium]

Exactly which parts of a Model M are PBT and which are ABS, I wonder? I know the caps are PBT (thank goodness) but the space bar? And what about the case?

I've not seen a horribly yellowed one, so I'm hoping there's very little exposed ABS at all.

[matt3o]

all keys seem PBT. I've never seen a yellowed spacebar on a model M, so I suspect it's PBT too. The case I dunno, but mine has zero yellowing, I doubt it's ABS.

[Halvar]

I think the only ABS parts are the key stems and maybe the black plate with the chimneys. No use in retr0brighting ...

Did you have a particular reason (besides fun) to do the bolt mod, matt3o? Did you replace any springs?

[Muirium]

Oh he had a reason: OCD! There could be dirt trapped in there… (I would do it too, you saw the broken rivets. They'll affect typing sooner or later.)

Great to hear these really are as resistant to ultraviolet as I hoped. It's like IBM knew people would still be using them. Or rather: quality is its own reward in design. Before it all went downhill.

[matt3o]

I have a spare ANSI model M (not ssk) if interested...

[Muirium]

Mmmmmmm… maybe! Also intrigued by whatever eventually becomes of your home made SSK Mini. Looks to me you did the hard part already.

[Halvar]

(I would do it too, you saw the broken rivets. They'll affect typing sooner or later.)

Do they? How? That's what I would like to know. My Model Ms are all in pretty good shape rivet-wise, but I've got to say the springs could be more homogenous, there are some keys that feel quite different from the others. But I couldn't get myself around to do a bolt mod just for that. I once had to disassamble the M2 to repair it, and that was quite a pain with all the loose spring assemblies.

[matt3o]

Mmmmmmm… maybe! Also intrigued by whatever eventually becomes of your home made SSK Mini. Looks to me you did the hard part already.

backspace is not working (not registering the keypress). I don't know why, but it seems the pbc got damaged in the process. But like I said now I have a spare Model... I could easily replace the PCB.

[Muirium]

Mmmmmmm… maybe! Also intrigued by whatever eventually becomes of your home made SSK Mini. Looks to me you did the hard part already.

backspace is not working (not registering the keypress). I don't know why, but it seems the pbc got damaged in the process. But like I said now I have a spare Model... I could easily replace the PCB.

That's more like it! I thought the membrane was the part likely to cause trouble, but in any case: spares are there for the rescue.

(I would do it too, you saw the broken rivets. They'll affect typing sooner or later.)

Do they? How? That's what I would like to know.

Enough missing rivets close to each other on the board, and the layer sandwich will come apart and flex. This is my guess. Although typing presses keys down, into the construction, looseness and wiggle are exactly the things your fingers will pick up as poor feel. The keyboard stays together as long as it's in its case, but feels bad and only gets worse.

But I should point out my only M (a big terminal board like yours!) has held up very well. I couldn't find any failed rivets when I was inside. But I may have to bust them anyway if the E key really does still repeat like Tom88jerry says. Still waiting on RJ45 sockets to actually test it!

[dorkvader]

Nice job, matteo! I just got done bolt modding my wheelwriter, and it's really nice. The wheelwriter membrane is actually pretty awesome, I'll have to mod one to USB sometime.
---
I have a terminal M keyboard that had 35 or so broken rivets. Some keys wouldn't buckle at all. I was able to remove some hammers without doing a full bolt mod. I use it for parts. This keyboard is an extreme case, but doing a "bolt mod" can make a difference. Even if some rivets haven't fallen off completely, it's likely that some are cracked. I differentiate between a rivet that needs replacing and a good one by sliding a fingernail under it to see if I can loosen it.

[Muirium]

Nice tip! All I could tell as a newb, who was in there for cleaning anyway, was that the rivets all looked fine and were holding the layers together nice and tight without warp or sliding. I'll try that the next time.

If I need to replace the E key's hammer, it's far enough off to one side of the board that I will try a bit of gentle flexing with distant rivets still in place. Know any videos or tales of warning to point to about this?

Plenty of the springs are worn enough to give the keyboard a honky tonk sound when typing. I may actually like this! But naturally the test will be in its output. Any misbehaviour and those guys are out.

[Sean_Long]

I have a spare ANSI model M (not ssk) if interested...

I might be interested, if you are still willing to sell it!

[Muirium]

I'm doing a bolt mod at the moment (on a 122 key terminal Model M) and I'm wondering what size of drill bit to use? All the rivets are chopped (and no doubt need flattened before drilling) while all the insides dry from a good clean. So I'm right at the drilling stage now.

The guides I'm looking at seem to be speaking in some mysterious language composed of fractions and "inches". Can't say I follow that.

I'm trying to photograph everything for the wiki, incidentally. So my mistakes will be more public than usual!

"It's not necro: it's retro!"

[002]

I think you need a 1/16" drill bit, or 1.6mm -- I'm not sure how they are incremented over there. The closest I have in my toolbox is a 1.5mm. I'd probably just try that to start with and be a bit of an animal if it didn't fit

This looks like it might be a good buy: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/New-15pc-Mic ... 92e&_uhb=1

[Muirium]

Thanks. I'll see if I can rustle up a "sixteeneth of ye inche" bit from the miscellaneous box. 1.588 mm apparently, so closer to 1.6 than 1.5, although I know you're meant to leave them tight for the bolts to grip.

[matt3o]

if you have a good drill and a firm hand, 2mm is the size.

[Muirium]

Temped to try just that, as I'm putting nuts on these bolts anyway and don't need them to bite on the old plastic.

[matt3o]

indeed you don't need grip, 2mm fits just fine, just make sharp holes