Six Nasty SSK Steel Plates... now in assorted flavors!

[phosphorglow]

Still waiting on new circuit membranes from the printer, but here's a fun sneak peak of things to come.

Lovely rusty plates:


Plates after rust removal with electrolysis and citric acid:



Pretty candy colored gloss enamel painted plates:

[Muirium]

Whoah! But can you change the case colour so vibrantly too? And the caps!?

¡POTENTIAL RED SSK OVERLOAD!

[phosphorglow]

Whoah! But can you change the case colour so vibrantly too? And the caps!?

¡POTENTIAL RED SSK OVERLOAD!

Hahaha, I've been debating on doing that. Not sure yet. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps...

[phosphorglow]

(Though on a side note, I did paint the barrel frame on my SSK orange, which looks pretty sweet - a subtle dash of color under the keys.)

[Shinryuu]

This is pure insanity

[Muirium]

Indeed it is, the best kind!

(Though on a side note, I did paint the barrel frame on my SSK orange, which looks pretty sweet - a subtle dash of color under the keys.)

See, you're a good bit of the way there. Now for the top shell, and the masterstroke: the caps!

[webwit]

The plate will be invisible so you could paint ponies on it and no one will know.

Red, eh? I'm not sure. With blanks:


A printed set which I got from my favorite dentist:


Both sets have the problem that Unicomp couldn't supply all keys, as seen in the first picture. The quality of the labels left much to be desired.

[scottc]

Fantastic!

Your work never ceases to amaze me

[phosphorglow]

Insane in the brain! Insane in the membrane...
(...which I can't wait to get!!! >:D)

Y'know Muirium, while I'm at it, I might as well just backlight all of the red keys with red LED's in the red frame attached to the red plate. Inside the red case. With a red label. And a red IBM badge. Hehehhehe.

...with my level of obsessive fussing, it'll be done by next year.

[phosphorglow]

The plate will be invisible so you could paint ponies on it and no one will know.

Red, eh? I'm not sure. With blanks:

Spoiler:

A printed set which I got from my favorite dentist:

Spoiler:

Both sets have the problem that Unicomp couldn't supply all keys, as seen in the first picture. The quality of the labels left much to be desired.

Welllllll, you can see the plate from the speaker grill. And now you made me want to paint ponies on one.
(Perhaps I'll do that when I start putting scratch n' sniff stickers inside the barrel frame.)

I wish my dentist carried key caps...

Fantastic!

Your work never ceases to amaze me

Thanks!

[Compgeke]

No red spray painting like that Apple Adjustable Keyboard that was on ebay a while back?

Lame.

[phosphorglow]

No red spray painting like that Apple Adjustable Keyboard that was on ebay a while back?

Lame.

I only wish I could strive for that level of quality.

[Muirium]

What material are Model M shells anyway? It's not ABS is it? I've never seen a yellowed one, but I haven't looked as deep in the heap as you…

Perhaps a red or black or yellow shell, with stock caps? Those plates are giving me ideas, but my all yellow Ducky (backlights included) tells me it's better to have two strong colours, for contrast, than one for everything.

[tlt]

That looks like some first class restoration work!

[smknjoe]

What material are Model M shells anyway? It's not ABS is it?

I think it's PVC.

[Compgeke]

As far as I know they're PBT - same with the keycaps.

[002]

That would be seriously impressive if they are PBT...

Wiki says:

The Enhanced Keyboard consists of a Model M assembly mounted inside a plastic (usually ABS, or a mixture of PC and ABS) casing

[smknjoe]

Now I'm really curious about the case composition. I know that I've read somewhere that it's PVC. After looking it up this time I see ABS. I'll have to shoot Unicomp an email and see if they know what IBM used.

[Elrick]

Y'know Muirium, while I'm at it, I might as well just backlight all of the red keys with red LED's in the red frame attached to the red plate. Inside the red case. With a red label. And a red IBM badge. Hehehhehe.

If you're going to paint the actual case of the SSK why not a 2-Part epoxy?

That way it can have almost any colour specification under the rainbow and will be tough enough to resist scratches and chips. I've seen a 2 part epoxy paint applied to a BMW and it's beautiful beyond measure.

That way we can all harass you to totally restore and paint our IBM's .

[Muirium]

If I ever get myself a second SSK, it'll be one of yours, Phosphor, and it'll be a whole different colour or two!

[wheybags]

I would feel uncomfortable with painting an ssk case ;_;
Painting any old keyboards makes me sad tbh

[Muirium]

Depends on the before and after. There's a lot of mangy boards out there that could do with TLC.

[smknjoe]

According to an e-mail response they use HIPS (High Impact Polystyrene) for the cases at Unicomp. They couldn't say for sure what IBM used, but I tend to think it was not HIPS.

...and the keycaps are still PBT.

[phosphorglow]

Y'know... I'm still not entirely sure what the cases are made out of. Whatever it is, it's epic material. I do know that later on in the game Lexmark used ABS since I've seen a few yellowed ones.

As for painting the cases, I don't think I feel I'm quite up to the task as a painter. If I can't do something properly I'd rather not do it. There's a few case painters out there (like Photoelectric) whose quality and skill is something I can only hope to strive for. It's a lot of work, and it's a fine skill in and of itself!

The only painting I'm comfortable with, aside from the steel plates, is the barrel frame. I'll have to post some pictures of my traveling SSK - the frame is orange which is nice and subtle and awesome looking. I might do the same with these six boards.

[Muirium]

I'd like to see that!

[scottc]

Same here!

[vivalarevolución]

Wow. Awesome. Never cease to amaze.

[M'er Forever]

[Account and posts deleted on request]

[phosphorglow]

Yay for learning something new! Thanks for that, M'er!

[phosphorglow]

I'd like to see that!

And now you shall!