The types of piles I get to dig through...

[elecplus]

When I go to the recyclers, often they have huge piles of keyboards, waiting to be sorted.

keyboards.jpg (104.47 KiB) Viewed 4241 times

Look down in the bottom right corner...

Can you identify it?

[jacobolus]

Ugh, no wonder all the switches on these old keyboards end up worn out. Even a few weeks stored pressed in like this is really quite destructive.

[scottc]

Looks like buckling spring to me, but I can't tell if it's a 50-key matrix board or something larger, like a 62-key. You've certainly got a good eye. Very interesting!

[elecplus]

Not matrix or 62. Try again You can't see the back 3 inches or so of the board in this picture, but keep expanding the depth of the back....

[Nuum]

Isn't this a normal Model M or a 122 key Model M/F?

What I can see from the arrow keys speaks for a normal Model M.

[elecplus]

This was a weird beam spring that was totally broken. The bottom right keys were arrow keys, very dark, above that was numbers. The housing was cracked in 2, most of the keys were gone. I have no idea how you would break the housing on these heavy old things. I should have scrounged the caps!

[cinnamonrollz]

Theres actually 2 model m's in that picture! If I lived in texas instead of Wisconsin I would certainly volunteer to help!

[cinnamonrollz]

This was a weird beam spring that was totally broken. The bottom right keys were arrow keys, very dark, above that was numbers. The housing was cracked in 2, most of the keys were gone. I have no idea how you would break the housing on these heavy old things. I should have scrounged the caps!

Any one in this forum would give you something for that regardless of how bad it is! Even if its been sawed in half!

[jacobolus]

If you find a broken beam spring, definitely salvage it. Someone will want it, if only for spare parts or to do experiments on.

[Muirium]

Yup. I want those caps and switches for my own builds! They also have cool solenoids, which can make other keyboards clunk like lunatics too…

[Findecanor]

Several familiar keyboards in that heap... I spot two Cherry RS-6000, and I saw my first one at a flea market two hours ago.

[Volks]

I wish the recyclers in San Francisco have this much keyboard too
They usually just have one or two keyboard

[macmakkara]

I wish i will find recycler like this in Finland.

[elecplus]

I wish i will find recycler like this in Finland.

Please see PM

[gogusrl]

do you know one in Romania as well ?

(i had to try)

[neverused]

Does anyone know of a recycler like this in Phoenix, AZ?

[Compgeke]

As bad as this sounds, it's worth seeing if there's an ewaste place around your area in general and see if they'll let you look for keyboards only - nothing else.

I know where I live there's a certain place where I've made friends with one of the workers. Technically they aren't supposed to sell the ewaste stuff but I'm able to get keyboards cheap ($1 or so) - I've gotten a couple Model Ms, the FK9000, Futaba clicky, Dolch PAC-486, etc from there.

[Touch_It]

That looks like one of the most fun things ever! not joking.

[webwit]

I think though this is how ebola started.

[Muirium]

Sometimes a man and a monkey love eachother very much…