Restoration process
This is how I found it:
A little grimy, but not too bad:
How it looked after cleaning the case & changing with the key layout:
I've been using this beam spring quite a bit over the past few months and now that I have some spare parts I decided to address the remaining issues. I will post updates on this thread as I make progress...
Issue #1: The manual lid.
IBM overbuilt almost every aspect of these keyboards but opted to make the manual lid out of injected plastic. I'm assuming they did this for comfort, but to me it always felt out of place with the otherwise solid case.
Two weeks ago I reached out to a local fabricator (who was recommended by a friend) to see if he could make a replacement out of metal. I brought the top of the case to him and after some discussion we settled on ss because it's easier to work with and he had plenty of it in his shop. Today he sent me some pictures of the final part:
Top:
Hinge tabs:
I'll post some pictures once I have it in my hands...
