Great/Interesting Finds

[snuci]

Uncleaned XT keyboard for $65 with free shipping
http://www.bonanza.com/listings/Vintage ... /326873379

That's on eBay too: http://www.ebay.ca/itm/161995023138

[elecplus]

Vintage Burroughs terminal and keyboard
http://obtainsurplus.com/computing/peri ... 5016ll15ls

[elecplus]

1391401 $49 from Canada, no cables
https://greencomputers.era.ca/catalog/product/10739

[Chyros]

The font on the Burroughs strongly suggests Honeywell Hall effect to me. It looks fantastic! Not cheap though xD .

[E3E]

Looks like I have some restoration work ahead of me too, which I will probably put off for a while (forever?). I have two Zenith boards with green Alps but they both feel like garbage. Are there any worthwhile shortcuts for switch restoration? I'd love to be able to toss the switches in some kind of super solution, swish them around a bit and just break down and work out the dust and particle build-up that way. I haven't done any serious research yet but it's probably wishful thinking eh?

I actually have two salmon Alps Dell AT101s, both pretty grungy (the caps are bathing as we speak) and that old black Alps AT101 on the way. My new Focus with its pristine, ready to use blue Alps sort of makes me wonder why I bother with crappy, dirty Alps at all.

@Chyros -- I haven't tried black Alps yet. It doesn't seem to get much love but I always like to try a switch for myself, since as we all know, dirt and wear can dramatically affect switch feel. My green Alps being a good example, if I didn't know better I would think that green Alps are terrible because mine are terrible. The old black Alps Dell AT101 you reviewed was nice and clean and you like the switch, so there you go. Mine will probably be terrible

Thanks to a lot of reading and a bit of first hand experience, opening the switches and blasting them with a puff of compressed air should improve the feel significantly UNLESS, as jacobolus put it in the Alps Appreciation thread on GeekHack, the board saw significant use with the grit trapped between the slider and its guide rails, which would cause abrasion and wear over time. I'm not sure how significant this is or not, but it does sometimes seem that certain switches can just not be rid of their scratchiness.

Something that could fill in the scratches caused by grit might help, like I dunno, perhaps a dry film lube?

Double nice finds on the AT101s! I have one coming from TaoBao along with another I snagged from an online goodwill auction (through eBay, and probably my first cheap Alps find unless you consider $85 for a Leading Edge DC-2014 a good deal). How are the caps on yours? The AT101 from Goodwill must've been used in a school or something. Alphas were shined but all other keys were not.

All other Alps PBT I've encountered so far has had its texture still. The Xerox caps have such significant texture that even denture tabs or a cleaning in the top rack of the dishwasher didn't get the grime out. It took a magic eraser dipped in alcohol and wiped across the caps to get it out. Good thing those don't harm texture.

But yeah, switch restoration is definitely no quick and easy thing, especially if you don't have a good method of opening the switches and even more so if blasting them with compressed air did not help.

Alps SKCL Green are one of my favorite switch types so don't write them off just yet! You just need to find a good batch.

Congrats again on the FK-2001; that one sounds quite mint so the typing experience is probably very enjoyable!

Restoration is a PITA for sure sometimes. My powerful UV wash lamp I was using killed itself a few days ago; the ballast started smoking and I was NOPE. Not gonna start a house fire. I've got another coming in today, which was more of a coincidence since I just wanted a second one for more light coverage.

Beyond brightening, I have to clean the plates of the rest of the boards, apply new foam to the space bar positions, pull (dear god PBT caps are always so crazy tight) and clean each board's caps, open every single switch and blast them with air to clean any grit out. Oh right, and apply new rubber feet to two more boards. Minor thing.

And then I think I'm done? I've got a long road ahead of me.

[Blaise170]

I know we have quite differentiating opinions on them, also one of the few switches that constantly gets bashed by the same people over and over again until it's elevated to a "consensus". Let the people have their opinion!

View my response in the poll thread...

[photekq]

Group buy anyone?

http://world.taobao.com/item/5237439566 ... mSite=main

[Muirium]

Nah, we don't have any Nazis on DT, do we?

[seebart]

Oh shit...you need to post those ugly caps Mu?

[scottc]

I find that immature and tasteless Nazi jokes just a little bit less funny after seeing rooms full of thousands of children's toys and even bigger rooms full of stolen human hair in the Auschwitz/Birkenau museums. Let's save this kind of tasteless bullshit for Geekhack, shall we?

[seebart]

Fact: if Mu were to post that from a German IP he would be breaking German law. But for non Germans that's fine.

[Wodan]

I'm pretty sure that's nice, thick PBT lasered Cherry caps:
https://www.ebay.de/ulk/itm/401083179522

Anything good in there?
https://www.ebay.de/ulk/itm/301889771667

[Hak Foo]

My tastes to morbid dictatorial stuff runs towards Communist.

Do they have a DDR-flag keycap?

Oh, who am I kidding, it's not ALPS mount I'm sure so I wouldn't be using it.

[scottc]

33 euro is probably a bit much for those caps! Thick lasered Cherry caps are a huge bargain though. I tuhnk that their dyesub brothers are the best MX caps around, and the lasered caps can give 90% of the bang for 1% of the buck.

[Redmaus]

Nah, we don't have any Nazis on DT, do we?

Even though the nazis committed atrocities, that insignia looks so fucking cool. I wish they could have picked something else like a flower pot so that symbol could still be used.

Nazis had style whether you like them or not.

[ohaimark]

The idea of a Neo-Nazi sitting down at a computer and Alt+F4 rage quitting at random things, while using that Hitler mustache model as an F4 key, does kinda make me smirk.

Obama shows up in a sidebar ad: "NEIN!!!" --smashes Alt+F4--

The humor isn't in the past. It's in the triviality, lack of power, and angst of Hitlerites today. Still delicate and subversive, but amusing if done right. Of course... American comedians are wont to walk over politeness and respect in their quest for laughs, and I may be a product of that mindset.

[Wodan]

33 euro is probably a bit much for those caps! Thick lasered Cherry caps are a huge bargain though. I tuhnk that their dyesub brothers are the best MX caps around, and the lasered caps can give 90% of the bang for 1% of the buck.

Oh yeah they are greatly underrated. They just look differently but feel the same. Got enough of them so I share this

[scottc]

I'm planning on dying a set of my thick lasered Cherry caps black after seeing someone do something similar recently. They look great!

[Redmaus]

The idea of a Neo-Nazi sitting down at a computer and Alt+F4 rage quitting at random things, while using that Hitler mustache model as an F4 key, does kinda make me smirk.

Obama shows up in a sidebar ad: "NEIN!!!" --smashes Alt+F4--

[Wodan]

I'm planning on dying a set of my thick lasered Cherry caps black after seeing someone do something similar recently. They look great!

Pics pls.

[Muirium]

Fact: if Mu were to post that from a German IP he would be breaking German law. But for non Germans that's fine.

I wonder… is this page of the thread now illegal to visit for German users of DT? A Chinese picture, linked by a Scot, tipped by a joking Welshman. Oh my!

I agree with Scottc. They're immensely bad taste.

[scottc]

Here you go, Wodan: workshop-f7/dylon-dying-lasered-keycaps ... %20keycaps
Guk's are thin PBT but still look good. I just love that black-on-black look like the HHKB has!

[Wodan]

Have you never seen my 1937 vintage Zuse keyboard ?
The KONTROLLE key has a swastika and there is no escape key and no backspace. There was no escape and no retreat in Nazi Germany.

[Khers]

This is not a great find. But interesting how much a Model M can bring in under certain circumstances:
http://www.tradera.com/item/340854/2523 ... -mekaniskt

What!? Maybe it's time to sell my Swedish M... That's outrageous!

[seebart]

No Mu it would only be illegal for a German citizen to post that from a German IP, not that it would have any consequences anyhow. And for you Scottish brute it's fine. Hail Highlands! :I

[Ray]

Anything good in there?
https://www.ebay.de/ulk/itm/301889771667

The winkeyless on top with locklights is probably mechanical, I don't know what it is though.
The rest looks very rubberdome to me.

[Scarpia]

33 euro is probably a bit much for those caps! Thick lasered Cherry caps are a huge bargain though. I tuhnk that their dyesub brothers are the best MX caps around, and the lasered caps can give 90% of the bang for 1% of the buck.

I'm sorry if I'm being thick, but were you saying 33 eur was a bargain or a bit much for the board? If it's worth having I might make an offer on it..

[guk]

Way overpriced. Thick, lasered PBT on an ISO DE G81 usually doesn't cost more than 10€.

@scottc Eh, it's thick PBT. Just hard to tell by the pics.

[Wodan]

Thick PBT caps are hard to tell apart and don't get much attention so far thus sell for alot less usually. Condition of the board is nice and it still has a box.

Once you go PBT, you never go back.

[guk]

If F+J are scooped, it's thick PBT.