Alps Appreciation

[ohaimark]

I just acquired more Blue Alps from an obscure eBay listing for just a hair over $100.

Now the question is... Do I flip or do I use?

[Abstractions]

I just acquired more Blue Alps from an obscure eBay listing for just a hair over $100.

Now the question is... Do I flip or do I use?

Just the switches? Or a whole board?

Also

On Ebay I recently picked up a banana DC-2014 for 50 dollars. My first Blue Alps board!

[E3E]

I just acquired more Blue Alps from an obscure eBay listing for just a hair over $100.

Now the question is... Do I flip or do I use?

Just got a new NTC 6153EA with blue Alps in its original box and in great shape for $85.

I'm probably not going to flip it though.

[seebart]

I just acquired more Blue Alps from an obscure eBay listing for just a hair over $100.

Now the question is... Do I flip or do I use?

Just got a new NTC 6153EA with blue Alps in its original box and in great shape for $85.

I'm probably not going to flip it though.

Pics plz.

[Chyros]

I just acquired more Blue Alps from an obscure eBay listing for just a hair over $100.

Now the question is... Do I flip or do I use?

Just got a new NTC 6153EA with blue Alps in its original box and in great shape for $85.

I'm probably not going to flip it though.

Fuck me. That's a brilliant deal Oo .

[ohaimark]

Whole 'board. It's a Samsung branded KB-5161.

We all know that you have a happy, luck-driven, and incestuous little Blue Alps family going, E3. My surprise level at you keeping that 'board is subzero.

[emdude]

I received my Apple IIc A2S4100, and as expected, it had amber alps in it.

I actually like them quite a bit, they are very tactile and have a louder click that's perhaps more hollow-sounding than blue alps. They are certainly as smooth. The switches themselves are very clean, which is great!

The actuation force is also a bit high, but it doesn't feel like 80-100 g. My unscientific tests (in which I stacked coins on top of a key until it depressed) showed it to be about 65 g. This may be due to its age though.

The key caps are excellent, thick PBT dye-subs. The keyboard profile is completely flat, and because of the nature of the key caps, I'd go so far as to say it's kinda chiclet-like.

I am not sure if I'd want to harvest the switches for another board though. I think I'd be perfectly content with keeping the board intact, and in the IIc. I am not sure if I'd go so far as to say that they are better than blue alps, they are perhaps as good, but I am still rather impressed overall!

[keycap]

Finally figured out the problem with all of my White Alps switches. I just couldn't get rid of the awful, scratchy feel that they had.

I soaked everything from a switch in 91% isopropyl alcohol (except the switchplate, didn't want liquid getting trapped into it somehow), let it dry, reassembled the switch, and it feels so smooth and crisp now. Obviously there's some friction with the slider and the click leaf but this certainly shouldn't be a problem with my older White Alps switches that have dry lube.

[E3E]

Whole 'board. It's a Samsung branded KB-5161.

We all know that you have a happy, luck-driven, and incestuous little Blue Alps family going, E3. My surprise level at you keeping that 'board is subzero.

Hahaha.

I saw that Samsung and thought that the likelihood of it having blue Alps was very high as every other time I've seen a Samsung-branded Chicony KB-5161, it had blue Alps.

My funds were a bit tied up and I have some projects I want to see through so I just let it go.

Nice to see that someone on the forums got it!

[Tuntematon]

Whole 'board. It's a Samsung branded KB-5161.

What makes you think it's filppable? There were plenty of people watching that one and it sold at auction. Not sure you could get much money out of it.

[E3E]

Whole 'board. It's a Samsung branded KB-5161.

What makes you think it's filppable? There were plenty of people watching that one and it sold at auction. Not sure you could get much money out of it.

More than likely because its switches were not revealed in any photos and it was not explicitly listed as having blue Alps.

He can certainly get more than $100~ for it, I'd say.

[Blaise170]

Picked up a Datadesk for about $30 after shipping. Nice doubleshot Apple ANSI layout with okayish white Alps. A little yellow but not too bad. Will get some pictures later if anyone is interested. Found this one on Google.

[emdude]

Getting deeper in the hole, just picked this up off of eBay for a tad below $30 shipped. Based on its ID, it's probably salmon alps, and it also comes with its original box! It'll be nice to see how those feel.

[Tuntematon]

Getting deeper in the hole, just picked this up off of eBay for a tad below $30 shipped. Based on its ID, it's probably salmon alps, and it also comes with its original box! It'll be nice to see how those feel.

Nice snag. One of a few listings that just caught my eye in my sold listings browsing. And yep, that's definitely Salmon in there.

[seebart]

Will get some pictures later if anyone is interested.

YES plz.

[seebart]

Will get some pictures later if anyone is interested.

YES plz.

Very nice emdude, quite a deal with the box.

[alh84001]

My first disassembled Alps switch


@Chyros thanks for the video guide. It's not hard to use just two round toothpicks for the procedure.

This was a key that had a click on the upstroke. To my eyes it looks clean. Photo is bad, so it's hard to tell, but I don't think there's any dust in the housing. The click leaf is so thin, that I'm afraid to change the angle . I'll try and assemble it and see how it goes.

Update:
Well, assembly was a lot trickier than expected. I am a bit confused on how the tactile leaf should be positioned before adding top switch housing. Should it be falling on the spring or resting on the side of the switch hole? If I do the latter, sometimes it gets stuck between the switch hole and top housing when trying to assemble everything.

In any case, I must have assembled it some ten times, and it always produced a click on the upstroke. I tried it without the tactile leaf, and there was no click, so it has to be something with the tactile leaf. In my last attempt I was extra careful to position the leaf in such a way, that the spring is in the middle of the leaf hole (I didn't pay much attention to it earlier). I don't know if that helped, because there is a lot of movement during assembly process, but whatever I did, it worked, and no more click! I think the feel of the switch is slightly different than the rest but I attribute that to one of (in order of probability):
- me playing around with tactile leaf angle; I think I have it close to it's original position, but it might differ
- something else still being different, since it was the only switch having the click to begin with
- switch housing having a little Y-axis movement now, since switch housing tabs are now in a bit wider position after prying them open a couple of times


It would be nice to know why this upstroke click occurs, since I think I saw that happening to other people as well.

[Chyros]

Before I forget here as well, let me post Project L here:

@alh no worries, glad it was helpful .

[E3E]

Just got a floating shelf to display keyboards on rotation in my room. Might add more of these sometime since I LOVE the look. I just wish there were more studs in the only wall where this works for my room.

So, the first board I displayed was my Hebrew-capped Tai Hao Fame TH-5539, but I didn't take any pictures of that.

I did take pictures of another favorite of mine:













It's my 1997 model, which I'd say is probably incredibly rare inside an already super small spectrum. It's got a US ISO layout. All of my others have long left shifts, but this one has a short one. I didn't even notice that detail until itzmeluigi pointed it out to me.

I just had to snag that little Docutech pin off of eBay in order to rep what is pretty much my favorite keyboard other than my FAME.

Of course I had to post this to follow up the SKCM Lime love.

Haha, man. I love taking pictures. I need to get a better camera sometime, but the camera hobby sounds like ANOTHER rabbit hole.

[seebart]

Oh very stylish E3E !

[E3E]

Thanks Seebart! It's such a cool way to display the boards I normally keep boxed up. I hated not seeing the Docutechs much after I restored them, even though I did take them out to type on them every so often.

[seebart]

I really like your floating shelf solution. Since I moved last september I don't have a display setup for any of my keyboards although I have more room now, I need to get something organized.

[Chyros]

Very nice indeed, very stylish!

[E3E]

Thanks again guys. I was so worried that it wouldn't fit with my room when I got it. I was like "oh god, I've made a mistake," especially because I couldn't find a stud at first.

I do really love it!

[Redmaus]

Do you have a build log for the shelf? It looks really awesome I might want to replicate what you did.

[Scarpia]

That shelf is an IKEA Lack shelf: http://www.ikea.com/se/sv/catalog/products/10011017/

Go Sweden!

[alh84001]

IKEA stuff is quite practical. I use IKEA bag on my IKEA table/bench (don't know the model IKEA Hol) when working on keyboards. Now I feel a bit like charactrer from fight club

[Chyros]

Anytime I see IKEA mentioned I have to think of this scene from futurama xD .

[andrewjoy]

That shelf is an IKEA Lack shelf: http://www.ikea.com/se/sv/catalog/products/10011017/

Go Sweden!

YEH ! Lackrack baby

https://wiki.eth0.nl/index.php/LackRack

You would not think you could rack a UPS weighing over 130 pounds on it .... but you can .

[alh84001]

When I woke up I didn't remotely plan to, but I got a blue alps board today Some assembly required though

First I got the switches, and then I had to find a proper keyboard for them. Then I won this


I would say it was a steal for ANSI one in Europe, if not for shipping, which cost me a bit more than the board. Still, could have done worse.