IBM Model M2 Plastic Snaps Holding The PCB Board Broken.

[_64]

Hello Everyone! I've been using this forum for a while now but never actually registered/posted anything so this is my first post.

Anyhow so the usual problem happened with my M2. All the buttons stopped working and only the indicators were lighting up.
Which lead to me using this here to fix the capacitor problem.

But now another problem occurred. Since this keyboard is famously for being very hard to open, in the process i accidently broke the plastic snaps, the ones holding the pcb board and all the other circuit plates together.



Normally it should look like this.



The problem is that the pcb board barely has contact with the circuit plates which means no button presses will ever register.

I already thought of hot gluing but it seems way too risky. Anyone who has some suggestions which could help me out?

[andrewjoy]

You could try double sided foam tape.

[HuBandiT]

I already thought of hot gluing but it seems way too risky. Anyone who has some suggestions which could help me out?

A very bare-bones solution, but if the case closes and locks together firmly, I would sculpt some kind of stud between the top of the case and the PCB which holds and presses the PCB down against the foil sandwich? Whether you carve it out of a big rubber eraser with an exacto-knife or model it in CAD and 3D print it is a matter of taste.

Alternatively (or maybe together with the above), if only the front (in terms of towards the spacebar vs the function key row) pieces are broken but the pieces on the back edge are intact, you could try to put the PCB in place into its position firmly, and then create an incision on the side wall of the case through which you can thread in a piece of material that holds/presses the PCB against the foil sandwich?

[fohat]

If you are adventurous, good with your hands, and not fussy about looks, you can re-create a screw-closure system.

Figure out where you want it to go, and epoxy the nut(s) to the inside of the case. Now you can drill a hole on the opposite side, run a machine screw through and into the nut. Viola!

I have done this successfully, and while "it ain't purty" it can get the job done.

[balotz]

I had the same problem and just used a glue melt gun. Push the PCB down as you're applying the glue between the edge of the board and the stem of the snapped clip, and hold until the glue sets.