Harris Digitran leaf switch keyboard

[fricked]

I did got one of those a long time ago



I forgot to take photo with case, it is the same one as viewtopic.php?t=16933

I am finally getting around to restoring it, thought i will share how to open the switches as it was hard to figure out

But first nudes

Spoiler:

Dirty thats why i clean it



Shoelace to remove that part



The switches have these bendy parts on two sides that squish to fit in the hole then they open back up to prevent it from coming out; you have probably seen this concept many times. (right click -> open in new tab to zoom on the image)



Normally can just push in those bendy parts manually while pulling out the part but on this it is so tight etc that I was not able to do it. Instead I filed two toothpicks into a rectangle that is just barely big enough to fit and push those in like so:



Have to push them quite hard to get in there but if they are just the right shape then the slider will pop out when inserting the second toothpick, super simple.

Note I don't know how safe this is. I had one slider that was for sure broken before I started disassembling. After disassembling i have two broken ones. It is possible I broken the second one

[Sangdrax]

Love these gorgeous old boards. Keep posting as you go along!

[Muirium]

When there's Futura on the stickers, you know you're handling an elegant weapon for a more civilized age.

[invalid mr_a500]

...

[TNT]

As I am also in the process of restoring a Harris Digitran, I can vouch for the toothpick method.

However, what I found to be a lot more gentle on the sliders is not just flat squaring them off, but rather giving them just a tiny bit of a tapre towards the end. That way you don't have to push in super hard. Instead, insert both picks just enough and slightly force them apart (outwards) while simultaneously pulling the slider out. Slow and steady is key. Works like a charm for me, no broken sliders yet.

Btw. judging from my board and your photos it seems to me the sliders originally came with some kind of lube applied to them. Which is now dried up and collecting all kinds of dirt and dust, hence the scratchy experience ...


Your keycaps probably don't even need polishing, do they? Looks like they barely yellowed, or at the least did so very evenly

[TNT]

I retract my statement, just pushing them in works just as well. In my case, it's not even neccessary to square of the toothpicks at all.

I may present you the pinnacle of modern, german engineering: The Digitran Slide Extract-O-Matic

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