engr's Alps (and more) collection

[engr]

I think I have an Alps problem...

Top left: Omnikey 102 with bamboo white Alps. I got it NIB and left it stock with the exception of tri-lingual keycap stickers. I have not used it in a while (the bamboo Alps are meh, and the layout isn't ideal), but I don't want to part with it due to sunk cost fallacy.

Top middle: Avant Stellar outfitted with blue Alps, keycaps and a badge from an Omnikey Ultra-TP. Lubricated stabilizers and added several layers of 1/8" PE packing foam to improve sound. My favorite keyboard.

Middle row: Omnikey 101 put together from two 101's I got on eBay in various degree of disrepair. Overall in a pretty good condition, aside from a couple of rusty spots on the plate. Pine white alps feel nice after soft cleaning.

Bottom left: Gold badge Omni Key/102 with blue Alps. Got in on eBay in a good shape, gave it some cleaning, replaced a cracked foot, and retrobrighted it the best I could. It would have been my go-to keyboard if it wasn't for the Ctrl/Alt/CapsLock position that I never got used to.

Bottom right: Another Frankenkey-101: Case and PCB are from an Avant Prime, double-shot keycaps from several boards taken apart for parts (don't worry, the other parts went to good use), and blue Alps. Packing foam and lubed stabs for sound.

[engr]

FrankenStellar up close:

[engr]

Avant Prime:

[engr]

Omnikey 102 (gold badge):

[engr]

Omnikey 101:

[engr]

And the Gen 3 102 with bamboo white Alps:

[engr]

This Focus FK-8000 has clicky Alps clone switches, a working calculator, and a pretty good layout. It may be a great platform for a switch transplant... if I find a PS2-to-USB converter that actually works well with it.

[engr]

This FK-9000, on the other hand, is pretty good as is (minus a few rust spots on the plate), and has nice feeling and sounding pine white Alps switches. It even has a working calculator! It comes very close to my ideal keyboard - except for its star navigation cluster.

[engr]

This Ortek MCK-142Pro came to me not quite NIB but very clean. I replaced its simplified white Alps switches with pine white Alps and replaced almost all of its pad-printed keycaps with double-shot keycaps from various non-working Focus boards, or with relegendables. I know earlier versions of this board came with pine white Alps and double-shot keycaps, but I have yet to see one of those in a good shape on eBay.

The programmability feature ended up less practical for my daily used than I thought.

[engr]

I got this Leading Edge DC-2214 with one broken switch and missing key but otherwise in a pretty good shape. After some repairs, a thorough cleaning (including soft cleaning the switches), and lubricating the stabilizers, the blue Alps in it sound and feel... OK, but not as well as on DC-2014 and DC-3014 I saw on YouTube. I suspect it has to do with the case (the case on 2214 uses clips while 3014 and 2014 uses screws, which, based on Polecat's experience with FK-2001, makes a big difference in sound). I outfitted it with the SGI Granite keycaps, but sadly they make the yellowed case stand out more.

I would really like to get my hands on a nice, clean, non-yellowed DC-3014 that doesn't cost a million dollars and outfit it with these Granite keycaps.

[engr]

And, finally, two Dell AT-101W boards. The beige one is NOS; I bought it as a chassis to transplant better switches to, but never got to it, and at this point I might just end up selling or trading it for something else.

The black-ish one, on the other hand, wasn't in a perfect shape, but I like the color so I used it as a platform for some experiments. I put TaiHao black keycaps on it and top-modded the switches to convert them basically into pine white Alps with lighter springs (I think I used Sprit's 40g ones) and a small amount of NyoGel 760G lubricant. That made the keys feel and sound nice and pleasant (albeit a bit inconsistent - I should have been more careful when lubricating them), very similar to blue Alps.

[Polecat]

I think I have an Alps problem...

The only problem I can see is that you haven't tried them all.

When I worked at a recycler in a former life I got to try (for free) every keyboard that came through the door. And I got to keep whichever ones I wanted, at our cost, which was usually nothing. Dangerous situation, because I quickly accumulated more keyboards than I had room for. Some of them are buried in storage to this day. That's a much worse problem, trust me!

[rezenew]

That gold badge omnikey with its keycaps is absolutely gorgeous

[engr]

Focus FK-555 with blue Alps.
Beautiful board - might be the best looking blue Alps board I have - but the sound and feel left me kind of underwhelmed (as with DC-2214). The subjective feel of clicky Alps seems to be heavily influenced by their sound: if the board sounds meh, it also feels clunky, even if the switches are NOS. I will have to see if I can get a set of keycaps from an Omnikey and put some PE foam inside the case, that helped with the Omnikeys.

[Muirium]

The sound and feel of the FK-555 are every bit as solid as its looks, to me. The sharp clickiness of Blue Alps comes across stronger still in my aluminium cased Alps64, and yes I really like it there, but it doesn't feel vintage or true to Alps to me. It's a solid metal custom, it's a different little beast.

[engr]

The sound and feel of the FK-555 are every bit as solid as its looks, to me.

Does yours have double-shot thin ABS keycaps? I find these to significantly improve the sound and feel. The thick pad-printed ones on mine sound dull, so I'm hoping to find a set from an Omnikey.

[Muirium]

Mine has a set of dyesubs I raided from another Alps board.

[engr]

I finally found a DC-3014 that did not cost an arm and a leg and was in a good cosmetic condition - outside, that is. The plate was extremely dirty and rusty; this was the first time I have seen cobwebs woven in between keycaps and switches. Yet, funnily enough, the Alps in it still feel OK, so eventually I will end up restoring it all.

For now, I took the PCB-Plate-Switch assembly from my DC-2214, which was very clean and ended up was a perfect fit in a DC-3014 case. The DC-3014 sounds and feels nicer than 2214, probably on the account of the case being held together by screws and not clips like 2214. It still pings like a sonar on a submarine, and eventually I might end up lubing the springs to get rid of it, but for now I will enjoy it as it is.

I also tried outfitting it with SGI Granite keycaps, but the combination between the cool grey keycaps and a warm beige case just looked odd. Maybe I'll try again some warmer-color dye subs, like the ones Muirium linked.

[engr]

I also got lucky on eBay with an FK-2002. Definitely a project board: some parts (cover, AT/XT switch) were missing, there are a few rusty spots on the plate, a couple of switches weren't consistently registering, pad-printed keycaps were showing a lot of shine, and one of the plastic standoffs holding the plate in was broken).

After replacing a few switches, adding a cover from my beige FK-2001 and newer keycaps (Tai-Hao regular Alps keyset, Tai-Hao square profile WoB, an ISO Enter from am Alps laptop keyboard I got on eBay) it looks almost brand new (aside from the spacebar that shows considerable shine and is harder to replace). Even after adding closed cell foam, which usually helps, it has this rattly sound and feel typical of FK-2001. Eventually I would like to fully restore the PCB/plate and modify the case like Polecat described so it's held together by screws instead of clips. And, who knows, maybe I will even put some blue Alps in it.

Aside from the rattliness, the only thing that I do not like about this keyboard is the ISO layout. I have decades of muscle memory using ANSI, so I keep hitting the "Macro" key (which Windows interprets as /) instead of left shift. I will have to see if I can get used to it, otherwise I will have another gorgeous board that I can't use as a daily driver - like my gold badge Omnikey 102. I even wanted to transplant a PCB assembly from my FK-2001 to essentially turn it into a black FK-2001 (I know, a black 2002 is more rare, but I want a keyboard I can use comfortably) but, unfortunately, my 2001 has 1u keys between Ctrl and Alt, and I did not want to mutilate a black 2002 case.

[John Doe]

You also need put a classic Acer KB101 there!!!

[engr]

You also need put a classic Acer KB101 there!!!

Yeah, I keep looking for one of these, or, better yet, the black Deltagold variant. In a good condition these are real unicorns.

[engr]

UnrealKeyboards made a custom dye sublimated keyset for my Topre (middle board in the picture), which required a lot of trial an error but ended up looking very nice.

I even used the C-stock keycaps from this project to make an extra keyset for my TKL, because even the C-stock with its imperfections looks miles better than the Mylar stickers I use on my other boards (see the DC-3014 on top of the picture).