[lqet]

Around 12 years ago, I bought a used Model M. It uses a slightly different technique for registering keypresses but looks about the same on the inside as the Model F. It worked great. After 3 days, I decided to clean it up and open it. I then quickly destroyed it by using a bit too much water during the cleaning. It got into the plastic tubes with the springs [0] and that was the end of most of the keys. I tried drying it with a hairdryer, but without success. The black plastic visible on the image is attached to the board by melted plastic joints, so removing it without destroying it is not possible. Congratulations to the author for not making the same stupid mistake as me.

Of course, you can still experience the clickiness of the Model M without owning one with the great emulator [1]. It's available on Debian and Ubuntu dev-releases:

  sudo apt-get install bucklespring

[0] https://blog.opsdisk.com/images/keyboard/preclean.jpg

[1] https://github.com/zevv/bucklespring

[Aloha]

you can also just buy a new one from https://www.pckeyboard.com

I have both an original model M and a modern one, and my fingers cannot tell the difference.

[userbinator]

The black plastic visible on the image is attached to the board by melted plastic joints, so removing it without destroying it is not possible.

It's called heat-staking, you should be able to drill them out and replace with suitably-sized screws and nuts.

[jhanschoo]

Sometimes water damage can be undone by completely soaking in distilled water to rid the impure water and rinse off the salts, and then letting dry.

Distilled water isn't conductive, it's the salts that are.

[beenBoutIT]

You can speed this process up by gently scrubbing with Dawn dish soap and lots of regular water, as long as you keep it wet. The key is to thoroughly rinse everything with distilled water before anything starts drying off.

[analognoise]

Or you could buy a modern model M from the people who still make them - Unicomp - for ~$100

https://www.pckeyboard.com/

They're awesome.

[brudgers]

I treated myself and bought one last year. It failed electronically six months later despite spending nearly all its time in the box...I bought it to use when using an RPi. Unicomp fixed it under warranty but made me pay for shipping it back to them.

To me, not covering shipping on warranty is a tell that their quality is low enough that failed keyboards are common. I don’t think I have ever seen a device have an electronically failed USB port...cables sure but this wasn’t.

Anyway mine was junk and might still be. I wouldn’t recommend Unicomp anymore.

[laqq3]

For what it's worth, I own a Unicomp keyboard I got in 2013 and it still works flawlessly to this day. Not doubting nor disqualifying your experience, but just want to provide a counterbalance.

[brudgers]

Failing USB electronics seems symptomatic of corner cutting at the level of pennies per unit. Sure anyone can get a bad batch of chips. It’s what gets done about it that speaks to quality.

This wasn’t rough use by me. It was barely used. It was a manufacturing defect and there is no way that Unicomp could not know after the keyboard was in their shop and unlikely they didn’t know before. You just can’t be in the keyboard business that long and not know what is going on.

They probably made good keyboards for a long time and might again. Mine was poorly made in terms of reliability and I don’t have confidence that they repaired it with more reliable components.

[myrandomcomment]

I have a Model M with a 1984 date code. The most interesting thing was that keyboard at IBM (at the time I was there) were a "green" tag part, meaning that you could just replace at customer no questions asked, not a ton of tracking. The number of these that got swapped just because they were dirty was scary. We did not have to account for them. I wish I had kept a bunch at this point.

My Model M is used on the gaming PC (Civ, XCOM and the like, not FPS).

For everyday use on the laptop I have a Japanese layout Filco Majestouch Convertible 2 TKL w/Cherry Red switches (45 cN force). I also have the same with Cherry Brown switches (55 cN). Not sure which I like the best at this point. The Model M is 70 cN.

I have a Model F somewhere around here in box. I think I need to find it and clean it up.

[nsxwolf]

They're a little cheap and light feeling compared to the oldest ones but they get the point across with their satisfying key feel.

[ddingus]

Hmmm, maybe just add some weight and get the full deal, like it doesn't move easily.

Good to know.

I love older clicky keyboards. Everyone around me hates them.

With Covid in play, now is the time to do some retro keyboarding goodness!

[Cthulhu_]

> I love older clicky keyboards. Everyone around me hates them.

Mood; I'd love to have a 'vintage' or modern overbuilt keyboard, but they're just too damn loud.

That said, at home I have a Filco keyboard with cherry blue switches, it's noisy but great :D

Part of me wishes I was a sysadmin, so that I could install Model M's at the server racks and workbenches and the like.

[ddingus]

Was a sysadmin. Yup. One of the guilty pleasures is hooking up cool stuff.

[0-_-0]

Are you sure you dried it properly? I cleaned a mouse and keyboard in the dishwasher without problems [1].

[1] https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=keyboard+dishwa...

[projektfu]

Try drying it with grain alcohol or methanol.

[doublepg23]

I also destroyed a Model M (SSK) due to water damage and a botched repair. This one was bolt modded however, which fixes the "plastic rivets literally disintegrating" problem. Currently using Lexmark Model M that needs the bolt mod treatment. I'm planing on sending it to Clicky Keyboards [0].

[0] https://www.clickykeyboards.com

[cmrdporcupine]

Funny I ran my old IBM Model M through the dishwasher once and let it dry and it was fine.

It broken in a move at some point though. :-(

[jacobush]

A day or two in the oven at low heat has fixed many similar situations for me.