Retro total mod

[Harpspiel]

Last night I was contemplating power buttons for the computer. If you remember, the case originally came with three brown switches on the front:

Although I find them rather ugly, I was considering leaving them to preserve the look of the case. But reading through Mach's experience wiring rotary switches to work instead of momentary, I thought I'd take the simpler route and just buy a button.

I was explaining this thought process to my husband, who works at a car shop, and he said "Hey, wouldn't it be cool to have race-car style covered switches on the front of your computer to turn it on?"

His shop sells things like this

Given that I'm keeping all lights in the case amber, a quick Ebay search revealed this

I'm thinking a central "ignition button" and on either side a toggle covered in a saftey guard, all mounted on a cut piece of brass. Left toggle turns on fans, right toggle turns on lights, central button is power. What do you all think, can I fit it into a Deco mod feel, or should I hold off on this idea for some future mod?

[Harpspiel]

very nice. and it's always nice to find someone with decent troubleshooting skills. that's actually pretty rare.

good job so far, can't wait to see more.

I actually work as a QA supervisor, so one would hope I have good troubleshooting skills . Still, sometimes I wonder at how long it takes me to come to the simplest realizations. . . .

For instance, when I connected the new hard drive this morning and the BIOS still wasn't posting, it took me way too long to realize the CPU power wasn't connected. We're now posting like a charm, time to figure out which 64-bit Linux I want.

[Harpspiel]

I am currently typing this on my stripped-down Model M, with a feeling of victory. Stripping it down was not quite as easy as I imagined.

The IBM Model M keyboard is like an impenetrable fortress. The body is made of two pieces of reinforced plastic that snap together in front, and are held together in back by four hex head screws. These screws are set deep within shafts that narrow as they get closer to the screw head. These screws are reputed to be 7/32" - I still could not say with certainty.
My 7/32, 6 pt socket was small enough to fit into the top of the shaft, but could not reach the screws. Home Depot did not have a clue (and who is surprised?), but Sears had a 12pt, 7/32" deep socket for only $4. They assured me that 12pt works perfectly well on a hex head, which makes sense if you think about it. I elatedly carried it home, it fit perfectly in the shaft, and . . . slipped off the edges of the screw. Too big. 7/32 is equal to 5.56 mm, so I got out my own 5 mm hex socket, which was small enough to fit in the shaft, but too small for the screws. At this point, I had had about enough.

5 minutes of what I like to call "tactical application of force":

And another 5 minutes of my husband gallantly wielding a sawzall:

Now on to the keys.

Here is a 5/8" dowel, chopped into 1/2" sections.

The dowel, which was supposedly oak, but more likely pine, has a tendency to splinter around the edges. Perhaps that is due to the coarse blade on the miter saw. However, after sanding a small dip into the top, staining, and gluing on the key top, I was not convinced. I went back to my idea of using copper crimp rings, and I think the result speaks for itself:

I'll be tidying up the edges with a little black silicone or wood filler, and then covering the surface in some kind of crafting resin. After that, all that is left is to figure out how to mount them on the old keys.

[Fuganater]

Ya I like it with the copper ring. You still going to fill it with resin?

[TLHarrell]

Run a sharpie black marker around the edges of the inserts. For the resin, you might look into dirtying it up slightly with a little brown color. Also, maybe sponge on a slight bit of browns onto the inserts here and there to simulate aging.

[xr4man]

very nice. i like where this is going.

[jdbnsn]

I like the ringed version also. I'm going to move this thread to "work in progress" section since it seems to be in motion. I am watching this one with great interest.

-Jon

[Harpspiel]

I'm currently banging my head on the wall. I've been through so many ideas about how to mount the key caps within the copper crimp rings, and how to attach the key bottoms (that snap onto the keyboard) to the base.

For the key caps, I'm hoping to have a slightly concave surface, similar to the original IBM keys. I'm a touch typist and I type pretty fast, so I don't want my fingers slipping all around on the keys.

First, I cut up a 5/8" dowel into 1/2" segments. I was going to try to sand a concave surface into every single dowel. Then, I was intending to use a paddle bit to hollow out a circle, chop away the sides of the plastic keys until I had a circular shape left, and glue the key bottom onto the dowel. But the dowel was too large for the crimp rings, which have a 13mm ID, and 1/2" dowel would have been too small.

So next, I found a set of concave 13mm wooden buttons on Etsy, which I just ordered - but the person only had 60 left, not the 100 that I need, so I kept looking for other options.

Today it hit me, and I can't believe how much work I was considering putting into these keys, with the paddle bits and the sanding and mounting.

Air drying modeling clay or cement.

When I'm done with this keyboard, I'm going to make a master Instructable, titled "For Goodness' Sake Read This Before You Try to Make a Steampunk Keyboard"

[TLHarrell]

I think if I do a steampunk keyboard, I'll be making a master key or several and then casting them.

[jdbnsn]

Not sure if this would be helpful or not, but Filimon has taught us alot about casting keys. Check out "Ctl Alt Del"