________________________________ From: Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> On Wed, 26 Sep 2012, Chris Tofu wrote: They take up a lot less room if you just keep the "Enter" key from each keyboard, and throw away the rest!? (and just the hood ornament from each car!) C: They can keep whatever they want, or chuck it all for all I care. They can burn it all in a big pile and send it off to Valhalla. As long as they bid (or in the case of this auction, loan me their cpu card, and I front them the k/b. Shmott, no? heheheh).

From: Pontus <pontus at update.uu.se> yeah.. I should just cut the label out of my front panels and throw the buttons and stuff out.. (I'd rather have the complete machines actually :/ ) /P C: Dude, years ago there were 2 guys sporting PDP/8e's IIRC. One had the real thing, replete w/oozing capacitors. The other had this little thing that could fit in a show box. Both were named Dave, again IIRC. IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A VINTAGE FEST. But the *other* Dave brought his little contraption, date code 2004. ?One thing I'll point out is the *other* Dave didn't need laparoscopic surgery as a result of showing off his PDP/whatever. He was kind of a weird guy though. Got a job w/Microsloth (don't listen to Fred, I, even I invented that term!), and blew the community off, took off w/their domain name. They had to hire a private investigator or something close to find him! No one's heard from him since. You know one just might wonder if he was _sent_ there by M* to spy out illegal distributing of wares and whatnot. Makes you wonder... ?Needless to say the other Dave (not *other*) was much cooler. He had official vintage gear. And had a TI Pro at home w/a mondo cool IBM compatibility board. That's the kind of Dave I like!

________________________________ From: "schoedel at kw.igs.net" <schoedel at kw.igs.net> On Wed, 26 Sep 2012 11:01:47 -0700 (PDT), Chris Tofu wrote Removing a key cap is a routine request from a keyboard collector; he wants to know what kind of switches it has. I don't see anything to 'beware' of, other than an informed buyer. What are you selling that you think would be damaged by removing a key cap? C: Perhaps it's on newer equipment, but you run the risk of breaking the key. ??? Apparently neither he nor you has dismantled every keyboard, so what's to say there isn't a risk? Why the asking?

From: Kevin Schoedel <schoedel at kw.igs.net> Assuming from the eBay ID you posted that it's HaaTa, he pretty nearly *has* dismantled every keyboard (and cleaned, photographed, and documented it, and reverse-engineered and written protocol translators for a number). C: I hadn't realized there was that much interest in k/b's. But writing protocol translators has nothing to do w/keytops. Strange but who am I to criticize someone's hobby. Since you posted here, I assumed it was an on-topic keyboard, which someone here might want to purchase to reunite with its original system. I'm sure I'm not the only one here who has some machines without their keyboards, as well as stray keyboards without their machines. C: What I meant was why ask what's under a key if you've never taken a look at that particular keyboard. I was stating the person asking doesn't know if the k/b could be damaged. Strange wording on my part.

A buddy of mine gave me a key puller years ago, and repaired keyboards. YOu don't put a knife or screwdriver under them and pry. No damage at all when done correctly. I pulled all the keys off my most used keyboards and washed, dried and reinstalled them. This is pretty much what I have, but with a white handle. http://www.keyboardco.com/keyboard_big.asp?PRODUCT=632 jim On 9/26/2012 12:22 PM, schoedel at kw.igs.net wrote:

The U-shaped metal IC extractor tool -- I think mine came with an Apple ][ RAM kit -- with the times reshaped and bent inwards ia good keycap puller. Inded. I pull the keycaps off all my classic computers and wash them when I get the machine. They nearly always need it. Thing is knowing how hard to pull. Most will jsut pull offo, bht there are soem that have locking hooks that clip into the keyboard. The common ones are the LK201 (whcih you get off nby twising each keycap as you pull it) and the HP9100 (you have to remvoe the bezel and flip each hook with a screwdriver). Be careful with space bars. There's often a mecahnsim to keep them level. In some cases you have to dismantle this first. In others, (IBM 5150 keyyboard), the easiest way to replace the space bar is to dismantle most of the keyboard. -tony