FXT's IBM 4704 107 key restoration

FXT · 02 May 2018, 23:25

I purchased this F107 keyboard back in January from orihalcon with the intention of restoring and ANSI modding it. However, I didn't predict how busy I would be this semester so I put the project on hold. Now that the semester is drawing to a close, I can finally begin the restoration of my F107. I have a few goals that I'd like to achieve with this restoration: Get the case powdercoated in a similar grey to IBM industrial grey, ANSI mod the keyboard, and obviously restore the board removing any rust and replacing the foam. Thankfully orihalcon already soldered in an xwhatsit controller so part of this restoration is already out of the way, huge thanks to orihalcon for that, and for selling me the board of course.

Spoiler:

Myoth · 02 May 2018, 23:34

As always, boy, do I love F107s, they always look so good, good luck with the restoration !!

(that's a shame about the relegendables, I wish I had more of them but they're 1.7usd each on some old ass site !! guess I'll be on the look out for another F107

)

FXT · 02 May 2018, 23:38

Myoth wrote: As always, boy, do I love F107s, they always look so good, good luck with the restoration !!

(that's a shame about the relegendables, I wish I had more of them but they're 1.7usd each on some old ass site !! guess I'll be on the look out for another F107 )

Thank you. As for the relegendables, they weren't really in the best shape and if I remember correctly some were cracked. I tossed them because I figured nobody would want them.

FXT · 03 May 2018, 02:02

Small update. Removed the barrels and flippers from the front plate as well as the foam. Although I didn't really remove the foam, it all came off with the barrels. There wasn't a single barrel that didn't have at least a little bit of foam stuck to it. I'm hoping that a bath in warm, soapy water will make removing sticky, crumbly, 35 year old foam easier. I might sand and paint the front plate tomorrow if I have any spare time.

Spoiler:

pyrelink · 03 May 2018, 03:50

I am sure someone here might have the magic solution, but I found the degraded foam incredibly hard to completely clean off of the barrels. As for the plate, it all wound up coming off when I sanded the thing down anyway.

JP! · 03 May 2018, 03:57

This is gonna be good.

FXT · 03 May 2018, 05:36

pyrelink wrote: I am sure someone here might have the magic solution, but I found the degraded foam incredibly hard to completely clean off of the barrels. As for the plate, it all wound up coming off when I sanded the thing down anyway.

You're correct, it was a huge pain to clean off of the barrels. Well, more time consuming than anything IMO. I used a tooth brush after letting the barrels soak and cleaned each one individually. I recommend having music and a drink handy to make the process more bearable.

JP! wrote: This is gonna be good.

I'm excited to see how it turns out. It'll be a nice change of pace to have an ANSI layout keyboard again after using an XT as my main board for almost a year.

P.S. does anyone know who was making replacement case labels for IBM keyboards? I think I remember someone making a replacement label for a beamspring but I can't remember who was actually making them.

fohat · 03 May 2018, 13:26

My experience with F foam is that soaking for a while in hot water with powdered laundry detergent (and usually Oxi-Clean) will melt it away pretty easily. I still contend that this is the optimum cleaning product for most components such as caps, but it is not good for metal.

j0d1 · 03 May 2018, 16:57

Like I said in another thread, I am very excited to follow the progress on this restoration because the unrestored keyboard (assuming yours is in the same state as mine) already feels amazing, even with some keys less responsive than others. A restored F107 with a mint case, new foam, AINSI layout, cleaned keycaps, etc. can only be majestic.

Some questions / comments:

* Do you already know which color you will use to powdercoat the case or you trust the powdercoater on this?

* Very nice choice for the keycaps! I am currently looking for keycaps to go on mine. I am thinking keycaps from a Wheelwriter and the numpad of the 1392595. I cannot work with blank keys so I will keep the relegendable keycaps aside.

* I can't see the piezo buzzer in your pictures, do you intend to put it back? Also, did you consider this amazing mod?

FXT · 03 May 2018, 23:42

j0d1 wrote: Like I said in another thread, I am very excited to follow the progress on this restoration because the unrestored keyboard (assuming yours is in the same state as mine) already feels amazing, even with some keys less responsive than others. A restored F107 with a mint case, new foam, AINSI layout, cleaned keycaps, etc. can only be majestic.

Thank you. Unfortunately mine didn't feel particularly great when I got it because of the poor condition the foam was in.

j0d1 wrote:
* Do you already know which color you will use to powdercoat the case or you trust the powdercoater on this?

I don't remember, but I will ask when I get the case back from the powdercoater. I went in looking for a color similar to RAL 7030 but didn't want a smooth/gloss finish so I ended up selecting a grey that was slightly lighter with a hammertone finish.

j0d1 wrote: * Very nice choice for the keycaps! I am currently looking for keycaps to go on mine. I am thinking keycaps from a Wheelwriter and the numpad of the 1392595. I cannot work with blank keys so I will keep the relegendable keycaps aside.

I'm actually going to be temporarily using a set of white Unicomp caps until my reproduction caps come in from Ellipse. I ordered industrial blue and dark grey caps from Ellipse and can't wait for those.

j0d1 wrote: * I can't see the piezo buzzer in your pictures, do you intend to put it back? Also, did you consider this amazing mod?

My board didn't come with the buzzer, and yeah I've seen that video of the solenoid in an F107. I'd love to add one, but my soldering skills aren't the greatest. I experimented with adding a solenoid to my DisplayWriter when I had it but ended up bricking my xwhatsit somehow. Unless someone local to me offers to solder in an expansion header to the xwhatsit in my F107 I think that a solenoid will just be something I dream about.

fohat wrote: My experience with F foam is that soaking for a while in hot water with powdered laundry detergent (and usually Oxi-Clean) will melt it away pretty easily. I still contend that this is the optimum cleaning product for most components such as caps, but it is not good for metal.

Thanks for the advice, if I ever have to clean more Model F foam I will be sure to keep that in mind.

FXT · 18 May 2018, 02:25

Small update: Finished sanding and painting the front plate. There's a little bit of orange peel but I think it turned out alright and it's not something that anyone will see when it's assembled anyway. I should be picking up the case from the powdercoater tomorrow morning. Hopefully I have time to put this thing back together soon.

Ignore the black specks on the towel, they're just pieces of the old foam.

FXT · 19 May 2018, 00:04

Powder coater did a phenomenal job. Can't wait to finish up this keyboard.

Brett MacK · 19 May 2018, 02:56

The best restoration of an F107 100%. Love how you are keeping it original. Looking forward to the finished product

FXT · 19 May 2018, 13:30

Brett MacK wrote: The best restoration of an F107 100%. Love how you are keeping it original. Looking forward to the finished product

Thank you, I'm excited to use this behemoth and finally have a modern layout again.

FXT · 19 May 2018, 14:19

Not too happy right now. The foam I ordered from Ellipse is too tall and not wide enough.

Unless I'm supposed to stretch it to fit which doesn't seem quite right to me.

JP! · 19 May 2018, 17:27

This is coming along nicely. It doesn't seem like the foam is lined up with any holes in the picture. The worst case I guess would be to make your own. Did you save the old foam to use as a reference?

fohat · 19 May 2018, 17:57

For what it's worth, I don't take the foam over the metal lip and onto the tabs. It never moves once the barrels are set so it could be a full cm (1/4") smaller than the metal plate, all around, without creating any problem.

FXT · 19 May 2018, 18:27

I decided to try stretching the foam a bit and let the excess stick out of the top. It works perfectly and now I finally have a keyboard that feels as good as my XT with a modern layout. Just need my dark grey and indy blue XT profile caps from Ellipse now. Using some Unicomp and original F107 caps atm. Cable is also temporary, I'm waiting on a coiled black cable.

Iggy · 19 May 2018, 18:30

Looks great! Very nice work. I take it you got the white key-caps from Unicomp? (Yeah, they're Unicomps) I'm not sure how the blue key-caps will look with it, though.

FXT · 19 May 2018, 19:28

Iggy wrote: Looks great! Very nice work. I take it you got the white key-caps from Unicomp? (Yeah, they're Unicomps) I'm not sure how the blue key-caps will look with it, though.

Thanks. I plan on ditching the Unicomp caps when I get my Ellipse caps in and going with either dark grey alphas with indy blue modifiers or indy blue alphas with dark grey modifiers.

j0d1 · 25 May 2018, 18:31

This restoration is amazing and the powder coat job is soooo beautiful. It is more grey than eggshell but classy nonetheless.

For the keycaps, here's an idea to complement the indy blue ones: Unicomp blue APLs (I never saw them in the wild, I wonder if they are as faded out as the orange ones).