Would this make a cool project? (TKL Dell AT-101W)

[snacksthecat]

Hi Guys,
I've been mulling this over for a while now. I still have some spare parts that I've not offloaded yet, including the chassis for a Dell AT-101W. What I'm thinking about doing is chopping off the numpad and making a TKL board out of it.



I have a couple of questions before I decide:

• Do you think this make for a cool project?
• Is it looked down upon to drastically modify an out-of-production keyboard like this? (I got berated on reddit a couple months back for dyeing AEKII keycaps the colors of the apple logo for "ruining a vintage keyboard". P.s. it looks awesome #yolo)
• How would I go about cutting the PCB? I know the dust is a health hazard but aside from that I don't know how to approach it anyways. I tried cutting the corner of a PCB with tin snips to fit into a leading edge case a while ago and it basically just shattered it. Luckily it was a very small cut so the PCB wasn't ruined or anything.
• What's the cheapest way I can cut the plate without ruining it? I don't have very many cutting tools.
• Apart from the pain of making sure the traces get reconnected correctly, is there anything I'm missing that might suggest this modification is impossible?

In addition, I'd like to dye the case a cool color. I've had good luck dying a couple of ABS spacebars in the past by keeping the temperature relatively low and only dipping them for a couple moments at a time. The biggest pitfall with dying is that the colors are very limited and they don't always come out looking like they do on the box. I guess I could always doing a trial run with the leftover bits I chop off before dunking the whole thing.

What do you all think?

[Hak Foo]

The AT101W is fine to cut up in my book. There's plenty of them still around at decent prices, and it's not a hugely compelling board out of the box.

You might try using one of the little circular-saw bits for a Dremel to cut the PCB. It will still kick up a mountain of dust-- use a breathing filter of some sort-- but you can probably avoid shattering the board.

A dremel-clone is worth having and can cost well under USD50 for a low-end one.

[PlacaFromHell]

The cleanest way to cut a PCB is apply some heat and use a sheet metal manual shearing machine (if you have access to one). Or use a cutter and a rule being very, VERY careful, also works fine.
If you have time, grab the plate with clamps and cut it by hand using a saw. Leave some margin to rectify it with a file.
If there is people killing SSK's to make hybrid aberrations, you can do this with no guilt.

[Findecanor]

Cool? Sure, unless you think it uncool that maybe a dozen other people have done the same mod already.
I even have an old wiring diagram that someone posted on Geekhack back in 2013. (I'm sorry I forgot to note down the username in the filename for attribution)

I cut PCB's with Dremel cutting wheel, while wearing a dust mask and eye protection and having a vacuum cleaner on full with the nozzle right next to where I'm cutting. Then I wipe dust off and vacuum the pieces. I hope that's enough ...

I would advice you to plan the cut of the case carefully so that you retain screw posts and flip-out feet once it is back together. The lines might have to be a bit zig-zag to do that.
Bind plastic to plastic with glue made for plastic model kits. You could also put scrap ABS pieces into a air-tight jar and cover with acetone to make ABS slurry that could also be used as filler and adhesive: It should have the same colour as the plastic you are using it on, but do be very careful not to spill and do apply only very thin layers at a time.
There is a high chance that you would have to sand and paint the case afterwards anyway to hide the seams.

[fohat]

If I remember right, it was grimey who did this on GH a few years ago.

I think that he also drop blue switches in there, but I may be wrong.

[abrahamstechnology]

Please don't, if you can wait a week I'll be able to buy it and some more of your stuff.
(I am almost finished with refurbishing the corroded one, BTW)

[Myoth]

I think I'm going to do the same with one of my SGIs, I have one I won't be able to use and it's in a bad state anyway, it's going to be a fun project I think, if you ever do it, please update so I won't have to search it myself hahaha

[Findecanor]

I wouldn't do it to a SGI. First because I personally have a semi-religious reverence towards SGI stuff, but also because I think SGIs are considerably rarer than Dells.
I once had a SGI keyboard that I couldn't use because it used a SGI-protocol, but I found a SGI-collecting enthusiast and traded it for a more interesting keyboard with AT plug. In this case, trading was better than modding.

[mike52787]

Forget the pcb, no need for it. handwiring would be easier than patching together a chopped pcb. getting the case to looks good after the cut is the big deal here. if you screw up the case on this though its really no big deal, at101ws are dirt common anyway. Its a pretty neat idea if you can pull it off successfully.