IBM beam springs photo thread!

[snoopy]

still not sure if I like it or not...

Beamspring

IMG_0320.jpg (645.84 KiB) Viewed 6313 times

[andrewjoy]

if you dont want it i will have it ' i do like the black on white letters they look so nice !

[xwhatsit]

But.... TRIPLESHOTS!

Are we or are we not Geekhack here?!? TRIPLESHOTS!



Hang on a minute, this is DT.

[Muirium]

Here's a 1984 vintage photo I just found of a Great White in use, at Intel no less…


https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File ... n_1984.jpg

[Touch_It]

Maybe not the right place to ask as I started a thread in the videos section but does anyone have a video of a revived beamspring with solenoid or able to make one. I'd really love to hear one in action. Also I would love to own one some day.

[Hypersphere]

Here is a link to a beam spring in action, but the solenoid has been disabled:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thusIHpu6ks

[Touch_It]

Here is a link to a beam spring in action, but the solenoid has been disabled:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thusIHpu6ks

Thanks It's always a joy to hear a beam spring. I've got it in my head that a solenoid paired with it is magical and will be the most glorious sound ever. I may or may not have the bar set to high lol.

[macmakkara]

Its ALIVE! Need to use laptop vause my desktop corsair H100 (watercooler) did suicide (pump broke)...

[andrewjoy]

Nice board Shame about the H100 hope it did not leak

[macmakkara]

It did not leak. Just pump died so no water circulation and that means no cooling. :/ i booted it up today and checked where it temp idles... got to desktop and hwmonitor open CPU temp +90c... Eh well... that was one of my fastest shutdowns i have done

I can tell that Sandybrige-e processor with 125w tdp can output some serious heat. i7-3930k...

[andrewjoy]

my DDC pump got clogged on my loop and the temps got pretty high lucky for me due to the amount of water in a full loop with 2 GPUs ( almost 2.5l) it was not so bad i managed to clear the blockage i dont know what it was it broke up in the water.

[Redmaus]

How much will a beamspring usually cost?

I am guessing a lot...

[Muirium]

$100 if you're lucky. $200 if you're not.

[seebart]

I'm willing to spend more but that's no use. Can't buy what's not for sale.[emoji35]

[elecplus]

So why did u not buy when I had like 20 of them?

[Muirium]

Factchecked!

[elecplus]

For the crumbling contamination shield, I looked at what is in the IBM Selectric that I took apart for the blue keys, since it is very early vintage. It is a porous black foam, like is used in fan grilles or aquarium pumps, and it has not degraded much at all!

[seebart]

So why did u not buy when I had like 20 of them?

Wrong timing AND of course I´d like to find one in the EU which does not make it easier!

[elecplus]

I will have to organize a group buy next time I get a batch, send to someone in the EU that has a vehicle. I can ship them on a pallet for relatively cheap (and slow), but someone would have to drive to a warehouse and get them. I tried this before, but no one stepped up...

[Muirium]

Yeah, I don't think that will work. Fuel's way more expensive over here, and we have those tiny little European cars that look so out of place when you occasionally see them in America! Would the pallet somehow avoid customs? That's the real heavy duty pain in the arse, here in Britain certainly.


@Seebart: You're currently #1 on my waiting list for the German 3276 I have from Der Rustmeister. You are also last on the list! Once I check the condition of my US 3276, and pop in another Xwhatsit controller and solenoid PCB, I'll make my mind up about whether I'll bring it back here with me. You like the little 3276 layout, right?

[elecplus]

Customs does not seem to apply to pallets, when they go to my buddy. Don't know about other warehouses though. Air packages to him DO get customs, though.

[XMIT]

I'll gladly take a 3278 if you ever come across more of them.

[seebart]

Yeah, I don't think that will work. Fuel's way more expensive over here, and we have those tiny little European cars that look so out of place when you occasionally see them in America! Would the pallet somehow avoid customs? That's the real heavy duty pain in the arse, here in Britain certainly.


@Seebart: You're currently #1 on my waiting list for the German 3276 I have from Der Rustmeister. You are also last on the list! Once I check the condition of my US 3276, and pop in another Xwhatsit controller and solenoid PCB, I'll make my mind up about whether I'll bring it back here with me. You like the little 3276 layout, right?

well I´m not really picky at this point, but yes I would prefer the 3276.I do appreciate your consideration and yes I keep whining about this, I know. It´s not like I don´t have enough nice KB´s. I actually got a email from the dresden Rustmaster recently telling me had found more plastic keyboards but no metal ones.

[elecplus]

I know I shipped a lot of individual beam springs to Europe, and I can do it again with no problem. Just thought bulk cheap shipping might be easier.

[Muirium]

It can be, if you ship to Germany: they have less evil customs than us, and their shipping (especially to other countries in Europe) is easily half the price of shipping out of Britain.

Missing customs is a huge win if you can pull it off. (So I gather…) Seems crazy to pay taxes on old gear like this anyway, let alone the processing fees and delays tangled up in the process.

[Halvar]

We don't really pay customs fees but sales tax here in Germany when we import stuff from the U.S., I'm pretty sure that there is no easy way to avoid that even when shipping through your buddy's warehouse. He/she doesn't have to pay the tax when getting stuff from the U.S., but later, when selling it on to consumers. However, for beam spring boards, shipping is the main cost driver, so if we can get that down I'm sure people will be interested.

(Did somebody mention Cindy is awesome?)

[Muirium]

Sure, she didn't get that gold wingnut for nothing!

You guys aren't getting special treatment from Der Zoll: that's exactly what's supposed to happen. European Union nations have Value Added Tax of 20% (or within a few percent) which (much to my frustration) is apparently taxed even on used imports. Business get to claim VAT differently to the rest of us, so you're probably right about the friendly warehouse bit as well.

In Britain, it's the same but a couple of extra costs. The government lets its monopoly mail handler (Royal Mail / Parcelforce) add an arbitrary and unavoidable fee on top of the VAT bill. This often raises the tax from 20% to more like 40%. And then, once you've paid that, our shipping is insane! This is a bad place to be a proxy when Germany is available instead.

[andrewjoy]

When my new phone arrives ( as its the only camera i have and my other phone died ) i will take a shot of my one with its Vim cap

[idollar]

I know I shipped a lot of individual beam springs to Europe, and I can do it again with no problem. Just thought bulk cheap shipping might be easier.

If there is interest, I could help here. My car's hook and a trailer will do the job. Cyndi could send it to Amberpen, 400kms from here.

i$

[joc]

Here's a beam spring keyboard with some unusual keycaps:


Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/robertwebbe/4080515768

I wonder what it was used for - the section sign and copyright symbol suggest that it might have been used to prepare legal documents.