deskthority

I say "NIB" because I did something to it.... I improved it! (Haha..) I took orange alps apart, and removed the top housings of most of the switches in the 102, then replaced the white sliders, springs, and top housings with that of the orange alps. So essentially I made click modded orange alps. They feel very close to blue alps, which was the intention of the mod in the first place! This was back when my blue alps supply was very limited (I think I maybe had one board of blue alps) and I wanted to try and recreate the feeling with stuff I had lying around. I would say I succeeded, but obviously, they aren't genuine blue alps.

To be super transparent, I have two of these boards. One of them is basically NOS (which is the one I’m keeping) and the other is this restored beauty. The PCB that this board came with was completely dead, so I replaced it with a similar PCB from an EPSON that I bought from u/mike52787 after he harvested the switches from it. This board uses SKCL (linear) brown alps – which are very rare and extremely nice. They are actually my favorite linear switch, but again, seeing as I have a NOS Packard bell and recently completed an omnikey 101 project (also with SKCL browns) this one needs to be enjoyed by someone else - someone that will use it!. The switches are in excellent condition. They are in excellent condition (I said it twice because it’s important). Comparing them to my NOS Packard Bell yields very minor discrepancy – they feel absolutely lovely! SKCL browns are a heavy alps linear switch – much heavier than SKCL green and even heavier than SKCL yellow. Somewhere in the 60g-70g range. The spacebar is an SKCL amber switch, which is even heavier than brown! I included a typing video in the next section so you can hear what they sound like! The only flaw in the keyboard itself is that there is some sporadic yellowing on the alpha and numpad keys =/ but also has a relatively low serial number! I’ve priced the board at a pretty high premium due to rarity, quality, and overall condition, but I’m definitely open to offers!!

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typing test

I painted this board an industrial grey color as well as gave it a black Zenith badge from an old z-150. The board was already pretty clean, so I didn't do much else. Switches are VERY smooth SKCL yellow switches and has SKCL green switches with red LEDs.

This board is in very nice nice and clean condition - it even has a newish smell to it as well, haha. I used some of it's original caps on my f122 and fXT though, so it has a bit of a mishmash of caps - particularly on the bottom row mods. Comes with a yellow unicomp enter key as well as a dustcover. The cable is in immaculate condition!