Fixing beamspring modules

[Jacobalbertus1]

Hi guys today is when I finally make the post about this because my controller came from the compact beam spring controller project
viewtopic.php?f=50&t=24512&p=473053&hil ... ng#p473053.

When I was restoring my modules I had not just 1 or 2 of them break off when doing it but rather 9 of them. I was looking at 250$ + in parts or try some redneck engineering, well you know what route I took otherwise you would not be reading those posts right now. I was sitting behind my desk in the DT discord voice chat going about what I would do and how much this would cost, then I came up with this ridiculous idea to try and superglue the little beam spring back onto the post of the module. Others said it was not going to work and be super ghetto but it was either try or suck up the money I did not have to spend on 9 key switches. so here is a bit of a guide and pictures of what I did to get it to work and then if you to have broken switches you can save a ton of cash

So here is the carnage or at least most of them.

I was not happy about this because I was looking at a ton of money in parts for all of this.

here is the one image of where it's bare and glued together I took the pice lined ut up with the rivet in the slot on this and made sure it was streght and level put a tiny dab of super glue on it and waited for it to dry and then added a little bit more to reinforce it this is what one superglued together looks like.


Then I decided to try to put the fly plate on sometimes it failed because I didn't let it cure long enough but I let it cure for hours and then it worked on all of them.



so then it looked like this and I reassembled the modules and it clicked and most of the modules feel right and don't sound that off but there are those lame-duck keys to the right of the alpha block. that is where I put them I did the mod itself a while ago but just got the controller today so I can verify that it works there will be a full restoration post coming in the future.

If you have any questions post a reply.

[SneakyRobb]

Hi,

Nicely done. Sometimes we need to take the simplest and most obvious path to fix something. So this is great to see. Good job!

[inmbolmie]

It is a good idea to assign that repaired switches to less used keys. I feel that stock superglue is too rigid and will fall apart after some time with heavy use. There are similar products that add some flexibility, like "superglue ultra gel control". I would prefer something like that for this kind of repair with moving parts https://www.loctiteproducts.com/en/prod ... ntrol.html

Spoiler:

[Jacobalbertus1]

It is a good idea to assign that repaired switches to less used keys. I feel that stock superglue is too rigid and will fall apart after some time with heavy use. There are similar products that add some flexibility, like "superglue ultra gel control". I would prefer something like that for this kind of repair with moving parts https://www.loctiteproducts.com/en/prod ... ntrol.html

yeah if they break again I will try this but there was one repaird switch I used as a fidget toy extensively for several weeks and it held up, but I see your point in the flexible glue but. this is my "ghetto screw 250$ parts" attempt

[inmbolmie]

yeah if they break again I will try this but there was one repaird switch I used as a fidget toy extensively for several weeks and it held up, but I see your point in the flexible glue but. this is my "ghetto screw 250$ parts" attempt

It is very useful to know that this works, because it is so easy to break those weak beam springs. I ended never dismounting again a Beam Spring switch unless strictly necessary after my first broken beam. That broken one ended as a spacebar stabilizer so there was no real need to repair it but if you have a very dirty keyboard you can end up breaking a lot. Removing and mounting back the stem is specially difficult.

Would be nice if someone with a very good method for mounting/dismounting Beam Spring switches posted a good video tutorial about that. I've seem some videos but never one showing the complete process in a repeatable, easy and fool-proof way.

[Jacobalbertus1]

It is very useful to know that this works, because it is so easy to break those weak beam springs. I ended never dismounting again a Beam Spring switch unless strictly necessary after my first broken beam. That broken one ended as a spacebar stabilizer so there was no real need to repair it but if you have a very dirty keyboard you can end up breaking a lot. Removing and mounting back the stem is specially difficult.

Would be nice if someone with a very good method for mounting/dismounting Beam Spring switches posted a good video tutorial about that. I've seen some videos but never one showing the complete process in a repeatable, easy and fool-proof way.

yeah mine was dirty and parts needed evaporust waiting on solenoid driver because believe it or not with a 9v battery to test it with it worked fine but I will be doing a restoration log on the thing in the future I mean again this was a last-ditch effort because I did not want to let go of 250 for parts its just that I wanted to see if it was even possible to fix it and I guess redneck engineering got lucky this time around

[cakeanalytics]

I seem to recall reading a thread about cutting new beam springs from metal sheet. If successful, should produce more reliable result than super glue. Let me see if I can find it...

EDIT: found it; seems to be way harder.
viewtopic.php?p=456888#p456888