maple "mavica" syrup [6502] @mavica_again@computerfairi.es

don't have a commercial rust remover readily available so i whipped up a quick baking soda water paste and applied it liberally to both sides of the top plate. seems like most of the surface rust already brushed away anyway

bottom plate is rust-free thankfully

it took all my strength but i managed to straighten the tabs & free the metal plates! and just in time as well, the rust was starting to get to the membrane, but thankfully nothing had been damaged yet

i got really lucky with this machine, it's in really serviceable condition!

almost but not quite all clear. can't figure out how to remove from here the switch for the left shift, which has the retainers for the stabilizer bar, the retainers for the space stabilizers, and the caps lock LED. but this already gives me plenty of surface to clean

the switches are pretty easy to take off by paw once you know where the tabs are

unfortunately (fortunately?) this reveals a lot more rust

oh, the switches come off! accidentally pulled one along with a stubborn keycap, turns out they're held in place by plastic clips holding onto the metal plate

i was right about them being linear spring switches!

this corner isn't so happy

those rubber domes are for the index up and down keys, thankfully they're working fine

i can try to clean up a bit from here but without access to inside the keyboard there's not much i can do about the rust

i WAS going to try to clean the keyboard from the inside to solve stubborn keys, but check out how thick this metal plate is! nothing i have is strong enough to bend them straight to open it

if i had to guess, they are probably linear spring switches (no tactile feel or click)

golly!

the backstage :^)

so i bought some inexpensive fine-tip 0.7mm ballpoint pens (in 10 different colours!) in order to try to fashion new stock for plotters like mine

the first attempt wasn't a success.. however i managed to refill one of the pens with the black ink from those ballpoints!

🤔

hopefully until the end of the year...