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

hey we're looking for chill online co-ops "non-games"/experiences so me and my long distance girlfriends can hang out together without much expectation or stakes to get frustrated at

we're in dire need of new things to do and everything seems old and boring at this point

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!

friend of mine came pick something up at my home and we greeted each other with a quick fistbump, think that was the most physical contact i've had outside of family in over a year

hey wanna see me make a lot of keyboard nerds mad?

the IBM Model M is a membrane keyboard

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)

d'you know what? i'm not immediately seeing any split gears, believe it or not

i think they might be grinding for another reason, like the carriage movement resisting too much

golly!

(the laptop doesn't ever reach dangerous CPU temperatures so i don't really have much of an incentive to do all the work of taking my server down (literally, from a high shelf) and going through the tedious business of replacing a laptop fan, if i even find one for this model)

the tired faulty fan on my home server laptop sometimes sounds not unlike a pot of water very quietly coming to a boil. i stopped and just listened for a minute to all the sounds in the silence of my room and it was pretty relaxing