deskthority

If you leave retrobright on for too long, especially here in Texas where it can be quite dry, the water evaporates out, the concentration of peroxide goes up, and the plastic underneath undergoes an irreversible "bloom" process. This happened to me twice before I figured out what it was. I ruined a friend's part this way.

I don't really understand how you could get solder in a bolt joint Oo .

@XMIT, I learned that the hard way when I ruined my AEK case. I can still repaint it though.

@Chyros It came that way from the factory. At least my assumption was that once they screwed everything together, they poured solder over the bolt head. Another Omnikey 101 has all the bolts like this, some have head contours visible, some are completely covered. I'll take a pic later.

Not sure if that's the right place but I literally yelled "SHIT !!!" and other things when I popped the switches off of that Nixie candidate. Been so super desperate for Nixies ...
https://imgur.com/1J3Qv2X

Haha seriously those Nixdorf magnetic valve switches make "nixies" look like a mediocre overhyped toy.

Has anyone ever made them work with a modern PC ?

The switches are not the problem but the Nixdorf controller and the protocol it "speaks". The terminal looked something like this:

Oh, and - I can't forget the fun, of pulling an NEC Blue Ovals key cap out straight up and destroying the switch mechanism, only to find out that it is made of Delrin and cannot be glued back together.

Or, similarly, how much fun it was to try pulling a Key Tronic foam and foil key cap off to the side, and snapping the little guide arms that click into the sliders. At least those are ABS and can be glued back together.

Not, can we forget, the sheer joy of removing a Space Invaders key cap and losing the spring, never to find it again. Or the fun of doing a bolt mod on a Model M and realizing that there is one extra (or one missing) hammer and spring.

Can't forget the frustration of finding a difficult to replace 10u Cherry MX space bar warped and rendered useless by washing it in water that is too warm.

The way to learn is by doing, sadly, and I've done dozens of successful repairs to the extent that it's been a net win, but there are some frustrating times for sure.

Yeah I've destroyed a few space invaders. I've also torn the stem off Beamspring switches but that's fixable.

I lost a SKCM white spring recently. Serves me right for not doing it on the desk but on the couch. That bugger is smaller than a space invader spring and it went somewhere behind the couch against the wall. It's still there somewhere

I also have to open a space invader clicky switch because it won't click. Wish me luck.

Reassembling Alps switches can definitely lead to a lot of 'oh shit' moments if you're not careful..

I've almost lost springs and have accidentally bent a tactile leaf or two, not fun.

accidentally melted an alt keycap on my omnikey with a soldering iron. my most recent oh shit moment.

After realizing I deformed a Model M case with a heat gun while trying to remove its LED overlay. (The latter was completely unfazed.)

mike52787 wrote: accidentally melted an alt keycap on my omnikey with a soldering iron. my most recent oh shit moment.

I also melted a keycap + keyboard case some days ago.

Just gave my Poker II a clean (turned it upside down, tapped and shook it, and brushed out the dust), and the space bar died. It seems that there's some dirt inside the switch that eventually dislodged, and space is working again. However, when I reassembled it and connected it back to my computer, it would power on and then back off without the computer detecting it. Oops ... ESD killed the controller? Nope, works on my laptop OK … I'm guessing that the USB port on the back of the monitor that I was using is bad — tried the other one, and it works. (I didn't check which one it was in front-to-back.)