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sticking keys

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nige the hippy

Veteran Member
Joined
Apr 7, 2006
Messages
1,282
Location
Luton UK
Hello, anyone have any ideas for solving sticking (mechanically stiff) keys?

I scored a rather nice freecycle find, 3 complete Tatung Einsteins plus a development (???) system (piece of plywood with the bits screwed to it and a large rom (or ram, I can't see it properly yet) expansion, and a height-and-a-half 3.5" B drive.)
Apparently they originally came from one of the engineers who worked on the system.

only problems are 1) the usual space/time constraints, and 2) the keyboards just stick down when pressed. they just seem to be too stiff.

And to go slightly O/T I also scored a nice, clean, working Tektronix 200Ms/s digital storage scope from the dump, perhaps I should have a "dump finds" thread in the O/T section!!! it originally cost approx $5000 about 20 years ago, but cost me a well spent £5!
 
nige the hippy said:
Hello, anyone have any ideas for solving sticking (mechanically stiff) keys?

I scored a rather nice freecycle find, 3 complete Tatung Einsteins plus a development (???) system (piece of plywood with the bits screwed to it and a large rom (or ram, I can't see it properly yet) expansion, and a height-and-a-half 3.5" B drive.)
Apparently they originally came from one of the engineers who worked on the system.

only problems are 1) the usual space/time constraints, and 2) the keyboards just stick down when pressed. they just seem to be too stiff.

And to go slightly O/T I also scored a nice, clean, working Tektronix 200Ms/s digital storage scope from the dump, perhaps I should have a "dump finds" thread in the O/T section!!! it originally cost approx $5000 about 20 years ago, but cost me a well spent £5!
Click to expand...

Wow! I have to find a dump near me with that sort of stuff in it.

200 MHz storage scope? Who in their right mind would throw out such a thing? I suppose it was right next to those pristine Amigas...

You're killing me... (again).

:)

Thanks!

Andrew Lynch
 
All true ;)

and I hate to think what I'm missing out on when I'm not there!

....but that doesn't solve the sticky key problem.

I ran one of the keyboards through the dishwasher, but very little improvement, so now I've taken one of the Keys to pieces in an attempt to determine tha nature of the problem, and it appears to be WD40 poisoning :( I think all the little slidy bits of the keyswitch are made of nylon, and have been squirted, and then have swollen till they're tight in their housings. so it looks like first line of attack might have to be a complete disassembly, wash & attack them with a file. (200+ keys, I should get good at it!)

Anyone know if it's possible to shrink nylon again with a de-greasing solvent?
I'm sure I could give it a wash in the modern equivalent of a CCl4 bath.
 
All true ;)

and I hate to think what I'm missing out on when I'm not there!

....but that doesn't solve the sticky key problem.

I ran one of the keyboards through the dishwasher, but very little improvement, so now I've taken one of the Keys to pieces in an attempt to determine tha nature of the problem, and it appears to be WD40 poisoning :( I think all the little slidy bits of the keyswitch are made of nylon, and have been squirted, and then have swollen till they're tight in their housings. so it looks like first line of attack might have to be a complete disassembly, wash & attack them with a file. (200+ keys, I should get good at it!)

Anyone know if it's possible to shrink nylon again with a de-greasing solvent?
I'm sure I could give it a wash in the modern equivalent of a CCl4 bath.
 
Well I never....
I'm having a self-indulgent evening, I'm on strike! After spending most of the day at a baby-things-jumble-saley-thing, my wife told me that she was going to the gym AND going shopping tomorrow, hence negating most of my weekend :mad: so I have decided to spend an equally self indulgent evening doing "orange glowy things"

Before the relevance of this post gets called into question...

I just warmed my soldering iron up ready to tackle removing the keys from the Tatung Einstein keyboard and...

THEY ARE ALL ABSOLUTELY FINE NOW ????!!!!!

No sticking at all!

Caused by damp?? Any ideas??
 
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