In the meantime, I would remind the people who would like to experience a vintage keyboard to take a look at the Unicomp model M keyboards. They are not Model Fs or beam spring, but are rock solid, reliable, and sensibly priced considering their quality.
New Beam Spring Keyboards
11–20 of 116 posts
Re: New Beam Spring Keyboards
#12Mine is now at customs. Wondering how fucked it’s going to arrive. But I guess I like pain.
The 104-key model F I’ve got has a dead spring in numpad delete, and I can’t carve out enough time to disassemble and fix it. Mind you, I did disassemble, put in DIY foam, and reassemble a Model F XT, so I’m not afraid to do it.
Between me ordering the beam spring one and getting it, I managed to change my citizenship, name, and house. But it was only a two year wait, the first Model F remake (60%) took three years and I was quite late to that party.
Re: New Beam Spring Keyboards
#13In the meantime, I would remind the people who would like to experience a vintage keyboard to take a look at the Unicomp model M keyboards. They are not Model Fs or beam spring, but are rock solid, reliable, and sensibly priced considering their quality.
My Endura Pro started having issues three months in after arriving to me in 2013; I remember how it was $99 and shipping was $98, and then I had to pay VAT on it.
It died quite quickly after and become parts donor for old IBM Model Ms I bought out from people’s attics. It was a wonderfully repair-unfriendly thing, too.
Re: New Beam Spring Keyboards
#14In the meantime, I would remind the people who would like to experience a vintage keyboard to take a look at the Unicomp model M keyboards. They are not Model Fs or beam spring, but are rock solid, reliable, and sensibly priced considering their quality.
Link: https://www.pckeyboard.com/page/category/UKBD
I’d get one if the shipping to EU would be more reasonable.
Re: New Beam Spring Keyboards
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
These are definitely not robust. The product description mentions about 5 times that it will most likely be broken when it arrives to you, and will definitely break again in months or years so recommends buying extra first aid kits with spare parts so you can tinker it and keep it working.
I understand they are restarting production from scratch for a product that no longer exists and that nobody actually knows how to make, but being openly unreliable is a significant problem at this price point.
Nah. It's a british sports car, but a keyboard. At this price point the idea that you can have a little pile of parts and take it apart on weekends to fiddle with the springs is its own selling point.
I'm typing this on a Das that's been completely reliable and, to some extent, clackety and 'special' in its own right. There's five other keyboards that came with computers not thirty feet away including an older Das that I wore out: the keycaps are unreadable on that one, the current one's hanging in there.
I'm not in a position to randomly splurge on this new beam spring monster but I understand exactly what it is, and admit to craving it something fierce :) it's exactly the sort of thing I'd get.
Re: New Beam Spring Keyboards
#16> This keyboard is not for you if you do not want to spend an hour or more to set it up and time in the future to adjust a key that stops working well. Do not use any beam spring keyboard in a mission-critical environment.
Yeah, I’ll pass
Re: New Beam Spring Keyboards
#17Some keys won’t work right away – you are responsible for making this keyboard work
Do not use any beam spring keyboard in a mission-critical environment.
I can say this is the first time I've seen this in the sales description for a keyboard. Are these assembled from NOS parts?
Re: New Beam Spring Keyboards
#18In the meantime, I would remind the people who would like to experience a vintage keyboard to take a look at the Unicomp model M keyboards. They are not Model Fs or beam spring, but are rock solid, reliable, and sensibly priced considering their quality.
My Endura Pro started having issues three months in after arriving to me in 2013; I remember how it was $99 and shipping was $98, and then I had to pay VAT on it. It died quite quickly after and become parts donor for old IBM Model Ms I bought out from people’s attics. It was a wonderfully repair-unfriendly thing, too.
Contrariwise, my unicomp model M has been going strong as a daily driver for at least 18 years. They may have lowered the quality more recently, and I'd recommend something in the cherry mx brown ballpark over it perhaps.
Re: New Beam Spring Keyboards
#19In the meantime, I would remind the people who would like to experience a vintage keyboard to take a look at the Unicomp model M keyboards. They are not Model Fs or beam spring, but are rock solid, reliable, and sensibly priced considering their quality.
> considering their quality
Has their finishing improved at all? A coworker bought one, maybe 15 years ago. He has to spend time with a file to remove all the remnants of the molding process. I'd expect a nearly $200 keyboard to feel finished and not have sharp pieces poking out all over the place.
I've long thought about getting a Unicomp, but seeing how poorly finished they were always gave me pause and made me question what other shortcuts they took.
Re: New Beam Spring Keyboards
#20In the meantime, I would remind the people who would like to experience a vintage keyboard to take a look at the Unicomp model M keyboards. They are not Model Fs or beam spring, but are rock solid, reliable, and sensibly priced considering their quality.
I've been twice the past year to buy their keyboards in-person in Lexington Kentucky US. They treated me very well. I can say this much, the full-size keyboard has a slightly nicer feel to it than the 10-key-less version, the key travel that is.