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I took some time this morning to start working on getting it taken apart. The springs are in such horrible condition that they are quite literally crumbling when I touch them. The system must have been left outdoors for years or even decades before it was rediscovered. I removed the keycaps from the board and many of the springs are actually stuck inside the keys. I'll have to figure out a way to remove these from the stems. After getting all of the keys removed, I gave the keyboard a few good shakes and found a fine dust made up of dirt and rusty bits of steel that have all but dissolved. I have not yet opened the keyboard but hopefully the hammers are in good enough shape to reuse, as I do have the replacement springs ready for it.   
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I recently managed to obtain a CM QFS from a user over at Geekhack. The board uses Cherry MX Green switches and the keyboard is in overall good condition, however the F1 key is missing a slider and spring which will be relatively easy to obtain. If not, I will just solder in a new switch. The rubberized case is not in the best of conditions, so I'm planning on replacing it with one of the aluminum Filco cases. At this point I'm considering an anodized black case, but since I'm still in the early stages this may take some time before I even get around to buying a new case. The stock ABS keycaps are also not in great condition, as they are now quite shiny, so those will be getting replaced with some nice PBT keycaps. It also needs to be cleaned, but nothing a little bit of isopropyl alcohol can't handle. I don't have any pictures of it yet, but you can see an image from Cooler Master below.  I recently managed to find a post in which someone had found an old IBM 5155 portable terminal system that had been left to the elements. Naturally, the keyboard is completely corroded and none of the keys work as they are all seized up. Since Model F springs are pretty expensive, I will probably reuse the hammers and then put my spare Model M springs on it, which I've heard is actually quite similar to the original springs. I will also need to take a thorough cleaning to the keycaps, can hopefully get these polished up and back to good quality. I think the keyboard will be good to go once it's refurbished, but we'll have to see once I get the springs fixed. Pictured below is the 5155 system. It was found by /u/alumbrado.  Currently I am awaiting shipment of a Varmilo VA87MR with Cherry MX Linear Gray switches. The board will contain white LED backlighting as well as gray dye sublimated keycaps. I may change out the keycaps at a later date. I currently own an aluminum space gray Varmilo VB87M with Gateron Clear switches and white PBT keycaps. Many of the switches have died since I bought it a few years ago, so I'm planning on swapping the cases between the two. The VB87M will get new switches (not sure which at this point) and then I'll probably resell it after that. Below I have a picture of the VB87M and how it looked with gray dyesubs, shortly before I sold those keycaps.  |
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