IBM Model M Typewriter

[EdT]

Did a quick search and seems there is no one collecting IBM Model M keyboards !
If you are into vintage phones then the Model M also known at the "Clicky" is something you "got" to have.  This is the only piece of gear that I still use with my computer after 23 years !

The Model M is the equivalent to the Model 500 in phones and weighs just about the same,  7.2lbs of goodness !  



Sent via IBM Model M  ...LoL

[jsowers]

I never knew they had a name, but I have always appreciated them. They had super-long cords too. We got one with every file server and IBM PS/2 back in the day. I just plugged one up to a computer a few days ago at work. They never died, unless someone dropped them and then the keys and keycaps fell off and could, with some determination, all be put back on. The older ones had easily detachable caps over the keys and I work for a school system, so I saw many of them in high schools where the kids (being kids) moved the caps all over the place.

In addition to it being the 500 set of keyboards, it's also the clickety-clack dial of keyboards. Nothing like the sound of using one of them. Maybe also the plucked reed touch-tone dial of keyboards, since it made a kind of metallic plink-plank sound with all those springs. Now, it's mostly a sound of the past, like typewriters. Well, except at Ed's house.

Thanks for posting your keyboard. May it click on forever.

[EdT]

There is still a large following for the Model M just do a search on Youtube, Facebook etc...
Each of these keyboards IBM produced had a unique serial number which makes them all the more collectible.  The earlier models from 1986-1993 had a detachable modular cord that you could switch between an AT and PS2 cable.

A Japanese collector paid $100,000usd for 75 keyboards several years back to the founder of the Clicky Keyboard forum.

IBM started producing the Model M in 1986 and sold their in house production business in 1993 to Lexmark.  In 1996 Lexmark sold it as well to Unicomp which still makes them today under the Unicomp brand,  but the quality just isn't the same.

The reason they click is because each key is a separate "spring buckling switch" unlike the cheap membrane contacts of today's give away/throw away keyboards.  I remember paying $230 for mine back in 1987 !

[Babybearjs]

.... and to think these things are all over the place and as low as $12.00 now.... what a change!

[EdT]

.... and to think these things are all over the place and as low as $12.00 now.... what a change!

I picked up two 1990 models with the detachable cord this past summer for under $3 at a local community shop and they were as good as new.  Think I am going to sell one of them on eBay for $125,  the going price for a NOS Model M !  ...LoL

[McHeath]

I like the Model M's, and see them from time to time in the thrift shops for silly low amounts of money.  My current computer has a membrane keyboard and it has surprised me in how I like it, but there was a learning curve to get acclimated to the low key travel and all-or-nothing nature of the push required.  But then I don't type for a living, and if I did this keyboard might not be up to snuff. 

[WesternElectricBen]

The model M is equivalent to Stinways. Bah
Ben

[mentalstampede]

I've got a new Unicomp made Model M on my desktop at work.  I bought it when my early-90s Lexmark made Model M gave up the ghost.  Great keyboard.

[WesternElectricBen]

I've got a new Unicomp made Model M on my desktop at work.  I bought it when my early-90s Lexmark made Model M gave up the ghost.  Great keyboard.

They are pretty nice, I'm typing on my white one, though I wish I could have bought a black version.

Ben

[mentalstampede]

Mine is black with silver-grey keys. 

[Contempra]

Did a quick search and seems there is no one collecting IBM Model M keyboards !
If you are into vintage phones then the Model M also known at the "Clicky" is something you "got" to have.  This is the only piece of gear that I still use with my computer after 23 years !

The Model M is the equivalent to the Model 500 in phones and weighs just about the same,  7.2lbs of goodness !   



Sent via IBM Model M  ...LoL

I'm not a keybord or IBM collector but I have the same keyboard and I have never ha some problems ..I use it with and old PC....my 2 boys have played on it ..

[gpo706]

Mate in Poland is keen on these clunking keyboards - he found this April 1987 DATCOMP example on a online junkyard auction, check the pics out, looks like its a barn find!

https://app.box.com/s/ugwh69eoc8tj85llk5gfkl8i7v7wbxcq