As requested by many people asking about these caps, I have ordered a new mold for these transparent relendable caps based on the exact dimensions of the original IBM 4704 transparent (now yellowed!) caps. The relegendable caps allowed banks using 4704 terminals to put in specific function keys before the days of the GUI for IBM mainframes and terminals, so it is definitely in line with the 4704 reproduction project. Nowadays they can be used for designing your own key, to open a specific program, to run a particular macro, etc.
The plan is to offer the lowered pricing currently shown on the product page for the group buy folks and then to increase pricing once they are actually in stock, to help cover project cost overruns and pay for the new molds.
Ordering one unit of this product gives you one clear relegendable cap and one Model F / Model M compatible stem. The stem will be provided in assorted colors – you can’t pick, but you won’t see it anyways once your relegendable paper label is installed.
This is the only place to get these IBM-style reproduction transparent caps, unless you buy an original 4704 keyboard that happens to have these caps (if you can find one!).
You can access a template for printing your keys here: https://deskthority.net/workshop-f7/ibm-4704-model-f-model-m-transparent-key-template-t9794.html
Chatting with the inventor of the IBM Buckling Spring and Beam Spring keyboard switches, Richard H. Harris (Dick Harris)!
https://deskthority.net/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=25847
Someone was able to track down Dick Harris who created a thread on Deskthority and has been answering questions over there. Feel free to read the thread and post if you had any other questions! Below is my post on the thread:
“Hi Dick, I just came across your thread and want to echo everyone else in stating it is a great honor that you are a part of our community. Thank you so much for your time reviewing and writing up responses to the community’s questions.
I am the coordinator of the project that brought the Keyboard F back into production after many decades and it is a great honor to be able to chat with you and to make for the next generation some more keyboards of the technology that you invented. I and many others consider the Keyboard F (what many of us colloquially call the “Model F”) to truly be the best keyboard ever: a great experience to type on and an extremely reliable keyboard that people have used for decades after manufacture – can’t say that about too many computer parts made these days!
A question: I might have missed your reply in this thread but did you make adjustments to the buckling spring design based on any sound considerations? Part of the enjoyment, in my opinion, of typing on your invention is the musicality of the key presses and the musical ringing after releasing each pressed key while typing. Was optimizing the sound feedback of similar importance to optimizing key travel distance and tactile feedback in the development / prototyping process?”
Shipping status for the split shipping option offered last year (ship keyboard ahead of keycaps; ship keycaps when ready):
Everyone is currently waiting as part of the separate shipping option, outside of some of the early bird tooling supporters and single digit serials who also opted for separate shipping and received their key sets soon after I received the first batch back in late February and early March. As noted in recent months, the focus has been mailing out as much as I can of the “all in stock” keyboards and orders from those who have been patiently waiting and preferred everything to ship at once. The priority for the past few months and also for next few weeks is to continue mailing out more keyboards for the early birds and for those who have been waiting for the keyboard. Key sets for the split shippers should go out starting in late September. Printed, nonprinted, and other items are not in separate queues – I expect the queue will be approximately by order date where possible, with the “all in stock” stuff going out as the priority and no option available at the moment for “split split” shipping, as we wait for the factory to wrap up the remaining sublimation of international sets and customized individual keys and other small sets. Sorry to keep everyone waiting as I am now the bottleneck.
Sublimation update:
The international sets and additional keys have been delayed. The expectation is that production on them finishes in the next month or two. For now the factory is focusing on the international sets. Zed and I have been going back and forth with the factory’s key set photos to review the alignment. After that, all of the one-off keys will be sublimated. The key alignment has proven much more difficult for all of the international sets – especially with the multiple legend characters on each key requiring much more precise alignment for each key. Alignment issues would be much more noticeable with these keys than they are with the US ANSI set which had fewer multi-character sets.
JIS and Czech are also in the pipeline – let me know if you are interested in either of these sets.
Some Factory videos just posted for new Model F keyboard parts!
As the Brand New Model F Keyboards continue to be mailed out I wanted to share some factory videos. This first video shows how the top inner assembly steel plates are laser cut. This is the first step of the process, before they are bent to shape and then finally powdercoated. As you can tell, each hole is done one at a time so it is a relatively long process for thousands of keyboards.
The second video shows how the inner foam is stamped to create all the super-precise holes for the barrels and top inner assembly tabs. You can then see a photo of the bottom of the stamping tool (basically sharp metal in the outline of all the barrels etc.), and finally a photo of the finished product. The machine that evenly applies the stamping pressure is enormous! You only see a tiny part of the machine in this video.”
The third video shows the second part of the top inner assembly production – the stamping operations to bend the part to shape. First, the steel for the top inner assembly is laser cut (see previously posted video). Then it is stamped to shape in a huge custom-made stamper tool (as shown in this video). Then the two ends are stamped to bend them into place. The final step of this process is inspection of the angle of the stamping. After the laser cutting and stamping are complete, the top inner assembly plates will be powdercoated. You can see that one piece is kept uncurved on the table, used for the stamping tool operator as a reference for the proper direction of the stamping.
After that you can see two videos detailing the ribbon cable production.
These are all short videos, almost all under a minute. | 
