Alps64 w/ Apple Extended Keyboard II (AEKII) Keycaps (2019)

ADK64 by geekhack user

from KeyboardBelle

Alps64 from reddit user

Repurposed AEKII Stabilisers

Custom Acrylic Plate in “Glass Green” from Ponoko

SKCM Orange Alps from Donor AEKII

 

Stock Apple Extended Keyboard keycaps from Donor AEKII

 

Mini USB cable White Paracord with Grey Heatshrink from Zap Cables

 

Custom 60%Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Sleeve from Don @ TheBoard Podcast

________________________________________________

 

You know what they say about “an Apple a day”?

 

This was a board that I took a great deal of fun in putting together. I really wanted to give some vintage Alps switches a try, so when I saw an old AEKII from Australia, and a ALPS64 PCB kit up for sale, I knew it was meant to be.

 

I had seen several people do similar things with Apple boards from the 80s and 90s, but I wasn't sold on the cases that they had used. The ADK64 was directly inspired by the Apple boards of yester year; from the shape and angle, to the badge placement, and I couldn't have found a better choice. The wee Apple badge in the top left was harvested from the same board that the keycaps and switches came from. With the case being 3D printed, it has some lines from the process across it, at some point I do want to have a crack at smoothing them out via an acetone vapour bath, but that's still a wee ways off yet; I'd hate to ruin the board like a chump.

 

Nothing special about the switches here. The Alps switches are a type that I have had little experience with, but from what I have seen (or felt), they are super smooth out of the factory, and have really nice tactility. I'd love to get my hands on some vintage Alps linears at some point, as I imagine they could only be better.

 

The plate here I designed myself and had it cut through Ponoko. I set it up with some of my favourite features for a 60% board, and even added an Alps logo under the spacebar just for a bit more character.

 

The keycaps were all or nothing, and I was stoked to have been able to fine a board that was in as good a condition as the donor here was. There are a couple of oddities, like the “Home' and “Page Up” placement, and the “Backslash” is actually “Backspace”. That's the downside with having a sculpted profile keyset, each row is a different profile and shape, so sometimes you just have to make do. I cleaned up the caps as best as I could, and the yellowed spacebars is only due to it being made from a different type of plastic Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene

(ABS, think LEGO) and the rest of them from Polybutylene Terephthalate (PBT); ABS tends to yellow from exposure to sunlight, and PBT is a lot more durable in many ways, you can “fix” it in a number of ways, but I like the character it adds.

 

The cable is just some nice complementing colours, and the sleeve is also just for fun; can never say no to those guys.

 

For all you Apple purists, the AEKII was from a time where as a company, they were helping pave the way, and I'm more than happy to have a part of that in my collection. These days, some of you know that I can't stand Apple, so this is almost like me flipping them the ole middle finger.

Done