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Apple III Keycaps / Key stems needed

ngtwolf

Veteran Member
Joined
Apr 6, 2018
Messages
991
Location
Los Angeles, CA
Hi All,

I recently traded my spare Apple IIe for an Apple III that's in slightly sad condition. It does seem to work but I do plan on cleaning it up and restoring it. I did notice a couple keycaps are needed and a couple broken keystems. It's possible I could maybe 3d print parts of the keystems, though i'm not too sure (plus i think maybe a spring is needed), but it doesn't help with the keycaps. I did the preliminary looking around on ebay/etc. to see if anyone had the keycaps and/or keystems but I don't see anything around. Anyone have some thoughts of places to maybe look. It's the alpha key and the left arrow (as seen in pics). Also, if anyone has recommendations that are unique to the apple 3 i should be aware of, let me know... (obviously i'll check for normal things like rifa's and such).

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Thanks!
 
You will never find an "ALPHALOCK" key cap.. Take my word for it. My Apple /// came missing the same key. There is a fix that noone will think twice about however which completed my Apple ///. Find someone selling a first release apple IIe system (the painted system case like the II plus) this unit came with a keyboard variant with white key caps. The Caps lock key will fit in seemlessly to the apple /// keyboard.


Let me know if you ever find the hinge for the internal floppy drive (Now thats something that never shows up nor is there a 3D print option).... Terrible design apple.. Terrible.
 
I had a few Apple IIIs with broken stems. It seems like Apple III keyboards used a few different key switches but I was able to replace some with switches from a damaged 128k Mac keyboard
 
the III used a couple of different key switches over its production life. if your keycaps have a tophat spacer, you'll want the short stem key switches (common with II+)
 
The III keyboard with tophat under the keycaps uses ALP's short stem key switches.
It looks like the keyswitch for the arrow keys are not standard ALPs keyswitches (deeper with four soldering points)
The caplock keys are special, you can probably source one from early models of IIe (ones with white keys), but you'll have to swap out the key stem.
 

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The arrow key switches are multi action, press harder for faster travel.
The caplock keys are special, you can probably source one from early models of IIe (ones with white keys), but you'll have to swap out the key stem.
Already mentioned in post #2
 
I searched for a long time to find one short stem ALPS switch for less than large dollars. So I bought the long stems from eBay and used a Dremel and Exacto knife and cut it down to replace a short stem ALPS key switch used on a ADM20 terminal keyboard. A bit of work, but cheap. Plus I now have spares.
 
You will never find an "ALPHALOCK" key cap.. Take my word for it. My Apple /// came missing the same key. There is a fix that noone will think twice about however which completed my Apple ///. Find someone selling a first release apple IIe system (the painted system case like the II plus) this unit came with a keyboard variant with white key caps. The Caps lock key will fit in seemlessly to the apple /// keyboard.


Let me know if you ever find the hinge for the internal floppy drive (Now thats something that never shows up nor is there a 3D print option).... Terrible design apple.. Terrible.

Thanks Verault. I'll check through my stash to see if i have anything. Also thanks for the info about the hinge, i haven't even looked at the drive yet. Though, i guess the floppy drive is less important to get working if it doesn't since that's a ticking time bomb with the floppy situation anyway.

I had a few Apple IIIs with broken stems. It seems like Apple III keyboards used a few different key switches but I was able to replace some with switches from a damaged 128k Mac keyboard

Oh, cool, I'll look at that. I have parts from a bad 128 keyboard i disassembled (it had the bad custom chip in it so was useless) so i can see if those match either.

Do you know if they are Alps key switches with long stems? If so then there's a seller on eBay that has some 3D printed replacements.

Oh, I'll have to look.. but if it's 3d printed then i should be able to do that as well. 3d printing is a bit of a pain so i have a number of projects lined up that i can do at the same time 😃
 
While I was at Kansas Fest I acquired an Apple /// with 1 broken switch but still had the key cap. I desoldered the switch and it matches my Apple II plus switches. Some of the keycaps are even interchangeable! Good luck on the alpha lock and other unique caps.
 
While I was at Kansas Fest I acquired an Apple /// with 1 broken switch but still had the key cap. I desoldered the switch and it matches my Apple II plus switches. Some of the keycaps are even interchangeable! Good luck on the alpha lock and other unique caps.

Thanks. I did just look at it and I see the alpha lock keys are just short stem ALPS keys with an adapter and I can use a long stem ALPs as deltadon did as I have plenty of those from a dead mac 512 keyboard. The arrow key stem is going to be more of an issue since it's broken and missing the spring thing that is on those, so printing won't solve that. I think i can find a stem that'll work for that, it just won't have that special arrow key functionality but maybe that doesn't even matter. I did look at the keys I from that old mac 512 keyboard but the color is definitely different so it'll look odd unless i replace all the off-color keys (obviously using caps lock instead of alpha lock as verault mentioned). I do have a 2+ but those are also different colors (and I wouldn't want to mess with that anyway), so i'll have to do like verault mentioned and keep an eye out for some original 2e keys. At one point I had 3 2e's but I gave away the other 2 (I think one of them was a painted one but.. c'est la vie).
 
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