Scratch Build Project Facit, Intel inside! New sponsor, 1st April.

[vils]

I had an old electrical typewriter from the Swedish manufacturer Facit at home for the kids to play with.
It was a huge 40 pound heavy mechanical wonder, its die cast aluminium shell crammed with springs, levers and other components. It looked like this:


A couple of years ago I made a mod called "All work and no play" and I missed the wonderful feeling of creation so some while ago I snatched the kids typewriter and began planning.
First of all I disemboweld the machine, 18 pounds of complicated metal parts ended up in a "good to have" box.
I decided to make room for a regular PSU a MATX mobo, one or two HDD's and a slim-lin slot in DVD.
Things have moved slow since then, but now the basics are done.

Here are the lower part of the shell, with the DVD slot visible:


Lower system tray with PSU holder, grommet mounts for HDD, hacked fan and thick metal slab for DVD mount:


Mobo tray in place:


Interior mounted in shell with anti vibration grommets:


The part that so far have caused the most headache:


Front mounted:


Keyboard and roof in place:


Last major part mounted:


There are as you can see many things to work with in this project but for the first time I can really see this coming to an end.

The rectangular hole to the left of the KB I will have a "glowing letter" indicator for HDD activity, caps lock, num lock and so on.
I will propably have the case powder coated to replicate it's original finish.
One of the reasons for all the time this have taken is that it's really is a zero budget project.
I have used scrap material and leftovers. I have bought some metal filled epoxy, some screws and the anti-vibration grommets.
The two most expensive parts so far is a rubber silenced HFX DVD drive I picked up on a sale and the refurbished SMK-85 keyboard.
It will propably continue to be zero-budget in the near future so every steps that require cash will have to wait.
Last note: sorry for the whitebalance in the pics, I will try correct this later on.

Thank you for looking!

[Monkey Puzzle]

Looks very nice so far. Would look nice and authentic imo if you could colour a few keys red as for the original.

[vils]

Originally Posted by Monkey Puzzle

Looks very nice so far. Would look nice and authentic imo if you could colour a few keys red as for the original.

Thanks! I have saved all old keycaps and I'm working on a way to use them on the ALPS switches... very complicated with spacing issues, but couloring some red could be a way to go.

[jhanlon303]

I like this a lot!

I watch.

john

[woody_294]

Originally Posted by Monkey Puzzle

Looks very nice so far. Would look nice and authentic imo if you could colour a few keys red as for the original.

+1 Red keys would deffo look good. Looks good keep it coming man!

[vils]

I'll just add some more info:
The mobo-tray and bottom tray are made of 3mm thick aluminium, the distance between them are 30mm.
Between the mobo-tray and "ceiling" the clearance is just over 120mm.
The "lid" over the interior is made of two sheets of 2mm aluminium epoxied together, strong enough to let a TFT to stand on.
The keyboard is as said a SMK-85 with Strongman/ALPS switches wich have a distinct clicky sound. I think this goes well with the machines origin.

I will definitly try to adapt the keycaps so that they blend in even more.

Thanks for the feedback and don't hesitate to ask questions, I'll answer them as swift as I can.

[stonedsurd]

Typwriter cheesecake! Love 'em.

subbed

[Cheapskate]

That is slick.
Where's the paper go?

[Krog_Mod]

Originally Posted by Cheapskate

That is slick.
Where's the paper go?

That would be really interesting if he could somehow work a printer into this as well.

[vils]

I have test installed an old (unusally small) mATX mobo and a dead PSU to clarify the layout:




The installed mobo is only 190mm deep, but there is room for the standard 244mm as you can see.

I suppose it would be possible to squeeze in a small printer as well, especially if I had choosen a ITX solution with a PicoPSU. But this will be my main rig so I prefer power instead of the printer, wich would be more of a gimmic.

BTW, my last mod had some typewriter theme too:

This is unfortunatly a unlit comp pic, I had the log hosted a the now late systemcooling.com and most of the pics are lost.

[Cheapskate]

Nice window idea.

[Monkey Puzzle]

Heh, is that a dead Hiper PSU?

[vils]

Originally Posted by Monkey Puzzle

Heh, is that a dead Hiper PSU?

That's right, dead 580w Hiper.

[Kumo]

Nice work as usual, Vils. Nice to see you in action again.

[Burnout21]

You need to mod a portable printer into that asap!

[vils]

I have worked hard the last two weeks in my not too abundent spare time with epoxi and sanding. Pics will arrive when I'm finished with this stage.
My first idea was to powder coat the case with a colour that is close to the original finish, after speaking to some powdercoaters I think I'll have to abandon this idea.
The epoxi I have used will propably not withstand the 220 d C baking temprature for powder coat.
I have thinked about using a dark metallic gray hammer finish paint from rust-oleum. Unfortunatly this paint seems to be unavailable in the EU and they, so far, don't answer my e-mails.
Another option is to take the case to a car painter and give it a mirror finish dark grey.
But I'm really uncertain about wich finish to strive for, ideas are very welcome.

[perkins teh modder]

hey, how'd you get the writing on the window? is all that etched?!

[vils]

It's laser engraved. Can't remember wich company that made it.

[Combinho]

That typewriter is looking very nice. I look forward to seeing it completed.

[vils]

My connection is for the moment horribly bad, I'll just post some pics and comment later.