The beginning, where it all starts! The first thing I did was an awful lot of Internet research! Not only Jake VonSlatt's website, but others along the way, just to get a feel for what's required, both engineering and material-wise. Most people aren't lucky enough to have access to a fully-equipped machine shop - I'm not - so the research was done based on what I've already got in my workshop and what I could buy (tools) to allow me to do the job satisfactorily.

The two main websites I used for references are:

SteamPunk Workshop
Datamancer

Both of which provide invaluable tips, tricks and links to elsewhere for help! Search engines are obviously invaluable, however bear in mind that the information - like any other information from the Internet - has to be taken as read and might not necessarily be true! Basically it boils down to "do what you think is right"!

So far, the main tools I'll need for the job are going to be:

Various spanners, screwdrivers and general hand tools such as hacksaws and files. These I already own, however some will need replacing. Local DIY shops normally sell these at quite reasonable costs.

Step drill(s). Jake uses this for the side supports - so far I don't have one, no doubt the DIY stores will!

Bandsaw. This is for cutting the side supports and anything else necessary! I don't have one, however a small mains powered bench mounted bandsaw can be picked up for around £100. It's not necessary, as the cuts can be made by hand with hacksaws and finished with files.

A small cutting drill. Again, not completely necessary, however I bought one (A Dremel) as I wanted one for other projects anyway. They're quite handy! Mine came with a set of small cutting discs, polishing attachments etc, which will come in handy at the buffing up stage later, so a good investment I feel!

Various drill bits and a drill press. I already have a drill press, so I'm basically OK! Along with several sizes of both metric and imperial drill bits gleaned from various drill bit sets over the years.

The materials I'll need:

A keyboard!

Some typewriter keys

Brass channel

Brass plate

Various screws, nuts and bolts.

I'll address the materials and sources as I go along (as I haven't got all of them yet!).

The last thing to remember is that this is going to take some time and could be quite expensive!! You'll need to take the time to do the work properly - and in the case of the keys, it'll be long, tedious and repetative work! Money - well, that's up to what you buy!

I'll start with the keyboard, as it was the easiest (relatively!) to procure. You could, theoretically, use any computer keyboard that you want, be it old, new, membrane-style or otherwise. In fact, some people have "done a Steampunk" on a standard, modern Dell keyboard. However, both Jake and Datamancer (who I consider to be the leaders in the field) recommend using an IBM Model M keyboard.

The reasons for this are as follows (and I have to say that I totally agree):

The keyboard - manufactured between 1984 and around 1990 - is the most solid "clicky-key" (go into that in a minute) keyboard that was made. It's made with a good solid plastic surround and has a metal base to it. It also has removable key tops - making it pretty easy to adjust them to accept the typewriter kets.

The clicky-key bit is fairly simple. "Modern" keyboards mostly use the membrane system of switching. A keyboard is basically a big set of switches - one for each key - that the onboard electronics convert into different electronic signals, which the computer then interprets as a keystroke. So pressing an "A" for example has a slightly different electronic signal than pressing a "B". However it is still basically an on\off switch scenario. Modern membrane keyboards achieve this easily and cheaply by manufacturing a keyboard-size rubber sheet with little "poppets" in it, which - when the key is depressed - make contact with a printed circuit board underneath, thus establishing the contact and thereby generating the signal for the electronics to interpret as a keypress. This is brilliant for manufacturing large quantities of keyboards for very little cost, as the parts are easily assembled etc. However, they don't last very long (as it's normally cheap enough to buy a replacement) as they're not built to!

The clicky-key concept, however, is very different. The keys are individual switches, which connect back through a daughter-board that interprets the switch strokes into keystrokes for the computer. These are electro-mechanical switches and are not prone (unlike the membrane type) to very much wear and tear. The advantage is that they key switches (if neccessary) could be replaced individually and they were designed to have interchangeable covers with the letters\numbers printed on them. So all that, coupled with the fact that they are mounted on a metal platform, lends an air of robustness to the whole keyboard.

And that really is the point! The whole point of the Steampunk thing to my mind is to produce something nice looking, but robust and feeling as if it comes from a Victorian era. That generally means brass and weight! Using the clicky-keyboard goves you the robustness, the quality of build and allows you to add the neccessary brass bits without it falling to bits in a year's time!

So - above is the keyboard in question. I sourced the keyboard from the U.S. from http://www.clickykeyboards.com. Incidentally - the website doesn't just sell the IBM keyboards - they provide a whole technical explanation and history of the keyboards! Even if you don't want to buy, the site is worth a visit, just for a read. I wanted the real thing, so I ordered mine from there. It took a month to arrive and cost quite a bit for postage and packaging (in both Countries!) however the keyboard arrived as new, undamaged and in good working order.

My IBM Model M prior to stripping.

As you can see from the above serial plate, the keyboard was manufactured by IBM on 1st August 1989, which makes it slightly over 20 years old!

This was a bit of kit that I've always wanted! Basically a mini hand help drill that you can put lots of attachments on to do close, or fine work. The idea behind the purchase was to use it mainly as a cutting tool, to precision cut the typewriter keys in order to make the keys for the keyboard.

I bought mine from a Dremel dealer in the UK, however there are many other makes and suppliers that sell the same sort of thing for less if that's what you want!

This was a bit of a saga! Obviously, the idea behind the Steampunk keyboard is that it should be a modern keyboard underneath, but with typewriter keys (and a bit of brass!). Given that the average (UK) keyboard is 102 keys and most typewriters have 42 (ish) keys, then I wanted at least three typewriters, or the equivalent number of keys.

Loose typewriter keys are very hard to get hold of! In the main - apart from us mad people that want to build Steampunk Keyboards with them, apparently they've very popular for jewellry, such as bracelets and necklaces. (?) Therefore there's a bit of a dearth out on places such as EBay.

However, there are quite reasonable amounts of typwriters around in varying conditions. There are also a lot of different types and makes of typewriter too! It all depends on how you want your keyboard to look and how much you want to spend.

The decision on which typewriters to go for was reasonably easy for me - a collegue mentioned that he had an old Imperial typewriter at home that I could have. Given that I already own an Imperial 55, I like the key style, so I've gone for Imperial typewriters.

EBay yeilded three more typewriters (one spare just in case one didn't turn up!), however all arrived safely for quite reasonable costs. In fact - as a sidenote - one is in such good condition that I am going to keep it intact. It's a 1937 Imperial Good Companion and it looks wonderful!

So that's the typewriters sorted!

Now I have my typewriters, I need to get the keys off them!

There are two thoughts here. You can either just grind the keys off with a cutting disc, or - as I did - you can strip the typewriters first and then grind the keys off.

I stripped the typewriters for three main reasons:

1) It was fun.

2) It'll be more stable to clamp the arms in a vice before grinding.

3) It'll guarantee a clean cut.

Did I mention it was fun? Also, it's provided me with no end of parts. I'll hang on to them, as they could prove useful!

This is the keys and arms ready to be attacked with the grinder:

The (cunning) plan is to grip the arms in a vice then grind the key off at it's base, hopefully providing the flat surface. Note that there's a green bin and there isn't! The green bin contains the "good" keys - these are the ones I will use directly (such as letter and number keys). The others I will need to "play" with to either reletter\number them, or can use for practice.

Now that I have the IBM Model M, it's time to strip it down ready to adjust the keycaps, take some measurements for the brass side pieces and to size it up for the brass channel I'll need to mount it in.

First up then is to remove the four screws underneath at the rear of the case, in order to release the gubbins inside. The four screws can be seen in the pic below - note that three of them are inset and one isn't. The screwheads are 7/32" A/F, for which I used a socket.

The body of the socket was too big to reach inside the screw recesses, so a bit of (very careful) judicious grinding took place to reduce the diameter of the socket to just under 1/2" diameter (12.7mm) to fit the recess and reach the screw head. The ground socket is below - if you have a deep socket, that'll probably be the right tool for the job and fit admirably! (The pic is blurred - it's not your eyes!)

From there, with the screws removed, the bottom should lift away to reveal the metal plate below. The daughterboard is held in place on the bottom plastic plate, so be careful when lifting it off. The scket that holds the daughterboard will slide out, leaving you with the exposed underneath as below. Be careful of the strips with the conductors in! If you damage those, the keyboard won't work and the same goes for the daughterboard - handle with care!

So, with the main keyboard bit lifted out....

The plastic bits can be reassembled (to keep the screws from being lost!) and put in a "safe place". I don't think we'll need the plastic case again, but I'll keep it for nostalgia!

So this is what we're left with at the front...

And the back...

And the side view...

The next job is to remove all of the keycaps..sometimes, when pulling off the keys, the keycap won't separate. Just remove it gently....

...and put it back on for the moment.

The wide keys (like the Enter Key, the Ctrl keys, backspace etc) don't have removable caps like the smaller keys. Don't discard them though, as we'll need to reuse these too.

So, remove all of the keycaps and put them somewhere - I stored mine in a plastic yoghurt pot! We won't need these again either, but again, kept for nostalgia! To remove the keycaps, I either used my fingers, or for the qwerty keys that I couldn't get my fingers in to, I used a wide flat-blade screwdriver and gently prised them off. The less damage the better, although the keys need to be changed later (in order to stick on the typewriter keys) it's good practice to do as little damage as possible!

Once all of the keycaps have been stripped, the board looks like this below. Note the spaces....

Which is where the wide keys were...

And here....

And here.

OK, so that's the keyboard almost stripped and ready for action! I've kept the keycaps on for the moment, as (as can be seen from the pic above) there are some small springs in there (the switch actuator springs) that could get lost.

The actuator PCB can (very gently) be "unplugged" from the rest of the keyboard by gently pulling the plastic transparent strips from the plugs on the board and the three status lights plug. Put the PCB in a safe place (!) and be very careful not to damage the connector strips as it will render the keyboard useless!

The next task is to create something to trim the keys to make the typewriter keys sit nicely and to design the side supports (the brass plate).

Apart from tackling the keys, there is the keyboard support and design issue to tackle!

Looking at various vonSlatt-type keyboards, the top and bottom edges seem to vary.

The actual vonSlatt appears to made of plain brass channel that holds the top and bottom edges of the keyboard...

Whereas Datamancer's keyboard is held by brass rods both top and bottom...

Similar to the Warehouse 13 arty's keyboard..

Out of those, I much prefer the brass rod top and bottom effect, however without a proper milling machine to mill the slots in the brass rod, then this will be unlikely!