HP-65 1507A04091

[albertofenini]

Dear All
with the reopening of the custom borders between Italy and Switzerland we have been
able to recover two HP-65 purchased in February and that were stuck because of the lockdown.
Will open two separate threads, one for each unit.
This one is interesting because once opened it revealed a number or repairs in its early days.
It looks like the card reader was repaired twice and there is a third label with what looks like the "RAM" word
Also the digits are not perfectly aligned so our guess is that also the display has been somehow touched.
It wasn't turning on at the first try, so we tested the logic board by putting it into a known working HP-65 and we found out it was running fine.
We cleaned the switches contacts and it turned on even when put back in its original case.
However, the center led block shows two problems :
a digit faint lit (has already happened in another unit)
a digit with some missing segments
Will try to replace the block and see if it gets better, than we will try to bring it back to its glory.
Any suggestion or comment is welcome !

Pictures can be seen here : HP-65 1507A04091

[albertofenini]

We have rebuild the card reader
changed the motor coupler and it now works
We also have done a cosmetic refresh, cleaned the keys
Polished the display, re-done the silver trim
and coated the front place
We also have replaced the middle led block
Last thing we have to do is still to replace the label

More pictures at the same album :

HP-65 updated album

[PANAMATIK]

(06-20-2020 12:07 PM)albertofenini Wrote:  We have rebuild the card reader
changed the motor coupler and it now works
We also have done a cosmetic refresh, cleaned the keys
Polished the display, re-done the silver trim
and coated the front place
We also have replaced the middle led block
Last thing we have to do is still to replace the label

Seven lines written! Seems so easy when reading! Congratulations!

What kind of coating do you use? How do you clean the bezel before coating? How do you prevent to remove the printing. Is this possible also for Woodstocks? There are many Woodstocks in my collection which need a new coating. But how to cover the keys because I don't want to open all keyboards.

Bernhard

[albertofenini]

ciao Bernhard, ciao everyone,

since we posted several restoration we didn't want to annoy posting more details,
but we are more than happy to describe what we did and how :
as for the cleaning we use a soft brush and a mild soap, rinse e let them dry
being a classic we take out every single key (we also wash these) and of course
all the electronic parts.
For the coating we use is the TS80 flat clear from TAMIYA, is a trick we learned from
Geoff Quickfall posts so the merit goes to him !
Also on this unit since we weren't too happy with the silver trim we did it again,
it is not as shiny as it should be but it is more homogeneous and we like it more,
rather then the Silver Leafing Pen from Krylon or the Liquid Chrome we used the Edding 750 one.
Also we restored the label, unfortunately it was damaged in the upper right corner,
but using our "Italian Method" described in another post we got if quite flat.
We used 3M spray glue on BOTH sides and then as you will see in the pictures
we have put the back unit in a bench vise between two pieces of wood.
One of these wood pieces can also be used to smooth the wrinkles due
to the glue, and then it takes 24 hours to dry completely.
The coating can be done on Woodstock units as well, we did it by the way, but since
we had to open the keyboards because of the oxidation we had to remove we had no keys, otherwise you will need to protect the keys one by one ....

More pictures here : HP-65 1507A04091 (tools and tips)


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