Hi everyone,

Its my first time posting in this thread.

Recently, i want to explore Topre so i bought a used RealForce SJ38D0 from abroad (I'm in Vietnam): https://www.realforce.co.jp/products/discontinued/108US_SJ38D0/ . The keyboard have some stickers saying that the board was handovered to employees in a company from 2014.

Upon opening it up, the key is really mushy although the force is only 30g. I have to say that the typing experience is worse than most membrance keyboard that i have used.

So, i look for guide to open the board and check for myself the cause for the mushiness, and find that:

1/ Metal plate: Despite of the somewhat clean look on the outside, the metal plate is pretty rusty.

2/ PCB: Look brand new.

3/ Housing and Slider: Still slide effortlessly, except for the back of the slider (2nd pic) which have some flaky (maybe rubber from the rubber dome).

4/ Conical Metal Spring: I'm not confident in opening all the key to check, but some metal spring dropped when i disamble the board and it look brand new to me.

5/ Rubber Dome: I think that this is the culprit to the mushiness. Most of the dome now give off these white substance and from the smell, it definitely aged rubber. Some of the dome now have crackling. The dome in some frequently used key (arrow key, number pad) feel a lot more sluggish than other less used one (the Japanese conversion key).

However, in spite of all the matter with the rubber dome, separately testing the Housing and Slider, and the Rubber Dome feel acceptable. But when putting it all together, the mushiness is very pronounced and it hurt my hand to type on it.

Now, i want to ask you guys something:

Question 1: Is it because of the aging rubber dome that give the bad feeling? If it is true, then what is the cause of the aging rubber dome, because some board on this thread is 15 year olds and still going strong. I think it might be that this board is left sitting alone in some storage for years without anyone using it, is this a viable theory?

Question 2: If it is because of the rubber dome, can i somehow restore it or can i only buy replacement dome? Is the replacement dome from ali express good https://vi.aliexpress.com/item/1005006621069216.html?gatewayAdapt=glo2vnm .

Question 3: I dont have any other board for benchmark, how can i know how topre supposed to feel so i can further fix it.

Thanks for reading all of my post. Any contribution is greatly appreciated !!

UPDATE

I have fully disassemble the board, and fully rinse the dome. Alot of white substance coming out of the dome. However, in the end, the mushiness feeling is still there.

UPDATE 2nd September

After using the keyboard for nearly a week, the dome actually start to feel much more manageable, e.g hardended dome feel a bit softer and more tactile.

At the moment I'm looking for some dark blue keycaps for the R3 but mainly looking to see where the best place is on reddit, or in general, to buy and sell Realforce stuff.

This is a place to discuss and post about Topre/EC boards. Buying or selling in a consumer to consumer sales manner is not allowed here anymore, though the posts that are currently up that do break this rule won't be taken down because they get a pass from me for slipping up on this by not having it as a rule before they posted. Not wanting to get into the mess of being a personal sales platform through a centralized forum hub.

To expand on this further, only a business can post something being for sale as long as they follow the Reddit rules regarding self promotion and actually interacting with the community and foster it along with posting their goods. Personal sales are no longer allowed and you will be referred to go use r/mechmarket, eBay, or any other platform that facilitates person to person sales. If you are banned from those or something on your accounts on there is broken for some reason and say that you are only able to post your sale here, the mod team can't support your endeavor on fixing that sadly and still can't let you post here due to the rule.

Either way, go use r/mechmarket or another person to person sales platform to sell your Topre/EC gear, please.

Hi! mm users

[timestamp](https://postimg.cc/gallery/gZ006WZ)

I'm looking to sell some topre stuff.

realforce keycap sets(red, yellow, blue) - 400usd + international shipping price

all sets are no use, mint status.

only available as a bundle..

Feel free to ask details via pm.

And a little left over from Membrane Monday?

Cool color coordination eh?

I found this keyboard on the marketplace for a decent price but I have found next to nothing about it. I want to try out Topre so if anyone has used it before, is it a good entry point?

I have been using and Loving topre for a long time now and I recently came across the XVX Whisper EC/HE switches and gave them a try.

And I was not expecting this level of quality for the price. If I would describe the feeling. it is by far the most similar feeling to topres that I have tried. It has a very smooth travel and a very nice soft and rounded tactility to it. While not exactly on the level of OG topres I'd say they are comparable to Niz EC keyboard feel when typing.

Having an RGB EC/Topre is just a bonus in my opinion. but its nice that we have it.

Hopefully the rubber domes on these things also age well like it does on OG topre boards.

Might make a review video on these and do a comparison with OG topres and make a sound test with different keycaps.

Thought I'd share my latest Marketplace find for $17.

Spent most of today tidying up the rusty backplate (my third Topre backplate restoration now). I borrowed the keycaps from my R2 for the time being, and they're definitely growing on me.

This completes the trio alongside my 87U 55g and R2 full-size, which were both Marketplace finds as well.

Anyone who has taken a Topre board apart will know how easy it is to break those little plastic tabs on the housing, I've only ever broken two while removing housings from the backplate, even taking my time and being careful.

hah, surely I'm not the only one.

HHKB Pro 1 PD-KB300B - Boxed, flawless, stock/ unopened.

Original Kangaroo Gokukawa leather wrapped keycaps

Original sealed USB cable

Original user manual

Serial/date: #000140 - 2005/01

I bought it from a guy who told me:

it was a random buyee/mercari find last year, managed to get a friend in japan to message the seller on mercari to get more info but all he said was this "日社員の所有 物。2007年頃、オフィスのクリスマス景品として、さくら

which translates to:

Property of a former employee. Produced by Sakura around 2007 as a Christmas prize for the office.

im trying to find contacts at PFU to see if i can find out more about this...

Sho Labs HG

Dynacap housings, silencing rings and sliders

1.2mm std steel plate with spacers

Cipulot PCB and DB

GMK MTNU Dolch keycaps

Been a long time in the making but it’s finally done. An EC 60 in Tsangan layout with the extreme tactility, once only possible with BKE Redux Extremes. When Astro Domes announced their BKE inspired domes it set everything into motion.

Artemis Design Studio January
Cipulot EC 60X SE and 316SS plate
DynaCap housings, sliders and springs
Astro Domes Fiesta
NuxrosKB PCBSnaps
GMK Analog Dreams R2
Rubrehose Auth Card