Inner Foam (Model F)

One inner foam is included with the First Aid Kit (which is an optional add-on), but some people want to have an additional spare so their keyboard can be put back in the best possible shape many years from now, long after production has shut down and the project has ended. Pick up some extra factory-cut inner foam, maybe for decades down the line when this foam may wear out!

XT Foam is a new option: after many requests, XT foam is now available to order and reserve with very limited quantities being produced, to replace the old foam in your IBM XT style keyboard (IBM 5150, 5160 XT, etc.). Besides almost everything being an exact reproduction of the original, even with the same type of foam material and similar dark gray color, there were two changes made – one, the removal of the vestigial foam covering part of the attached controller, and two, the pin registration holes were changed from 1/8″ to 3/32″ to provide an ever so slightly tighter contamination shield for the PCB. In one of the product photos, one can see an original XT foam on top and the reproduction foam on the bottom.

To save funds or if you ordered the wrong part, you can cut out a square around the two right shift holes to use your foam with the opposite right shift style (HHKB style Split Shift vs regular shift); this will still allow the foam to secure these barrels in place even if they are no longer physically attached as one contiguous piece of foam. Split right shift often requires a different PCB, top inner assembly, and inner foam. All other parts are interchangeable.

If you want IBM PC AT foam: You can use my new foam for your AT as well. The AT layout is essentially that of the F107 but with the 15 key F107 section (insert/delete, cursor keys etc) cut out. To get PC AT foam, order the F107 and cut out the 15 key right side section and 10 key Function keys section yourself. I just tested this with the PC AT refurb I did and it worked well. You’d also need to do a little snipping around the space bar area.

Important terms: The foam sometimes has some “rough” parts of a little extra material inside the holes when there was not a clean cut, or other lines or marks. By ordering foam you accept that each foam piece will have noticeable visible defects that in no way affect the ability to use the foam. If it bothers you, use a box cutter or exacto knife to trim the excess material. All foam is considered to have cosmetic defects not limited to creases, scuffs, indentations, folds, lines, and overly compressed parts. To minimize the waste of foam, the factory sometimes glues together the foam, so please assume that your foam may be glued together in two pieces. The pictured foam is an example, but you will not get the exact one in the photos. For sure you can use the foam if it has these cosmetic issues; in no way does this affect operation or longevity of the foam as the barrels actually secure the foam in place. The tooling for this foam was custom made and I am the only seller of Model F factory cut foam. Unfortunately you cannot request a foam with or without glue, or one made of a particular material, so please assume it may be glued. The foam for the compact and classic keyboards is considered to be interchangeable, even though there are slight differences in the shape between compact and classic F104/FSSK (again, keep your scissors/craft knife handy since you may need to make some cuts to your foam to adapt it to your keyboard model); they are the same functionally to hold the barrels in place and you can’t request one or the other even if you purchased one design and received the other design foam.