The Keyboard Chronicles!, Part 2
I got tired of waiting around for my socket wrench to arrive, so I took matters into my own hands.
My original plan was to take the keyboard apart, separating the plastic casing from everything else and tossing it into the dishwasher along with the keycaps. But I got tired of waiting! I had to DO SOMETHING!
So I decided to wash the keycaps on their own, and maybe wipe down the rest with a little isopropyl alcohol. Here, I've removed all the keycaps and left them to soak in warm soapy water for about ten minutes, stirring occasionally until they were al dente. I mean, relatively clean. Afterwards, I removed them by handfuls and rinsed them thouroughly, scrubbed each one and gave it a visual inspection before laying them on a paper towel to dry.
While the keys dried, I attacked the plastic casing and the black area underneath the keys. A paper towel with a bit of isopropyl alcohol worked well for most of the major stains, but there were a few areas I was unable to clean completely. I used Q-tips dipped in alcohol to clean between the keys. I managed to sweep up what felt like half a pound of accumulated hair and dirt, as you can see in the picture above.
After about an hour, I put the keycaps back on. I had hoped that would have been long enough to dry everything completely, but a few of the larger keys, like backspace, enter and both shifts were still a little wet underneath and had a tendency to stick. A little compressed air dried them out completely, and now everything's nice and clean and working great!
Well. Mostly clean, anyway. Some of the more well-used keys still have some crud on them, and the casing continues to be stained in places. I may still toss it in the dishwasher once I'm able to take it apart. I also took the opportunity to move the one remaining Alt keycap over to the left side, since I can't recall ever, EVER using the right Alt key.
SURE HOPE MY ADAPTER GETS HERE SOON. >=(
My original plan was to take the keyboard apart, separating the plastic casing from everything else and tossing it into the dishwasher along with the keycaps. But I got tired of waiting! I had to DO SOMETHING!
So I decided to wash the keycaps on their own, and maybe wipe down the rest with a little isopropyl alcohol. Here, I've removed all the keycaps and left them to soak in warm soapy water for about ten minutes, stirring occasionally until they were al dente. I mean, relatively clean. Afterwards, I removed them by handfuls and rinsed them thouroughly, scrubbed each one and gave it a visual inspection before laying them on a paper towel to dry.
While the keys dried, I attacked the plastic casing and the black area underneath the keys. A paper towel with a bit of isopropyl alcohol worked well for most of the major stains, but there were a few areas I was unable to clean completely. I used Q-tips dipped in alcohol to clean between the keys. I managed to sweep up what felt like half a pound of accumulated hair and dirt, as you can see in the picture above.
After about an hour, I put the keycaps back on. I had hoped that would have been long enough to dry everything completely, but a few of the larger keys, like backspace, enter and both shifts were still a little wet underneath and had a tendency to stick. A little compressed air dried them out completely, and now everything's nice and clean and working great!
Well. Mostly clean, anyway. Some of the more well-used keys still have some crud on them, and the casing continues to be stained in places. I may still toss it in the dishwasher once I'm able to take it apart. I also took the opportunity to move the one remaining Alt keycap over to the left side, since I can't recall ever, EVER using the right Alt key.
SURE HOPE MY ADAPTER GETS HERE SOON. >=(