Cleaning the keyboard. Pulling off the keys?

[Mr B]

Years ago when i got it the darn thing was sticky with spilled fluids, and soft cake, and really needed a cleaning. Luckily it seams the mainboard was untouched by the spills, and everything cleaned up quite nice. The right most "hook" to stick the upper and bottom parts of the casing together is broken of, but other then that, i'd say it's in good shape. Now if i only manage to keep it that way... How aggressive do you dare to be with the keyboard, can one pull of the "keys" and scrub it down? I suspect there is still some nasty stuff left back there, where i cant see or get at it.
B!

[roy bates]

yep, the keys just pop off.

use a small screwdriver under the key and two fingers on top of the key so it cant come off at an angle.

[Mr B]

Much like most modern keyboards then. I'm not hesitant to pull the keys of a $200 worth keyboard, but the miggy is sort of irreplaceable nowadays.

Thanks.
B!

[sneeker]

Thgey just pull off, just watch for the springs flying off when you do it

I just used a small flathead scredriver to leaver all the keys off, and then retro brighted them. Although later on I did another retrobrighting by leaving the keys on, the keyboards are pretty resiliant things really.

[mancity]

Be careful when popping the keys off becase as I found when doing mine, the plastic on the side of the keys can be quite brittle

[seb132]

A bit scary but doable, no worry.
I did it for a Retr0bright session and it went all right.
Yep, just be careful not to lose the springs: these little fellah jump everywhere and as Amiga passionates we are not in our young 20's...

[keitha1200]

Originally Posted by mancity

Be careful when popping the keys off becase as I found when doing mine, the plastic on the side of the keys can be quite brittle

Yeah I found the F keys were pretty brittle, and a couple 'snapped' had to buy replacement keys. I wouldn't do it again unless the keyboard had a "40-day" fag problem.

[desiv]

http://www.amazon.com/Generic-KEYCAP...ard+key+puller

Not a recommendation of the vendor, just a google search result..

But I do have a similar key puller and I feel much better removing keys with this than the screwdriver method.

desiv

[Akiko]

The easiest and most effective method I find for cleaning my 1200 keyboards is to put the keyboard into the dishwasher complete, they come up like new and no need to mess about unnecessarily removing keys.

[FOL]

Originally Posted by Akiko

The easiest and most effective method I find for cleaning my 1200 keyboards is to put the keyboard into the dishwasher complete, they come up like new and no need to mess about unnecessarily removing keys.

Best to remove it before the heat cycle does its thing or it will warp the plastic.

[roy bates]

Originally Posted by Akiko

The easiest and most effective method I find for cleaning my 1200 keyboards is to put the keyboard into the dishwasher complete, they come up like new and no need to mess about unnecessarily removing keys.

i dont think thats a good idea at all,for one thing you can destroy the carbon contacts on the pads inside the keyboard this way.

[keitha1200]

I suppose if the keyboard is split (removing rear plate) and then sticking the plastic section in, should wok. Cotton buds are pretty good for cleaning out the crap underneath the keys.

Sounds like too much hassle for a discoloured keyboard.

[Turran]

I usually clean mine in the dishwasher as well, set to to "rinse" mode which is like 30c water. Last time I forgot to set it to rinse and it washed the whole A1200 chassis and keyboard in 45-60c and no warping occurred. It all turned out fine.

I had split the keyboard though, so only plastics go in the dishwasher (exception is the springs).

That only takes care of dirty stuff though. For yellowing, its no use washing unless you're also going to retr0bright it.