[GreenKeys] Model 28 Keys

[Keelan Lightfoot]

The reason I recently took apart my keyboard was because my keys had some kind of whitish substance on them that I couldn't scrub off. I tried all sorts of things to gently clean the keys, but the stuff wouldn't budge. It had the consistency of hard wax, and in some places had accumulated to the point where I could scrape it off in chunks.

I finally gave isopropyl alcohol (the 99% stuff, the 70% stuff is no good) a go, and it worked surprisingly well. There's a catch, though: the plastic that the keys are made out of is soluble in isopropyl alcohol, and if you're not careful, it's easy to leave the key a in bigger mess than you started. It took me a few minutes, but I eventually figured out how to get the keys shining like new.

I first dipped the key in some alcohol, and used a rag to clean the circumference of the key. If you move too slowly, the plastic will get tacky, and pick up marks very easily. The trick was to basically want to soften a very thin layer, and wipe it away in one smooth motion. I found that a piece of paper towel very lightly dampened in alcohol worked well as a 'tack cloth' of sorts to bring the circumference to a nice polish once the bulk of the dirt was removed.

The top of the key presented a bit more of a challenge, it's hard to make any fluid motions around the concave shape of the key with a rag. I found that if I wet my left index finger tip with the isopropyl alcohol and rubbed it on the surface of the key, I could feel the plastic 'giving way'. The while letters quickly brightened, and once I was satisfied with how they looked, I wiped off the bulk of the alcohol with my index finger, followed very quickly by a second wipe with my left middle finger. I then waited for the alcohol to evaporate (a couple seconds), and then finished up polishing the surface with a bit of paper towel. It's not a flawless process, and some keys took a couple attempts, but the results are very pleasing:

http://beefchicken.com/forumimages/teletypekeys.jpg

I don't have a before image, but the tops of most of the keys weren't legible before I cleaned them.

- Keelan