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sticky keys no more

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Robert17

Premium Member
Joined
Feb 1, 2011
Location
Republic of Texas
I spilled some coffee into my Logitech RCP-140 keyboard a while back and had dismantled it, cleaned it with isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol and made it serviceable again. But still had some sticky keys. So I did a rinse/repeat and still had several sticky keys. Hard plastic and alcohol aren't friends and I figured that the rubbing was due to some swelling or plastic oxidation and decided to lubricate the keyways.

IMPORTANT NOTE: graphite is electrically conductive. Proceed with caution (well, a little on this type of membrane keyboard). The rubber actuator acts as an insulator against liquid spills anyway so I'm pretty sure with some due diligence the method attached will be mostly harmless, less so than coffee.

The tools:

keyboard photo tools.JPG

I bought 1 lb. of Army surplus graphite several years ago and use it on locks and other items needing dry lubrication; that's what's in the jar. Hardware and auto supply stores sell it in small tubes like you see on the left. A small paint brush and bulb snot sucker (what else is this thing called?) are also useful.


Remove screws from the keyboard

keyboard photo membrane.JPG

and expose the innards

keyboard photo backplane.JPG

note that the rubber membrane (white) will insulate the mylar film traces layered below


Here's the exposed backside of the keys. I painted in the graphite pretty heavily, then did a lot of key tapping to get the lube action going. Then blew out the excess with the snot blower/sucker. And brushed out some excess as well.

keyboard photo graphite excess.JPG

I shook the keys quite a bit, repeated the blowing and brushing, and re-assembled. My keyboard now feels as good as new. :cool:
 

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nice OP

at first I was thinking...
stickykeys.png
 
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