Cleaning Old Mac pro wired alu keyboard

[ilandmac]

Well, my old mac pro keyboard having seen it's share of spills gave
up on a few keys...

looked on the web and except for a few tricks to pull the keys one by one
with so many ways to break the tabs, did not find much. Apparently you
cannot take this keyboard apart. If you can, it's a well kept secret.

So I put back in service my little bluetooth keyboard and tried this :

- secured a can of "bon ami" glass cleaner & really laid it on thick,
- let it "cure" outdoors on its end for about 3 hours,
- sprayed it with really hot water to rinse everything out,
- set it to dry in the boiler room, super dry environment and temp close to 95 ° F

2 days later it's back on my desk, all keys functional & extra clean to boot

 

[chscag]

LOL, I remember in the old days with IBM PS2s and Compaq wired keyboards, the way to clean them was to run them through a cycle in your home dishwasher. Always seemed to work as long as you let them air dry for several days. Looks like you took a step back in time! BTW, I have two of those old aluminum wired keyboards laying around somewhere in my junk closet.

 

[barnyard]

LOL, I remember in the old days with IBM PS2s and Compaq wired keyboards, the way to clean them was to run them through a cycle in your home dishwasher. Always seemed to work as long as you let them air dry for several days. Looks like you took a step back in time! BTW, I have two of those old aluminum wired keyboards laying around somewhere in my junk closet.

Why don't you just use a Magic Eraser? They work great with no downtime.

 

[chscag]

Why don't you just use a Magic Eraser? They work great with no downtime.

LOL, the IBM PS2 and old Compaq metal keyboards were long before the Magic Eraser came on the market! Good solution for modern keyboards though.

 

[mac666er]

I had 68k classic Macs (Mac Classic IIs and similar) and when the capacitors started to die, I would take the logic board and put it in the dishwasher, run it through a cycle and let it dry. Then it worked like a champ for a couple of more years. to my knowledge this is a common way to treat old computers for bad capacitors before you actually re-solder new ones in.

I wouldn't be that hesitant to put the keyboard in the dishwasher, although if the cycle is too hot, the glue may come off eventually.

I might actually try it since I think I have a aluminum keyboard with a bad key somewhere.

 

[ilandmac]

Why don't you just use a Magic Eraser? They work great with no downtime.

Would you care to explain precisely how you do that ?

ilandmac