Just about a week ago, when I was mashing some keys on my keyboard for a lab report, something a little bit unexpected happened - a string of dust (really, it looks like that, and I don't know any other way to say that) floated to somewhere near my working table, and before I noticed it slipped into the space between the keys and the board itself. I'm not even sure how, but I guess this is what they call luck...
Because 1. My nose is very sensitive to dust, 2. I like to keep my stuff clean whenever possible, and 3. It is really uncomfortable knowing the fact that there's a notably large string of dust under the hands whenever I type, I messaged my friend and asked him if I can have his keycap puller for a day or two for me to dump that thing out. Although another friend told me that it is also possible to remove the keycaps of a mechanical keyboard by just pulling with bare hands, I think it's still safer to use a proper tool. Too many experiences proved that I can never trust my fingers especially when it comes to disassembling electronics, even it's just on the surface :P
The keycap puller is just something that looks like a plastic clipper with a ring on top. Normally, they come as free accessories when you purchase a mechanical keyboard, but the manufacturer for mine decided to not to. Probably because I'm too far down the low budget line...
Yep, just something like that. Hold the puller, push it down until you hear click sounds as it clips your keycap firmly on both sides, and pull it up gently. I heard that mechanical keyboards are easy to disassemble, but I'm not expecting it to be that easy. Anyway, easy means lesser chances to screw up and it's good!
I remember the string of dust being somewhere here. Let's pull a few more out.
Uh, yes, I dumped that long string of dust away before taking this picture. You wouldn't want to see a disgusting strand of dust, right?
After removing the keys we can see the switches under them. My keyboard has Kailh Brown switches, so you can indeed see...brown. Why they are called browns? No one knows why Cherry decided to name them so (Kailh are basically legal Cherry MX clones from China, and most keyboard switches from different manufacturers are following Cherry's names as well), but probably it will be weirder for them to be purple...I guess?
Took a look under the keycaps, and I just learned that there are absolutely no clips or any structure designed to lock the keys in their places, explains why they are so easily removed and installed back (you just press it back in place and it's done). This also explains why there are so many alternative keycaps for Cherry switches (and Kailh clones) so you can mix and match to make your keyboard look exactly how you want it to be. Of course, I don't really have the time to slowly shop online for those keycaps for now, but maybe I will one day :P
(I do hope that I will, haha)
...and that's all, the work of pulling up to 6 keycaps out just to remove one string of dust that doesn't really affect my daily workflow. But I feel better after doing it so maybe it's worth it. And hey, it isn't that high effort as well. I can't imagine if it happens to drop into my laptop or something...that would be disastrous. P/s: Do not in any circumstances try to remove they keycaps of a laptop keyboard, you have been warned.
That's all for now then, see you around :)
--Lilacse
Oh oh, what did I just read here?
I better not try to remove more than one key at a time, as I am sure to scramble the keys when replacing them.
Can you imagine having the Z key in the place of the I key and so on?
Thanks for the info here.
Blessings!
Well...I was used to take pictures before doing the disassembling... but now I guess I'm okay without any extra references, lol.
Thanks for stopping by!
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Thanks :)
I've never actually seen one of those key remover contraptions - thanks for sharing it, and for taking us through the process. I have to say, I'm much like @ireenchew and just pass it along to my hubby, but it's nice to know it's easy peasy should I ever have to attempt it myself. 😊
They actually only work for mechanical keyboards...and probably not all of them (this keycap remover is designed for Cherry keycaps and their clones, other manufacturers might have different designs that need different removers). Don't try this on the normal keyboards you get from the office or something, most of them aren't designed for this and it might be very hard to put them back in place!
But the good news is that for normal keyboards you can just get a sticky gel ball (I'm not sure what it's called) and just roll it over the thing to clean it up :) Mechanical keyboards' switches are quite fragile to non-downward forces compared to other keyboards so we need these tools to perform cleanups.
Yes, there are a lot of keyboards! Probably this Wikipedia page can help :)
P/s: Thanks for the resteem!
You're very welcome, and thanks in return for all the great info!
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The old ones had plastic locks. I know because I broke it lol. A friend suggested to submerged it in a bucket of water to clean it and hang it to dry. Something I didn't attempt to try 😂.
Personally I haven't seen a keyboard that has plastic locks...interesting! And it does feel like an okay idea to submerge it in water, wiggle it a lot as "cleaning"...I mean, it should work if you try hard enough? Just make sure to dry it up properly before plugging in the wire, lol.
You have a fresh keyboard without dust!
Yep, I'm actually quite amazed that there's not much dust despite that I used it for...almost a year? I already forgot when I bought it, lol.
I usually just pass it off to my hubby and say..
Please fix it darling :)
Well...easy and efficient! (?)
Right on 👍👍💯💕
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I have never seen or even heard of a keycap puller. I can think of many occasions when one one them would have come in handy!