🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <816024710snz@c4rv.demon.co.uk>
           raj@c4rv.demon.co.uk "Rajesh Varia" writes:

<snip>

> myself) just wash the keyboard in with soap and water.  Before you
> do this just try one key to make sure the lettering does not come off!
> If the problem is with keys that don't work then there may be a 
> problem with the contacts (or switches), then you may need to take it 
> apart, else don't bother.

I work for a computer maintenance company, and we have about 200+
keyboards to clean. Agreed, the cheapo keyboards should be 
binned, but the IBM and Compaq ones are worth salvaging. We also 
have a lot of Wyse terminal keyboards.

In the past, cleaning has been done by stripping the keyboard 
down, spraying foam cleanser over the two halves of the case and 
scrubbing with a *plastic* scrubbing brush, then wiping off with 
a clean cloth.

The keytops are pulled off and tipped into a large jar with some
hot (not boiling) water and washing up liquid, given a good 
shake, left to soak for 10 minutes, shaken again, water drained 
off, shaken again with clean water to rinse, drained, tipped out 
onto teacloth and left to dry on storage heater/radiator. The 
PCB is then blasted with compressed air to remove dust, and the 
keyboard is reassembled.

As you can imagine, the above is very time consuming and labour
intensive. We have been experimenting with an ultrasonic bath, 
which is filled with warm water and a neutralising agent. The 
keyboard is chucked in whole, and left for about 40 minutes. The 
results are quite good, but I have misgivings about immersing 
electronic equipment in water, and suspect that keyboards with 
membranes (ie some of the IBM ones) would be wrecked. The ones 
we have tried have had conventional keyswitches, and they mostly 
work on having been dried out on a windowsill, but I can't help 
wondering just how much water is left inside keyswitches, etc.

My latest proposal at the office is to buy one of those cheap 
counter-top dishwashers, and use this to wash the case halves of 
the keyboard (it will also come in useful for other work, as we 
clean all equipment that comes into the workshop for maintenance 
before return to the customer). Normal dishwasher powder is 
quite harsh, so we would use a reduced amount or perhaps some 
other low-foaming detergent. The keyboard PCB would then be 
dedusted with compressed air, and the keytops sprayed with foam 
cleaner in situ, and wiped off with a clean cloth. This approach 
works well, and avoids getting water/foam residue into 
keyswitches or electronics. The dishwasher would, of course, 
wash several cases at once. This method would be less labour 
intensive and still give good results.

I would be grateful for any comments or ideas.

cheers,

-- 
Mike Tomlinson