Spilled some tea on my keyboard today. Didn’t think much of it it’s just tea right? My A key started to get sticky. I tore down the keyboard, and found some water damage on the a and s keys.

The s key is still springy, and responds. But it has a blue green hue on the metal contact in the photo.

The a key still works, but is very soggy, and requires greater depression than before.

This is a kinesis gaming RGB keyboard. All of the switches are attached to a metal plate, so to replace a single switch I think I have to unsolder all of the switches so I can get the metal plate off. It’s an interesting design

For the moment, I cleaned up 6 years of filth and dirt from the keyboard. Looks pretty clean now from my estimation. For the key itself, I got as much stuff out of it as possible. I soaked the a and s keys in 99% alcohol. And then smash the keys over and over and over and over and over again. Trying to wash the keys from the inside. Right now I have a fan pointed directly at the keys, trying to finish the dry out.

Anybody else have success in rescuing a cherry MX key switch? I’m not opposed to soldering on new key switches, but I don’t want to have to solder 28 keys just to reach one

  • tyler@programming.dev
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    5 days ago

    You can open up mx switches, but you’ll need a tool. You can also desolder the switch and solder back on when you’re done (switches are one of the easiest things on the planet to solder). Green is copper corrosion, so you just need to scrub the contact with some steel wool or sandpaper, or clean with a chemical cleaner. If you can desolder the switch you can always just buy a new one to replace it as well. You should not need to desolder 28 keys to reach it though. Just the one, then they have little tabs holding them in, so you can just push them out with the little nub on the bottom.