Cleaning mechanical switch keyboards

[Demon-Xanth]

I have a rather uncommon keyboard that I really like to use that has had some keys sticking after years of soda dripping, dust, and crumb falling. I tried using flux off (a cleaner used to remove solder flux from PCAs) but that's only made the keys stick worse.

Any ideas?

 

[nineball9]

I have a couple of old Dell mechanical keyboards that I really like (I'm using one of them to type this). I have cleaned both of them by taking them apart and washing them in the kitchen sink. Along with a few screws, my Dell keyboards have 4 plastic tabs holding the top and bottom covers together which require a bit of work to disassemble. Your keyboard assembly may differ...

Once disassembled, it's pretty easy to clean and wash the guts of the keyboard. Water won't hurt the electronics - there is not much besides a chip and a few passive components - just make sure the unit is completely dry before plugging it back in to your PC.

 

[McMadman]

I have a focus2001, and personally I've found it to be a serious pain to clean (usually pulling the keycaps off breaks the plastic that secures the cap to the button.

If you are using a model m (or clone) you might want to look here.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

McMadsen: I'm probably in the same boat as you, I have a Focus FK-9000.

...one would think that if one of the questions is "Do you make the FK-9000 or a keyboard like with the same layout" as a FAQ on thier webpage, they'd look into making sure the answer is "Yes".