So I finally bit the bullet and pay a premium for a space invader board plus shipping. And the escape keycap is missing.
It pretty much looks like a rebranded NMB board to me.
In any case, it uses two eyed clicky series 725 black switches (and blue for the space bar)
Some of the keycaps have colored lettering
Now, opening the board made it pretty clear to me someone already has tempered with it, judging from the misplaced and missing screws among other things.
More old capacitors...
The cable is decently thick
Now it's time to address the main problem. Did you see how grimy the board is?
Please, have a closer look
The switches definitely need some serious cleaning.
Now I read a lot of bad things about opening NMB series 725 switches, and having the previous Hi-tek linear kind myself in old terminals, I wasn't sure how to proceed.
It turned out serendicity was on my side and just pulling the first keycap from the corner with a wire keycap puller gave me the following result :
That was easy... to say the least.
Of cause on a whole board some of the sliders stayed in place and only the keycaps came out.
This is not a problem though as you can use the exact same procedure on the sliders themselves to finish extracting them.
The only downside of this method is the moving pieces fly all over the place, in particular the springs so be prepare to re-count them and deep into hard to reach places.
There is definitly unidentified organic materials in the switches
Also why is there different kind of sliders on common keys???
???Seriously
WHAT NMB???
Now what? I need to desolder the switches in order to remove the plastic plate underneath them in order to clean everything thoroughly.
But to do so, I need to put the sliders back or I'll dammage the contacts leaves
Can someone give me advises about the switches?
Should I lubricate some parts? If so, wish ones and what type of lube should I use?
Is it safe to apply vinegar on the metal leaves to deoxidize them or do I really need to buy some liquide contact cleaner?
