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Author Topic: All hail the ultrasonic cleaner  (Read 5252 times)

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Offline naasfu

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All hail the ultrasonic cleaner
« on: Fri, 05 June 2015, 01:19:47 »
Today I had gotten a hold of some GMK keysets, and they were stored inside plastic bags with printed logos like you get from the grocery market.  To my horror, many of the keys were stained quite badly with the red printing from the plastic bags.  First I tried dishwashing soap and water, rubbing with my fingers and also scrubbing with a toothbrush.  The ink just smeared around, and a lot of red and pink was still all over the white caps.

Next I tried using my ultrasonic cleaner (around $40 from Amazon) with some laundry detergent and Oxiclean, but I really didn't have much hope since the stains seemed to be quite set in.  To my dismay, after running the ultrasonic for more than half an hour, all the stains were still there with no signs of improvement.  I had pretty much lost hope and was next going to try using Magic Eraser to scrape the stains (and also the keycap texturing) off. 

However, I idly tried rubbing one of the stains with my finger, and to my surprise, the red dislodged itself and came out!  After lots more rubbing, the keys are all clean now with no signs of the red ink.  I'm guessing that GMK ABS must be porous, and the ultrasonic cleaner and Oxiclean helped loosen up the ink? 

I am quite happy and complete amazeballs right now.  All hail the ultrasonic cleaner!




« Last Edit: Thu, 03 March 2016, 01:15:32 by naasfu »
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Offline rowdy

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Re: All hail the ultrasonic cleaner
« Reply #1 on: Fri, 05 June 2015, 01:23:26 »
Yay!  A story with a happy ending :)
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Offline azhdar

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Re: All hail the ultrasonic cleaner
« Reply #2 on: Fri, 05 June 2015, 02:06:08 »
It seems that it's the new tool that every keyboard enthusiasts need nowadays.
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Offline SpAmRaY

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Re: All hail the ultrasonic cleaner
« Reply #3 on: Fri, 05 June 2015, 06:47:51 »
The lesson here is don't store caps in plastic grocery bags with logos. :eek:

PS: Now I want an ultrasonic cleaner.
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Offline CPTBadAss

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Re: All hail the ultrasonic cleaner
« Reply #4 on: Fri, 05 June 2015, 07:11:27 »
Quote from: azhdar on Fri, 05 June 2015, 02:06:08
It seems that it's the new tool that every keyboard enthusiasts need nowadays.
It's an odd coincidence for me. I grabbed one to clean fountain pens and it turns out that it's useful for keyboards too. Wonder if it'll lift the oils of Cherry caps and get rid of the shine..

Yay happy endings. Glad it worked out naasfu!
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Offline azhdar

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Re: All hail the ultrasonic cleaner
« Reply #5 on: Fri, 05 June 2015, 07:12:36 »
Quote from: CPTBadAss on Fri, 05 June 2015, 07:11:27
Quote from: azhdar on Fri, 05 June 2015, 02:06:08
It seems that it's the new tool that every keyboard enthusiasts need nowadays.
It's an odd coincidence for me. I grabbed one to clean fountain pens and it turns out that it's useful for keyboards too. Wonder if it'll lift the oils of Cherry caps and get rid of the shine..

Yay happy endings. Glad it worked out naasfu!

Test it I'm very interested.
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Offline tp4tissue

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Re: All hail the ultrasonic cleaner
« Reply #6 on: Fri, 05 June 2015, 07:16:49 »
Um.. hrrrmm..

it probably would've worked if you just soaked it..
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Offline Neo.X

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Re: All hail the ultrasonic cleaner
« Reply #7 on: Fri, 05 June 2015, 08:27:13 »
Another must-have for GHers.  ;)
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Offline naasfu

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Re: All hail the ultrasonic cleaner
« Reply #8 on: Sat, 06 June 2015, 04:18:08 »
Hmm soaking might work, but I figure it would take a lot longer.  Do not doubt the power of the ultrasonic cleaner!

I've used the ultrasonic to clean dirty OG Cherry keysets, and it really did a great job getting them as clean as can be.  All the caked on grime was gone with just a few minutes with some laundry detergent and Oxiclean.  The caps were still shiny due to wearing of the texturing, and it definitely wasn't because of leftover oils.

But anyways, the cleaner was only around $40 and has really been helpful for cleaning keycaps.

And yeah, never ever use plastic grocery bags with printing for storing anything that you care about.  That printing comes off really easily.
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Offline chyros

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Re: All hail the ultrasonic cleaner
« Reply #9 on: Sat, 06 June 2015, 06:31:44 »
I'd use the one from the lab to clean mine but it's really really strong, I fear I might break or shatter my caps xD . Maybe if I get some particularly uncleanable caps I'll try it out someday :) .
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Offline heedpantsnow

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Re: All hail the ultrasonic cleaner
« Reply #10 on: Sat, 06 June 2015, 07:27:33 »
Glad the story had a happy ending.

So what's a decent and under $100 ultrasonic cleaner that we should all buy?
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Offline rawkus

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Re: All hail the ultrasonic cleaner
« Reply #11 on: Sat, 06 June 2015, 10:21:19 »
http://www.harborfreight.com/25-liter-ultrasonic-cleaner-95563.html

I use that one for cleaning watches, glasses and glass art that mysteriously gets gunked up with resin.  While it's not the best, it's the best I've used under 100
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Offline naasfu

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Re: All hail the ultrasonic cleaner
« Reply #12 on: Sat, 06 June 2015, 23:50:47 »
Quote from: heedpantsnow on Sat, 06 June 2015, 07:27:33
Glad the story had a happy ending.

So what's a decent and under $100 ultrasonic cleaner that we should all buy?

This is the one I got from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007Q2M17K
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Offline Jokrik

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Re: All hail the ultrasonic cleaner
« Reply #13 on: Sat, 06 June 2015, 23:57:23 »
Good idea, I do think it's gonna be the best way to clean keycaps
gonna get one now unless my wife allow me to use hers which she use to clean her jewelry
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Offline berserkfan

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Re: All hail the ultrasonic cleaner
« Reply #14 on: Sun, 07 June 2015, 21:46:18 »
If the painting adheres so easily to ABS keycaps, maybe that's how you can paint ABS keycaps?
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Offline Chromako

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Re: All hail the ultrasonic cleaner
« Reply #15 on: Sun, 07 June 2015, 23:35:03 »
Ultrasonic cleaners! I love them!


Great for cleaning fountain pens (as said above), glasses, and badly clogged printer heads.


Will definitely add stained keycaps to the list of items that ultrasonic cleaners work well with.  :thumb:
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Offline retrochick

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Re: All hail the ultrasonic cleaner
« Reply #16 on: Mon, 08 June 2015, 00:03:18 »
Thanks naasfu for the useful tip! Just out of curiosity if this would remove the color from homemade dyed keycaps?
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Offline SpAmRaY

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Re: All hail the ultrasonic cleaner
« Reply #17 on: Tue, 17 April 2018, 09:20:42 »
Quote from: naasfu on Sat, 06 June 2015, 23:50:47
Quote from: heedpantsnow on Sat, 06 June 2015, 07:27:33
Glad the story had a happy ending.

So what's a decent and under $100 ultrasonic cleaner that we should all buy?

This is the one I got from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007Q2M17K
@naasfu are you still using this model??

Curious about its longevity.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
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