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geekhack Projects => Making Stuff Together! => DIY Discussions ARCHIVE => Topic started by: .XL on Fri, 15 April 2011, 18:22:25

Title: Soaking doubleshots in bleach?
Post by: .XL on Fri, 15 April 2011, 18:22:25

So...would this be a bad idea? I bought some beige doubleshots off Turbocharged (I knew they were beige to begin with, that's what I wanted at the time) but now I want to make them white (for my Linear-R). Would soaking them in bleach for a bit get the desired result or would it wreck the legends?

Has anyone ever tried this or would I be the first brave adventurer to possibly destroy a set of good doubleshots?

Title: Soaking doubleshots in bleach?
Post by: .XL on Fri, 15 April 2011, 18:37:03

Quote from: ripster;331777

I don't think it would hurt.  Go FOR IT!

I did testing with RetrObrite on doubleshots here. (http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Island:9099)  Made it visibly brighter.  Safe for the green pad printing on the front surface.

That whiteness is what I'm going for, but it looks like the keys themselves are beige. It matches my MX11800, which is why I specifically wanted the doubleshots, but I don't think they'd look so good on the black body of the Linear-R with Mooglewhite modifiers.

I think I'll just give it a go and see what happens. Worst case scenario it fails miserably and that gets stuck in the Wiki as a no-no :wink:

Title: Soaking doubleshots in bleach?
Post by: .XL on Sat, 16 April 2011, 13:18:26

I'll grab some bleach tonight from Walmart and see how it works. I'll try 3 keys...one I'll let sit for 5 minutes, the next for 20, and the 3rd for an hour. Then I'll brush them off with a toothbrush and see how it looks. Pics to follow!

If it turns out like **** I'll try the Retrobrite method.

Title: Soaking doubleshots in bleach?
Post by: heedpantsnow on Wed, 20 April 2011, 14:15:07

Hi, I put mine in a clean empty butter tub with some dish soap and warm water and shook like crazy.  Cleaned mine well enough that I didn't need to use anything harsher.  Maybe try that?

Title: Soaking doubleshots in bleach?
Post by: .XL on Wed, 20 April 2011, 14:18:18

Quote from: heedpantsnow;334317

Hi, I put mine in a clean empty butter tub with some dish soap and warm water and shook like crazy.  Cleaned mine well enough that I didn't need to use anything harsher.  Maybe try that?

 
If they were just dirty I'd go for that, but they were produced in a beige color so I don't think it would help :/

Title: Soaking doubleshots in bleach?
Post by: Input Nirvana on Sun, 24 April 2011, 23:48:33

I've got a set of white QWERTY doubleshots with DVORAK printing on a set of Kinesis Contoured key caps. They have become yellow and I want to whiten them. I'm really curious to know what happens with with your beige-to-white bleach experiment.

Title: Soaking doubleshots in bleach?
Post by: Oqsy on Mon, 25 April 2011, 03:05:51

I've bleached keys before, doesn't change the color of the plastic I'm afraid. They feel nice and new when finished though.

I'm not aware of any process that will achieve the results you're after. Retrobrite works beautifully on yellowing, but it doesn't turn beige caps white, just yellowed ones back to the original color.