geekhack
geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: Nuin on Sat, 03 August 2013, 00:42:20
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Hi there, first post to these forums. Looking for a little help! :)
I have a Dell AT-101 in black and wanted to restore it to it's former youth. I popped the keys off carefully, then used a little Ivory dish soap in a hot water solution, agitated all the keys in a twist-and-lock plastic container for about 10 minutes, then rinsed in a colander and let air-dry on a drying mat. I also washed the front and back of the shell. Meanwhile, I cleaned out any debris on the switch board, mostly on the metal plate that all keys sit. All in all, it came out very well!
However, I now notice that the white lettering on the black keys was not dirty but actually worn away from years of battle. Not sure how to restore the lettering, but I wouldn't mind replacing certain keys with colored keys as some have done using Rit dyeing methods. However, I don't know how the dye will affect the grey keys from AT-101W (white) models, so I would rather just find a compatible keyboard key set all in white that will fit the ALPS Bigfoot switches.
Keys I am interested in coloring: Esc,1,2,3,4,5,6 (red), WASD,Numpad 2,4,6,8 (yellow), Enter keys (blue)
If anyone knows of any list of keyboards that uses compatible keys (104-key ANSI layout), as well as any comments or recommendations, I would really appreciate it. Thanks in advance!
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I'd really appreciate it if anyone has any information that can help. Thanks!
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I don't think that Dell keys will dye properly because they are ABS.
RIT works great if you boil the keys, but don't try it unless they are PBT because otherwise they will melt and warp.