I use a spoonful of powdered laundry detergent (Charlie's) and a spoonful of Oxi- (or Biz or something similar) in a liter of hot water.
10 minutes is plenty, shake the bowl a couple of times. Rinse well, I use a colander and go back and forth with the large soaking bowl about 3 times at the kitchen sink.
Spread out a T-shirt on the bed, and use your fingers to sling the water out of each cap individually (I know, it is a nuisance, but it only takes 3 minutes) and then turn them stem-down on the T-shirt.
Within 10-20 minutes they are dry enough to re-install.
You can easily force this entire process down to as little as 30 minutes and it will take care of 99.9% of all the dirt on the caps. Laundry detergent is made to rinse out quickly and they are squeaky clean.
Trust me, I have cleaned thousands of M/F keys this way, some were truly vile nasty from ebay purchases.
Oh I forgot that too. Thanks BlueNalgene. Isopropyl alcohol is also great :).
Um...99% isopropyl in a ultrasonic cleaner sounds good.
I use a spoonful of powdered laundry detergent (Charlie's) and a spoonful of Oxi- (or Biz or something similar) in a liter of hot water.
10 minutes is plenty, shake the bowl a couple of times. Rinse well, I use a colander and go back and forth with the large soaking bowl about 3 times at the kitchen sink.
Spread out a T-shirt on the bed, and use your fingers to sling the water out of each cap individually (I know, it is a nuisance, but it only takes 3 minutes) and then turn them stem-down on the T-shirt.
Within 10-20 minutes they are dry enough to re-install.
You can easily force this entire process down to as little as 30 minutes and it will take care of 99.9% of all the dirt on the caps. Laundry detergent is made to rinse out quickly and they are squeaky clean.
Trust me, I have cleaned thousands of M/F keys this way, some were truly vile nasty from ebay purchases.
My process with M caps and stems is to pull them all off and soak them in a bowl full of water with liquid dish washing detergent and forget about them, usually a few hours or overnight.
Then dump the water keeping keys in bowl, rinse repeat til water runs clear, put all the caps in a towel, shake them up a bit then put it flat on a table, let sit overnight again.
Usually only a few keys end up with some drops of water left in them.
I've heard that it's risky to wash the stems as they need to be 100% dry before re inserting and they take a longer time to dry
Also, what about the plastic housing? Same laundry detergent?Shouldn't, no. I've washed the logo of several Ms, even used a scrubber. Never use HOT water on anything though, some plastics, particularly PBT, are heat sensitive!
In terms of wetting the IBM logo on the face with hot soapy water, will it cause harm?
Also, what about the plastic housing? Same laundry detergent?Shouldn't, no. I've washed the logo of several Ms, even used a scrubber. Never use HOT water on anything though, some plastics, particularly PBT, are heat sensitive!
In terms of wetting the IBM logo on the face with hot soapy water, will it cause harm?
Oh that's fine. With "hot" I meant if you stick your hand in it and go "ow, hot hot hot!" :) .Also, what about the plastic housing? Same laundry detergent?Shouldn't, no. I've washed the logo of several Ms, even used a scrubber. Never use HOT water on anything though, some plastics, particularly PBT, are heat sensitive!
In terms of wetting the IBM logo on the face with hot soapy water, will it cause harm?
in terms of "hot" water, the hottest setting on my tap is bearable... so i think we have different ideas about how hot the water is... im not boiling it in a kettle or anything
Shouldn't, no. I've washed the logo of several Ms, even used a scrubber. Never use HOT water on anything though, some plastics, particularly PBT, are heat sensitive!
We're talking about heat-sensitive IN WATER here. You can most certainly NOT boil it - it is sensitive to hot water at 60 C or more. It also has a Tg at 66 C.Shouldn't, no. I've washed the logo of several Ms, even used a scrubber. Never use HOT water on anything though, some plastics, particularly PBT, are heat sensitive!
Wat?! Should read PBT is heat IMMUNE. You boil that crap to dye it. It don't care.
I use a spoonful of powdered laundry detergent (Charlie's) and a spoonful of Oxi- (or Biz or something similar) in a liter of hot water.+1 on flinging the water out by hand. I do this step over the sink after a quick towel pat down.
10 minutes is plenty, shake the bowl a couple of times. Rinse well, I use a colander and go back and forth with the large soaking bowl about 3 times at the kitchen sink.
Spread out a T-shirt on the bed, and use your fingers to sling the water out of each cap individually (I know, it is a nuisance, but it only takes 3 minutes) and then turn them stem-down on the T-shirt.
Within 10-20 minutes they are dry enough to re-install.
You can easily force this entire process down to as little as 30 minutes and it will take care of 99.9% of all the dirt on the caps. Laundry detergent is made to rinse out quickly and they are squeaky clean.
Trust me, I have cleaned thousands of M/F keys this way, some were truly vile nasty from ebay purchases.
We're talking about heat-sensitive IN WATER here. You can most certainly NOT boil it - it is sensitive to hot water at 60 C or more.
soapy bath,
soapy bath,
After cleaning literally thousands (and possibly even 10K) keys using a powdered laundry detergent soak and rinse, I could count on my fingers the ones that have needed any additional physical scrubbing or wiping.
It simply blows my mind the way the people on this forum are constantly fabricating difficult, expensive, time- and labor-intensive procedures for something so dead-ass simple.
Your choice of course, but every book says you shouldn't. For detailed information on the properties of PBT and other plastics, refer to The Complete Part Design Handbook For Injection Molding of Thermoplastics by Campo Alfredo (Hanser, 2006).We're talking about heat-sensitive IN WATER here. You can most certainly NOT boil it - it is sensitive to hot water at 60 C or more.
I routinely boil Model M caps in the dye bath for up to half an hour.
Your choice of course, but every book says you shouldn't. For detailed information on the properties of PBT and other plastics, refer to The Complete Part Design Handbook For Injection Molding of Thermoplastics by Campo Alfredo (Hanser, 2006).We're talking about heat-sensitive IN WATER here. You can most certainly NOT boil it - it is sensitive to hot water at 60 C or more.
I routinely boil Model M caps in the dye bath for up to half an hour.
get a puller.