geekhack
geekhack Community => Keyboard Keycaps => Topic started by: bjb39 on Mon, 02 November 2015, 17:11:07
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Here's the story of how I messed up my keyset.
I've been working on building a pipe-and-butcher-block desk following the build from this blog (http://tylergarner.com/post/110081885024/custom-diy-pipe-desk). There's a step in there where you spray paint the pipes with a matte gray spray paint. For unrelated reasons, I had one of my keyboards in the basement at what I THOUGHT was a safe distance away from where I was spray painting the pipes. I would spray a bit, go over and look at the keyboard and other things nearby to make sure no spray paint got on them (at this point you're thinking I should have just moved them. I KNOW. It was really stupid.), and go back to spray painting. When everything was said and done, I picked up my keyboard and started typing and the keys were bad. They were rough and sticky. Nothing about them visually would indicate that there's spray paint on them, but they definitely feel like I wiped a bunch of glue along the tops of the keycaps or something. It's awful.
For reference, they're Keycool graident blank blues from this group buy on Massdrop (https://www.massdrop.com/buy/keycool-gradient-keycaps?mode=guest_open). tl;dr they're blank PBTs.
Is there any way to safely get the spray paint off these keys? I was thinking about gathering them all up and doing a standard key soup wash, but the problem with the gradient keys is that it's really hard to get the right gradient unless you keep track of the position of all the keycaps, so I would likely have to do them individually.
Anyone have any suggestions or thoughts? I'm kicking myself over making such a stupid mistake.
EDIT: Here's a link (http://www.lowes.com/pd_538310-90-271473___?productId=50147292) to the spray paint I used, in case that helps.
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Do you mean the keycaps are rough and sticky, or the switches feels rough and sticky?
you may want to try to use thinner to rub off the paint if the paint are on keycaps. This method worked for me, not sure does this work for your paint though.
if you mean the switches feel rough and sticky...just replace the switches
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I spray paint a ton indoors with many different brands. They all leave spray paint dust all over the room.
I could easily see it gumming up caps and switches.
That also seems like a solid can of Rusto, so your caps are probably boned.
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I would probably start on the least likely to cause more harm to your caps; warm soapy water.
Next maybe rubbing alcohol, the stuff for cleaning cuts
maybe mineral spirits which is a weaker paint thinner.
Im not sure I would do straight paint thinner...
Test on a small area first, be careful of scratching the keycaps more or creating a buffing effect. But ya that looks like a good can of paint, especially with the primer in there too. Some primers have etching chemicals in them.
Next time throw some kinda shield over it, newspaper/cloth/old tshirt... or ya just move it. :\