A successful expedition

[Null Hypothesis]

Yesterday I went to a Hamfest (amateur radio show) near my city. If you are interested in radios or old electronics, this is the place for you. This particular show had some keyboard relevance so I thought I'd share.

As we entered the non-vendor area, I spied a box of incredibly dirty keyboards. I checked them to see if they were worth anything but they were all pretty worthless. By the time I thought to get a picture of the lonely box someone had unfortunately taken it. There was also a tiny Motorola board which was in terrible shape, with about 10 keycaps missing and many of the switch stems broken off. It also wasn't there when I came back for a picture. We looked around for a while for a particular item my friend was in need of and I found this interesting board:



From what I gather this is a board for video editing. I almost made an offer but I can't imagine where I'd get replacement keycaps for it. Someone is probably going to tell me it's worth a fortune even in that shape and I should have gone for it. Oh well.

We didn't find anything in that area, so we went to the vendor area. Generally, unless you're looking to buy something new and aren't looking for old stuff the vendor area is pretty useless. This time, however, I actually saw something interesting - a Cherry G80-11900LPMUS. Spoilers, I bought it:



It was time to play the part of clueless guy who likes weird stuff.

"Hey, that's pretty neat. How much you want for that weird keyboard?"

But this guy at least vaguely knew what he was doing. He proceeded to tell me about how this keyboard has individual switches, and is also made by Cherry, and that means something. This was worrisome, but I could tell he couldn't get rid of it and was just tired of seeing the thing. I tried to look disinterested and he finally quoted $20. I got him down to $15. It's in quite good shape so I took a gamble on whether it worked. It does!

I got it home and cleaned the keycaps and case. Here's the problem: someone stuck velcro and double-sided tape to the bottom of it, and there's a ring of old adhesive around the touchpad. I managed to rub the velco adhesive off but the adhesive from the tape is still there and still sticky.



So my question is how to get that off. I have a bottle of GooGone at work for all the wonderful people who send back their computers with stickers all over them when they quit after 2 months. Should I risk it? I've had some luck with isopropynol on some types of adhesive but it doesn't always work and it's pretty harsh too.

Either way, I have acquired a keyboard with MX Blacks now. I'll probably take it to work and use it to set up servers or something; I can't see myself using Blacks for everyday use.

[codyeatworld]

Some pretty cool caps on that first board.

I want the keys SPLIT, CUT, DISS, and VAR!!

[E TwentyNine]

From what I gather this is a board for video editing. I almost made an offer but I can't imagine where I'd get replacement keycaps for it.

Those look like MX Blacks, get caps for it in the usual places.

[E TwentyNine]

Heck, you could probably sell the caps for more than you paid for the keyboard if you bought it.  What were they asking?

[IvanIvanovich]

Googone should be fine, I think is ABS safe. If you are worried about damage, remove the PCB first.

Those Grass Valley use some sort of serial connection or something, so they are not too useful without the equipment they belong to. I guess ok for harvesting switches, keycaps or if you like to do controller modding and so on. They are often listed on ebay for high prices but occasionally for cheap.

[Null Hypothesis]

Those look like MX Blacks, get caps for it in the usual places.

I meant original keycaps. If I bought it I would have wanted to restore it as well as possible.

As for price, there wasn't one named.

[dorkvader]

Those look like MX Blacks, get caps for it in the usual places.

I meant original keycaps. If I bought it I would have wanted to restore it as well as possible.

As for price, there wasn't one named.

Other than from another grass valley keyboard, you could get new keycaps made up from SP (Signature plastics); it looks like they did the originals for grass valley (based on the shape-profile-font, etc) One-offs aren't cheap from them, but if you're doing restoration, maybe it's worth it.

Me, I wouldn't worry about restoration, I'd just be happy with an almost full set of doubleshots in cool colours with front printing. I really dig that darkgreen homerow.

"record" sort-of looks not-doubleshot, though.

Man, now I think a darkgreen/darkgrey set would look sweet.

[fohat.digs]

Removing adhesive is tricky but can be done.

The fresher it is, the easier to remove. If it is decades old, you may have an insurmountable problem.

I use a citrus oil cleaner first (I have a spray can of orange oil cleaner called something like "Dissolv-All" that is very good, but it is almost used up and I don't know where to get more) and then go to naptha (old-fashioned cigarette lighter fluid). I put it on a soft rag and wipe lightly and quickly.

CAUTION - pretty much anything that will dissolve adhesive will dissolve many plastics. Test first, be careful, WORK FAST, and thoroughly remove the solvent as quickly as possible.

[Tym]

People don't recommend this often (In fact they generally tell you not to) But if you are skillful enough slice it off with a thin blade of some description, again be very careful! Good Luck.

[khaangaaroo]

GooGone should work fine. I've never had it eat any plastics.

[Null Hypothesis]

I went with the GooGone. The adhesive was very old and hard to get off even with that, but it looks like there is no damage. I thought about Naptha but decided against it. Now I just have faintly lighter stripes on the bottom where the tape protected the plastic from yellowing. Overall it's in quite good shape now.

Still annoyed I didn't go for the editing board. If that guy shows up at the next one and still has it I'll try to snag it.