First time dyeing keys...Dell AT101/AT101W...lots of pictures.

[turbocharged]

So I got this AT101W in the mail the other day (bought it for a friend for Christmas) and got a old AT101 (non-W) for free from a neighboring business that has a bunch of old computers and such. It was nasty and the switches felt horrible, so I figured it was basically worthless. So I figured I would give him the AT101W and a bunch of spare keys from the AT101 that I found after I dyed them. Long story short, I all but destroyed the white letter keys on the AT101. I thought 190 degrees F would be fine, but it wasn't.

I redid the dyeing but this time on the dark keys at a lower temperature (175-180F) and it worked much better. Still got a tiny bit of warping but not noticeable once installed. THEN, I figured out that the AT101W and AT101 don't share the same CTRL,ALT button setup (the AT101 doesn't have the windows keys...I guess the W stands for Windows)...so I had to the AT101W's ctrl,alt,windows keys and dye them.

The AT101W keys didn't like the dye nearly as much as the AT101 keys. The AT101 took a single 15 minute soak....the AT101W keys took about three 15 minute soaks and didn't even turn out nearly as good...but acceptable for a $20 board and my first time dyeing keys.

Here is how it turned out.

















Notice the different color of the fonts (AT101=black, AT101W=grey)

[Grimey]

Looks good.  Thanks for sharing your experience.

[kidchunks]

Very nice, what type of dye did you use? I just got a 101w and looking to dye the keys.

[AndrewZorn]

This might be a good one to try it on.  I don't want to risk warpage... if I use an even lower temperature than you did, what's the risk, just less color?

[microsoft windows]

That's a good color scheme on that AT101W.

[CeeSA]

very nice, details? howto?

[turbocharged]

I used RIT Scarlet liquid dye with some salt in the solution. About half a bottle to a pot of water for the number of keys you see colored.

I honestly can't recommend dyeing the AT101W keys though. The only keys from the AT101W that are dyed are the bottom row beside the spacebar. They aren't dyed nearly as dark or uniform when compared to the rest of the dyed keys, which came off the older AT101 (non-W model). It took a long time at 175-180deg F for the AT101W keys to get any color at all (there were salmon colored after the first 15 minutes). And if I increased the temperature it would have dyed easier, but they would warp very quickly.

The AT101 keys on the other hand worked beautifully. A single 15 minute soak at 180deg F and they were perfect. Like I said though, I tried the other AT101 keys at 190deg F and they all warped badly.

Equipment I used:
-A brewing thermometer to monitor temperature in the pot...its very hard to stabilize it below boiling.
-A large pot
-A wire strainer to quick extraction of the keys if it looked like they were warping.

I first cleaned all the keys with a denture tabs in hot water. I let them soak for about 30 minutes. Then fully rinse them off.
Then I cleaned all the keys in a liquid dish detergent/water solution. Then fully rinse multiple times.
Then proceeded to dye the keys.
I did not let the keys sit and soak stagnant for any prolonged amount of time. I was constantly stirring them.

[ironman31]

If you have an extra key that you dyed, could you cut it in half and see how far down it soaked? or even try rubbing the key on a piece of paper and see if the color wipes off. When I dyed the keys of my Dell the color took well (as in it was dark) but the dye didn't soak in quite as much as I expected it would. Was wondering if you had the same problem.

[NAVIWORLDINC]

turbocharged, would you happen to have a spare F5 key from one of those boards that I could buy from you?

[ironman31]

But could the color be easily removed if rubbed on a piece of paper with relative force?