Where to get RO-59 lube ?

[warnbroom]

Hi guys, so I was into a snappy trade to get this Dell AT101W for the interest of having a temporary keyboard to use at work. First hour typing on it was horrendous and I know it was the switch friction from a unit ages almost 20 years.

Did some searches through Geekhack and Deskthority and there's this guy who lubed his switches using RO-59. I don't know if it would work best on alps but he claimed it did effectively make a difference. So could anyone mind telling me where can I buy this RO-59 online ? Not sure if this still being in production or on sales or not, couldn't find anywhere having a price for it.

I'm outside the US so my chance of getting this might just fall short  . Any suggestion of lubing/RO-59 alternatives are as well greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[KHAANNN]

It's pretty hard to find specific products like that outside-US, it's pretty hard to find sources inside the US that ships outside

It's not extremely hard to find substitutes tho, If I were you, I would look for an equal product instead, do some of my own experiments with switches

You might sacrifice F5-F8 for experiments for example, if you don't use them regularly

[tp4tissue]

After going through the tedious lube-experience myself a few times..  I can flat out say, I am NEVER going to do that again..

It's just not worth it..   The first few times were fun.. the novelty, etc..  but the 4th time, I just gave up and said, fff... it , 

[SpAmRaY]

I think someone was selling some in the classifieds recently.

[warnbroom]

After going through the tedious lube-experience myself a few times..  I can flat out say, I am NEVER going to do that again..

It's just not worth it..   The first few times were fun.. the novelty, etc..  but the 4th time, I just gave up and said, fff... it ,

lol okay, sounds like you've lost feelings for it...like before having this Dell I had heavily modded Poker 2 then a HKKB2. Took so much time saving up and scavenging parts, results were satisfying but yeah I also got tired by the end of the day, so we're basically on the same page. Trying to spend less on this budget Dell then no more keyboarding for me..

[warnbroom]

I think someone was selling some in the classifieds recently.

Thanks, will have a look there 

[jacobolus]

The most important part for fixing the scratchy keys is cleaning all the dust/dirt out of them, not just adding lubricant. To accomplish that you need to disassemble all the switches, and then figure out how to remove all the grit from the top housings. Just a detergent soak doesn’t get it all. The easiest effective method would probably be to use an ultrasonic cleaner, of the type used for jewelry or lab instruments (note though, I haven’t tried this). But those are pretty expensive. You could probably get an okay result by carefully swabbing each one out with a q-tip or similar. After you clean all the grit out, then you might want to add lubricant afterward.

To be honest, the switches in an AT101W aren’t worth that kind of effort. You should just desolder them all and swap in brand new Matias switches.

[Huxley2500]

http://www.ro59inc.com/products.html

Group Buy Time!

[warnbroom]

The most important part for fixing the scratchy keys is cleaning all the dust/dirt out of them, not just adding lubricant. To accomplish that you need to disassemble all the switches, and then figure out how to remove all the grit from the top housings. Just a detergent soak doesn’t get it all. The easiest effective method would probably be to use an ultrasonic cleaner, of the type used for jewelry or lab instruments (note though, I haven’t tried this). But those are pretty expensive. You could probably get an okay result by carefully swabbing each one out with a q-tip or similar. After you clean all the grit out, then you might want to add lubricant afterward.

To be honest, the switches in an AT101W aren’t worth that kind of effort. You should just desolder them all and swap in brand new Matias switches.

You've made a point here, I've cleaned all switches with warm water and soap then let them dried out, they look pretty well cleaned afterwards. Lubricant was just an ultimate solution to get the sliders to the utmost pleasure when in operation. I know some would swap these black alps with Matias's but that's another problem, maybe none of this worth it. Better just reinstall switches and use till they drop.

[jacobolus]

You've made a point here, I've cleaned all switches with warm water and soap then let them dried out, they look pretty well cleaned afterwards.

Are they still scratchy after that? I found that for very scratchy switches, just a water + denture tabs followed by water + detergent soak wasn’t enough to get all the grit out of the inside corners of the top housing. It takes actually reaching inside and scraping the dust out with isopropyl alcohol on a q-tip or similar. Also, I’d recommend blowing them out with a Datavac or compressed air can before doing any water soak.

In some cases, getting the dust/grit out of the switches and adding some lube should make them reasonably smooth. For some switches I suspect that the plastic (on the housing + slider) was abraded by the switch being used with a bunch of dirt inside, and it’ll be all but impossible to get the switch back to its smoothest state.

[warnbroom]

You've made a point here, I've cleaned all switches with warm water and soap then let them dried out, they look pretty well cleaned afterwards.

Are they still scratchy after that? I found that for very scratchy switches, just a water + denture tabs followed by water + detergent soak wasn’t enough to get all the grit out of the inside corners of the top housing. It takes actually reaching inside and scraping the dust out with isopropyl alcohol on a q-tip or similar. Also, I’d recommend blowing them out with a Datavac or compressed air can before doing any water soak.

In some cases, getting the dust/grit out of the switches and adding some lube should make them reasonably smooth. For some switches I suspect that the plastic (on the housing + slider) was abraded by the switch being used with a bunch of dirt inside, and it’ll be all but impossible to get the switch back to its smoothest state.

I haven't install them back so don't know if the stiff is gone. When I disassembled the switches there wasn't really dust/grit inside the switch housing, but there was a thin white layer of whatever I don't know. I could just blow through the housing and the white stuffs visibly gone, but I went for the water and detergent solution only to be sure.

Been wondering if Cherry/Topre lube will also work well for Alps ?