Bought Apple Adjustable; switches feel...scratchy?

[bcredbottle]

I got an old Apple adjustable. It's generally in good shape but it feels scratchy when I push the keys down. It also feels like it takes a little extra time for the switches to rebound to their original position after being pressed. Any recommendations for what I should do?

[jwaz]

I found one in the wild and thought it was a rubber dome the alps felt so bad. I'm not a fan.

If you like the board enough you could always try to disassemble and clean it.

[chyros]

Does this use Alps switches? If so, I made a tutorial for cleaning them out:

[jacobolus]

It’s not Alps SKCM switches, but rather SKFS http://deskthority.net/wiki/Alps_SKFR/SKFS

They’re not the same to disassemble, and I’m not sure whether it can be done without desoldering.

I’m not a huge fan of the switches, but if they’re scratchy, that means they’re in poor condition (the same thing can happen to any other type of 25-year-old switch). You can’t fairly judge the switches by the particular ones you have in front of you. If you want to give them a fair shake, find a closer to NIB keyboard. (Personally I wouldn’t bother though; there are much nicer switches out there.)

If you want to fix this board up, you could take everything apart, desolder all the switches, disassemble them, thoroughly clean the dust/dirt of of them, and possibly add some lubricant. It would be a huge pain in the ass though. Not worth the trouble IMO.

[bcredbottle]

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