26 Feb
2014
26 Feb
'14
2:27 p.m.
On 02/11/2014 10:22 AM, Maxx Wood wrote:
Yup! The shift keys, enter, and backspace can be
rather troublesome. A good
first troubleshooting step is to check if you have some broken rivets in
that area, which is very likely considering the age. If that's not the
case, pop the key out and look at the chimney area where the spring sits
inside of the key. If there's some sharp edges you can lightly file them
inwards.
[playing message catch-up]
Yes, I've never opened my keyboard up - the walls of all my 3/16" (from
memory that's what the M uses) sockets are a little too thick for them to
fit into the recess where the screws are. One of these days I'll modify one
of the sockets and narrow the walls out a little so it works.
I usually clean the stabilizers with a q-tip and then
spray some
PTFE dri-film lubricant onto another q-tip and apply inside the stabilizer
as well as the key's stabilizer "post".
I actually just treated the keys on mine to a wash, so I popped the r/h
shift key stabilizer out and swapped it for the one for '0' on the numeric
pad (which I never use anyway). That makes the travel a lot smoother when
shift is hit on the first (going from the left) 85% of the key; it still
sticks a bit in that r/h 15% area (which is unlikely to be down to the
stabilizer and likely to be some problem with the key-post or mechanism).
98% (give or take!) of the time I'm hitting the key somewhere in the 85%
area anyway, so it's not a big deal or anything, just a shame that it's not
as perfect as it would have been when new.
Also, I'm curious as to what kind of 'dry'
lubricant you are using?
From memory, it's Liquid Wrench silicone (I think the can is in my truck,
and that's in a shed which I'm not going to get to until the snow melts in
a couple of months). It seems to work pretty well, or at least well enough
that by the time I might want to apply a little more, the keys all need a
clean anyway.
(...and cleaning 'em up surely is gratifying! :D)
I wish I'd got a before and after photo of mine. :-)
cheers
Jules