Sun Type 5 keyboard f*-up

On Nov 18 2004, 16:52, Tore S Bekkedal wrote: also Yes, same thing. Unless something like salt water, red wine (Mateus Ros? is bad too, one of my friends discovered), etc has got in, there's an easier and less dramatic way to clean them. Usually the dirt is (1) general dirt on the keys, (2) biscuit crumbs, paper clips, hair, etc, under and in between the keytops, and (3) general dirt anddiscoloration of the case and cable. Take off the keytops (you can get a little puller to make this easier, but if you take the cover off the keyboard you can do it with your fingers). Use a vacuum cleaner and a small paint brush to remove the crud around the keys. Clean the cable with a small amount of white spirit on a paper kitchen towel, and finsh off with a dry towel (optionally add a very small amount of furniture polish). Clean the case with a damp cloth and detergent or kitchen-surface cleaner (don't forget to rinse it off!). I use one of two methods to clean the keycaps, depending on how many I do at once. One way is to dunk them in a small washing-up basin (or a large kitchen bowl) with some mild detergent (I use Flash, which is a non-foaming and fairly gentle floor cleaner) and swish them around for a while, then pour out the liquid, dump the keycaps into a towel, and dry them off. If I do it that way, I often spray a little (very little) Mr Sheen (liquid furniture polish) onto the wet keycaps just before I dry them; it leaves an almost imperceptible coating of wax that prevents them getting dirty again so quickly. The other way is to put them into a pillowcase, tie the open end off so they can't escape, and sling the pillowcase in the (clothes) washing machine. Dry in the tumble drier (still in the pillowcase), with your preferred fabric conditioner (same effect as the Mr Sheen above). You can get brownie points from She Who Must Be Obeyed by doing this as part of a small load of the regular laundry :-) Liz, of course, is used to finding sprayed-painted metallic parts curing in the oven, pillowcases rattling quietly in the tumble drier, and circuit boards in the dishwasher (don't use the hot drying cycle, dry using IPA and compressed air). That's got me looking at the five keyboard around me. Yuk. Time to find that pillowcase, I fear, at least for three of them :-( -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York