Restoring yellowed WASD V2 keycaps

memm74

14 Oct 2021, 16:38

Hi, I 've got some printed WASD keycaps that yellowewd over time and that I want to rescue.
compare the yellowness to the Model M
compare the yellowness to the Model M
IMG_2412.jpg (2.97 MiB) Viewed 809 times
History
In 2014 I ordered the WASD V2 keyboard seen in the pictures below. I tried to give it a retro look when I designed the keycaps and admit that I might have gone a bit overboard with the colours in the top right corner, but I do like the keycap look I have created.

Environment the caps were kept in
The keyboard spent maybe 4 years on the desk at my place of work. Ground floor in the UK with trees outside and double glazing, so the keyboard never got a lot of sun. Nevertheless the keys have yellowed quite dramatically.

Yellowing/fading
When I came back to the office after lockdown and took it out of the drawer is was shocked. I guess before I slowly got used to it and didn't notice, but now, seeing it fresh was a shock The side facing the window, and the top, are very yellowed. In reality it looks worse than on the photos. The side facing away from the window is not yelowed. For colour comparison the keyboard is next to a Model M and I turned one of the keys around in the second photo.

WASD doesn't know
I asked WASD for advice, but what I got back was 'Retrobrite might help but we don't know if it is compatible with our print' and 'I don't know if there is anything else to do for 7 year old keycaps'. I am slightly disappointed as I never expected these keycaps to have such a short lifespan before changing appearance.

What could I do to restore these keycaps? Do you have any suggestions?

They have been printed by WASD but I guess in 2004 they didn't UV protect them.
The difference between the more and less yellowed side looks even worse in reality
The difference between the more and less yellowed side looks even worse in reality
IMG_2413.jpg (819.05 KiB) Viewed 809 times

User avatar
TNT

14 Oct 2021, 16:45

You need peroxide, a plastic bag and a heatbath or a UV-source of some sort. The method is pretty simple:

Put the caps in the bag, submerge in peroxide and add energy via UV light (normal light does work too but is considerably slower) or heat (waterbath). I always use the heater function of my ultrasonic cleaner, before that I used a pot on the kitchen stove. Fill with water and turn on heat. Make sure to suspend the bag above the bottom of the pot or you will melt your switches. With ABS caps you need to keep an eye on the temperature. Better give it less heat and more time than to deform the caps...

memm74

14 Oct 2021, 17:02

Thanks, I am worried as WASD told me they don't know if their print can withstand Retrobright, so I am worried the print will go off. It's a design I sent them that they printed on the keycaps, but I don't have details what process they used for printing.
Do you know if this method is kind enough to printed keycaps?

User avatar
TNT

15 Oct 2021, 03:30

I've used it on pad-printed caps, but no idea how this custom print was done and if it will withstand the peroxide :|

Maybe try it out extra carefully with just one cap and if it seems ok after a day or two, treat the rest of em too

Riverman

15 Oct 2021, 18:38

I've been using creme developer from Sally Beauty Supply on some yellowed plastics lately, and so far it hasn't affected the printing on any of it. I don't see why WASD's pad printing would be less durable than what other manufacturers used 20-30 years ago to print on plastics, but of course I couldn't say for sure. I had been wondering how quickly white ABS keycaps would yellow. I'm surprised that the blue ones yellowed so badly, too, but then I had an old Sharp printing calculator from the '80s that had some pretty badly yellowed colored keys.

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