deskthority

So I've had an old Silitek keyboard lying around for a few months and it uses White Complicated Alps. All of the switches work, but they are in absolutely horrible condition. The keyboard feels like it was buried in a sandpit for a few decades.
I love Alps, so I really want to fix up this keyboard. So, I need some advice on cleaning Alps...

1. How do you get rid of the unclean feel if the switch is visibly free of dust and particles?

2. How do you reseat the click leaf without it making that awful *tick* noise upon key release?

3. How do you assemble/disassemble Alps the correct way? I believe assembling Alps incorrectly gives them a terrible key feel.

4. How do you desolder switches that have the pins folded and soldered onto the PCB? Working with this is definitely a horrible experience on my part.

Thanks!

I don't have any experience restoring Alps switches, but an important question here would be: How nice/valuable is this keyboard? It may not be worth the effort and it certainly will take a lot of effort.

Alps switches cleaning and maintenance tutorial by Chyros:

Tuntematon wrote: I don't have any experience restoring Alps switches, but an important question here would be: How nice/valuable is this keyboard? It may not be worth the effort and it certainly will take a lot of effort.

I got it for only $10 a while back, and I really like how it looks. And I have the time to restore it. The only thing that holds me back is the fact that it's much harder to restore than something like a Cherry MX board.

Yes it involves a fair amount of work that's right. If you have the time and patience...

I've made a lot of progress last night by desoldering all of the switches! Now I need to find a way to get rid of the rust on the backplate and a lot of time to clean all of the switches... I might remove the click leafs to make them linear because I really enjoy the sound and feel of linear Alps.