deskthority

Hello everyone,

I broke off the stem on a Cherry MY switch when removing the keycap, now parts of the stem are still stuck in the keycap.
I can't get them out. I already tried it with a needle, but I just can't make it work.
Maybe a small drill, like a Dremel could fix it, but I don't own one.

Is someone able to fix this keycap?

Do you have any tiny pointed screw? Maybe it will grab just enough to pull it...

You can heat up a needle which has a very small hook in the tip. Heat up the needle with a soldering iron and stick it in the plastic. I have never done it with a keycap but with a plastic screw before which was too small to be drilled out. Note you shouldn't hold the hot needle with your bare fingers.

codemonkeymike wrote: You can heat up a needle which has a very small hook in the tip. Heat up the needle with a soldering iron and stick it in the plastic. I have never done it with a keycap but with a plastic screw before which was too small to be drilled out. Note you shouldn't hold the hot needle with your bare fingers.

This is really ingenious, try this and report back

I already tried it with a hot needle ... all it did was melting some of the PBT plastic :X

Geroximo wrote: Is someone able to fix this keycap?

I've done that several times with a dremel and a tiny drill and obtained rather good results,
although on one occasion I was too self-assured and seeing the procedure as a kind of routine,
I completely ruined a rare cap by pushing the drill completely through it

The other solutions I tried (needle, screw extractor) always completely failed,
obviously too much force is needed to overcome the friction which secures the cap on the switch stem.

Another solution, of course, could be simply replacing the cap with an intact one
Yours looks like thick PBT, so my guess would be Cherry dye-sub, probably "Shift" row.
I have a donor SAD which has already been put to good use,
but perhaps your missing cap is still there

I've had something like this happend to me before, also drilled it out with a very thin drill on a dremel.

Just drill out the center, then try pulling the four side-pieces out with a little hook.

Oh yeah don't drill through heheheh

I just tried it with a dental pick and failed.
Drilling it out with a dremel is the only solution left I guess.
The keycap is an OG Cherry PBT dyesub "Ä" in excellent condition.
I'd rather save the cap, since it's in such good condition and a replacement cap probably wouldn't have the exact matching color.

Is one of you confident enough to do it for me? (I'd pay for it)
If not, I'll finally buy myself a dremel.

Did you let the needle cool before you pulled on it?

I'm not 100% sure, but I think I have seen someone do this before with a tool that looked like a corkscrew but more slender.
Or maybe it was used to get the keycap part out of an Alps slider ... which is a bit fatter. I don't quite remember.

Anyway. I don't think you would be able to dremel it without having to replace the stem completely. There aren't that many dremel bits that are small enough to get into there ...
BTW, I have a spare lasered thick PBT 'Ä' key if you'd want it. But if you are just going to use the stem off then I'd rather send you a numpad key instead.

Geroximo wrote: I just tried it with a dental pick and failed.
Drilling it out with a dremel is the only solution left I guess.
The keycap is an OG Cherry PBT dyesub "Ä" in excellent condition.
I'd rather save the cap, since it's in such good condition and a replacement cap probably wouldn't have the exact matching color.

Is one of you confident enough to do it for me? (I'd pay for it)
If not, I'll finally buy myself a dremel.

A replacement OG Cherry PBT dyesub "Ä" is certainly worth a try,
and dremelling yours will still be a solution if it doesn't match.
I still have your address and can send you the replacement cap.

If you want somebody dremel this thing out, PM me . I have same really small drills from a friend who is a dentist. You pay shipping, I do it of course for free.

The keycap will be soon back to you, I removed the stem and the letter is already on the doorstep.
The drill every mouth fears.

what rotary tool do you use