deskthority

I've got some alps switches I'm harvesting out of an AEK, but I find some of them are really difficult to pull and have to resort to using pliers, which leave marks on the plastic casing. How can I pull these stubborn switches without damaging them? Anyone have experience with this issue?

Just take a flat screwdriver and wedge it under the switch. A gentle lift will pop them right out. If you are planning to reuse the PCB, you will need to be careful though.

You do desolder them, right?

Yes ofc I desolder them, otherwise pulling them out would probably just destroy the switch casing with the force required. I just find that the alps casing are made of very very soft plastic, even pinching too hard with my fingernails leaves a nasty mark. I am not planning to use the PCB again, this keyboard came to me in absolutely disastrous condition. Just harvesting the switches and throwing out.

Just checking...Only other advice is to be gentle and patient...

I use a blunt chisel to pry them out. If it is not blunt it will cause some damage.

desolder all the switches first, lift off the pcb and push the switches out of the plate one by one. i don´t know of a way to avoid breaking some of the wings.

Yeah, desolder of course, then I usually use a fine flat blade screwdriver to unbend the ones that are bent during manufacturing to initially hold the PCB to the switches while the soldering happens. once the whole PCB is off, I'll put something flat up against the switches to bend the wings back in and the switches come off the mounting plate pretty easily then.

If I had any 3D printing skills, I'd make sort of a socket that has the original cutout dimensions of what the switch plate has that was deep enough to put over the switch from behind and that would bend the tabs in from both sides as it is put on the switchand the switches would come out so easily from the front with those held in without any wing damage.

Maybe I need to make a post requesting this to happen.