deskthority

I have a Chicony keyboard model KB-5182 that I would like to take apart for cleaning.

I managed to take off the front and back covers and now I am left with a metal board attached to the circuit board.

I don't know how or if the metal board and the switches can be taken apart or not. I would not want to damage it.

I can clean between them with a toothbrush to get the dust off, and by using some other cleaning products for the metal, but it would be nice if I could properly clean the metal plate.

If someone knows more about this or can give me a link to a guide, I would appreciate it.

I am attaching a few photos for anyone who may know more about this:

Photos from dropbox doesn't work. Or atleash i havent gotten it working. For example use imgur.

I have reuploaded the images, they should work now. Thanks for letting me know.

You would have to desolder all the switches to remove the metal plate. Depending on how much trouble it's worth to you, you may want to do so and give the plate a light sanding to remove any rust spots and then respray it. That's also a good opportunity to give it some personality by using an interesting color for your plate.

I recommend you just use some compressed air to blow the dust out, if you just want to clean everything. It’s not worth desoldering the whole keyboard just to clean it.

Run some wet q-tips between the rows of switches. I wouldn't do more than that.
Of course you could wash parts of the plastic case a bit more.

Thanks for all the replies. Unsoldering seems very complicated and I think I would be way out of my depth if I will be doing that. I will try to clean the rows as much as possible. Is there anything that I could buy to put on the rusty patches to prevent further rusting showing up?

You need to remove all the rust and paint to protect it from rust. If you store the keyboard in a dry place I don't think it's going to be a problem.

Personally I wouldn’t worry about the rust. It’s unlikely to cause any structural problem unless it gets much more severe, and it’s not visible with the case on. If in 30 more years the rust eats away enough of the plate to harm the keyboard, you can have another plate made at that point.