deskthority

Hi. Could use some tips how to best clean this keyboard without desolder all the switches, especially the rusty places.

You could try it with q-tips and alcohol for the dirt and with vinegar essence + time (30-60min) to let it soak in for the rust. It's a bit tedious, but I think it should be done, especially on an Alps board with a (presumably) rather thin plate. I have a keyboard here with Alps and a rusty plate and the rust has gone right trough the plate.
Just don't leave the vinegar essence on the keyboard for too long or it will eat its way through the plate itself. Check the progress every now and then, I've had some bad experience with a Model F plate and vinegar essence.

there is not a huge amount you can do about the plate with the switches installed as any sanding would make loads of dust. I guess you could use some rust remedy http://www.amazon.co.uk/Loctite-Rust-Re ... B0001P0DLK
on the worst parts but it does not look that bad. mind you don't lose the alps stabilisers they are tiny and don't bend them they are an absolute pain to get back in.

The plate looks alps bigfoot but the pcb does not hmmm i wonder.

Korea likely means Gold Star Alps, their Korean joint venture with Gold Star (now merged with Lucky as LG: Lucky Gold Star).

Yeah, you should be able to apply an alcohol/vinegar mix with a q-tip or something similar, but it's much easier just to have the plate on its own so it can soak. It's also much easier to clean without switches in the way

Good question crunch. Q-tips work but I find them tedious. I found this household cleaning brush on a metal stick (bendable) to work well on a lot of keyboards. Fits between the switches and saves time. Of course that´s only for removing dirt. But soaking is the best solution.

if you do desolder the board be mindful of the pins on alps they can be very brittle i have found, you could also take the opportunity to open the alps and lub the stems i have found that that works very well on alps ( at leas the blacks i have used for my experiments )

blacks - tactile leaf + lub = awesome !

Thanks for all the tips. I'm currently cleaning it.

Well here it is, at least it got a little better than before. I have also cleaned the switches. Don't think I can get it so much better without remove all the switches and do a full on restoration.

ooo good time to lub them switches just do it on the side of the plungers and the area where they run

although they look like they will fit on both ways the tops only fit on correctly one way keep an eye on that

Should you lube dampened alps, maybe just the two sides where the leafs touch.

i would not lub the leaf i would lub the sliders