2 Keyboards' Makeover - a miniproject

[Black Panther]

I was planning to do this for a very long time.

The palm-rest of my keyboard had become discolored and hideous thanks to my sweaty palms while gaming, so I decided to paint it a shade of metallic blue.

Here are the 'before' photos:








And the finished work:












_________________________________________


While I was doing it, I remembered of one of the very old beige keyboards I had stored and unused for years, and thought... why not use the extra paint on something else?

I used the same paint I used for the other keyboard.

(Brace yourselves for the 'before' photos, lol)




The "before" photos:





This time I disassembled the entire keyboard to pieces, unlike the other one.

I unscrewed keyboard from the bottom, took the top half and bottom half apart.
I removed wire and the tiny pcb. I got the flimsy transparent plastic printed circuits out as well, and to remove dirt I gave them a blow with a hair-dryer on low heat.

From the top half I popped out all the keys.
Before doing so I took the photo... otherwise heaven knows how I'd get the keys all in the right places again!

From the bottom half I removed the flexible rubber which goes under all the keys and enables them to pop up, I washed that in water and detergent. It had residues looking like someone split coffee on it. I'm not sure how it got in there, but I'm thinking this was one of the keyboards we had at our work when the roof used to leak rain-water, it didn't work when drenched and we bought some other €5 keyboard to keep going. This is further confirmed by the dirt marks (they got worse during storage) - but look, no greasy marks on WSAD so it definitely was one of my work keyboards



The "after" photos:

[WhiteLotus]

That's some good work.

What did you use to wash the keys? Plain soapy water?

[Black Panther]

Originally Posted by WhiteLotus

What did you use to wash the keys? Plain soapy water?

A good detergent

and water.

[Kreij]

WOW ... those turned out excellent, BP!

What's the exact color you used?

[Black Panther]

Originally Posted by Kreij

What's the exact color you used?

There's no exact color

I had told my husband to mix a color over a year ago. It was a much darker pearly blue. But since then the paint dried up... so we added some thinner to dissolve it, then some silver paint and finally some greenish-blue paint which he had used for the boat....

[ron732]

BP really nice job. What prep work did you do to the palm-rest to get it ready for paint?

[OnePostWonder]

9600 Baud in title.

Speaking of vintage, you've reminded me that I really should tend to this Model M I have, I'm just not sure how much of an adventure it will be to clean with the buckling springs and all.

Also, the keyboards look nice. The metallic blue really is quite appealing.

[Black Panther]

Originally Posted by ron732

BP really nice job. What prep work did you do to the palm-rest to get it ready for paint?

First I worked on it with a P800 grade sandpaper till it turned white.

Then this plastic primer, the same that is used on black or gray plastic car-bumpers before they spray-paint them with the same color as the rest of the car.



Edit: This type of job is not worth doing if you only want to change keyboard. Financially it's better just buying a new mainstream keyboard, unless you're doing it just for pleasure and satisfaction. Both my keyboards are cheap ones, the one with the palm-rest I think I had bought it around €15 some 3 years ago. And the beige one... it probably was €5 some 10 years ago!

I liked my palm-rest keyboard too much to scrap it though

And I like even better the fact that I resurrected an old beige keyboard which would have found its place in the bin weren't it for the paint-job

[Fourstaff]

Nice work, I saw this on Facebook and then figured out that you will be posting more pictures here, and I was not disappointed

[ron732]

Originally Posted by Black Panther

This type of job is not worth doing if you only want to change keyboard. Financially it's better just buying a new mainstream keyboard, unless you're doing it just for pleasure and satisfaction.

I agree that it is probably cheaper and a lot less effort to buy a new keyboard. However like you I have an attachment to my keyboard and was wondering how to freshen up the dull and worn spots on the palm-rest. Thanks for the info.

[Cotton_Cup]

wow I liked what you did with that vintage keyboard of yours on the last photo

[nleksan]

That old beige transformation is AWESOME! I love your color choice, too, it's very similar to my Bimmer! (see avatar)

I am now thinking of doing this to an old beige keyboard that served me well for 10yrs but is just too ugly now; great way to give life back to what would otherwise go unused! I have a friend who owns a body shop and he and his wife specialize in custom work as well as collision repair, so they are both extremely talented with a paint gun, not to mention will be able to mix me my own color, and I will be able to do it in a paint booth and hopefully learn something.
Thanks for this awesome idea!

[D007]

First hand work there, good sir. I'd pay for a service like that.