Seriously, in the past I've always managed to get nicotine and crumb infested keyboards like the m$ natural keyboard or the good old 1989 ibm ps/2 keyboard (aka emergency sledgehammer) for free. The former, you'll still have to pay money for, if you want it in a decent shape, the latter has become rare.
Anyway: All of the keyboards I've gotten for free, I've simply taken apart (will take aboout 10 minutes, if not mechanically challenged...) and put everything, except for the electronics (and the conductive foils of course) into the dishwasher. The keys go into the basket for the cutlery, the rest of the frame goes into the place, where the plates should be - works just fine. You can even dry them and use the 70C program - so far I haven't encountered any problems with plastic melting or the labeling coming off. And with 70C and a Somat 5in1 Tab, even the dirtiest, nicotine-yellow keyboard looks as good as new again:)
Small Problem: The dishwasher removes the thin film of grease, that's leftover from the injection die casting process in which the keys were made. Thus, they'll require a little more force when being pressed. I've solved that by using a drop of teflon spray.
So, usually it takes about 30 minutes to take the keyboard apart and put it together again, plus time in the dishwasher. If you can get a decent keyboard for free that way, I think, it's time well invested.
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Seriously, in the past I've always managed to get nicotine and crumb infested keyboards like the m$ natural keyboard or the good old 1989 ibm ps/2 keyboard (aka emergency sledgehammer) for free. The former, you'll still have to pay money for, if you want it in a decent shape, the latter has become rare.
:)
Anyway: All of the keyboards I've gotten for free, I've simply taken apart (will take aboout 10 minutes, if not mechanically challenged...) and put everything, except for the electronics (and the conductive foils of course) into the dishwasher. The keys go into the basket for the cutlery, the rest of the frame goes into the place, where the plates should be - works just fine. You can even dry them and use the 70C program - so far I haven't encountered any problems with plastic melting or the labeling coming off. And with 70C and a Somat 5in1 Tab, even the dirtiest, nicotine-yellow keyboard looks as good as new again
Small Problem: The dishwasher removes the thin film of grease, that's leftover from the injection die casting process in which the keys were made. Thus, they'll require a little more force when being pressed. I've solved that by using a drop of teflon spray.
So, usually it takes about 30 minutes to take the keyboard apart and put it together again, plus time in the dishwasher. If you can get a decent keyboard for free that way, I think, it's time well invested.