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Half a bottle of mineral oil onto mechanical keyboard.
I'm aware that mineral oil does not conduct electicity and the keyboard will still work. The problem is oil isn't exactly comfortable, and possible issues of viscosity on the switches, and what to clean it with.
Put it in the dishwasher then let dry? Clean with IPA, damp towel, dry towel, water, soapy water?
Thanks.
ps - i know mineral oil doesnt conduct electricity. this isn't water.
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I believe that guide is aimed at non-mechanical keyboards, water-based liquid spills and general cleaning, not mineral oil on mechanical keyboards.
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still not exactly sure what to do here. so much oil...
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well you'll be deconstructing the board, cleaning it with a soap then reassembling... have fun.
that first guide covers it all
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ripster told me to use mineral spirits as a solvent for the mineral oil, and clean it using that.
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Isopropyl alcohol is your best bet.
Soak the whole keyboard in it. And push all of the keys a lot, like maybe a couple hundreds presses per key.
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Agreed with the soak method, use some pure alcohol. Normally I'd just take off the keycaps and wash them with any detergent while carefully wiping the board, but you can't really clean the switches that way...
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well i dont think i have to worry too much about minerla oil in the switches, it would just lubricate them. Im going to put rubbing alcohol + water in a bowl with the keycaps, then let them dry out, and then take apart the keyboard and jut wipe it downwith rubbing alcohol.
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Surgical spirit (rubbing alcohol for you americans) is great for cleaning the contacts, very cheap too just make sure its a good 90%+ to stop conduction and ensure its completely dry before reconnecting it.
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I just have 70%, but I'll make sure to give it a while to dry out, obviously. I'm going to pull all the keycaps into watered down isopropyl (just a big bowl, no sense in using pure or 70% iso for that...), let them dry while I iso rub the keyboard as I take it apart (the pcb, etc). The switches I'll leave intact, I was actually using the mineral oil to lube up some GPU fans (which is when i caused the spill).
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You can just put it in the refrigerator to speed up the drying process then.
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Dont you mean like the oven or toaster oven or something? Am I missing something, ie IPA evaporates quicker in cold air? Even if that were true, I have 70% IPA, not lab grade (its antiseptic, so no additives), so there's water in there (which I know evaporates quicker warm vs cold).
I took apart my keyboard. Also, check out my switches. Maybe it's just wayyy too much mineral oil in them and just needs to be rubbed. Maybe shit is just fucked up. Maybe I have to clear out the switches with IPA/solvent and then relube them with specialized lube.
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On December 20 2012 09:13 Medrea wrote: You can just put it in the refrigerator to speed up the drying process then. What?
Isn't drying the process of evaporation?
Doesn't lowering the temperature move a liquid further away from the boiling point, thus making evaporation slower?
And wouldn't taking it out of the fridge cause condensation to form because of the higher ambient temperature outside of the fridge?
The answer to all 3 of these questions is yes. I'm not sure what your train of thought was with that one, bro.
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On December 21 2012 08:12 aethereality wrote:Show nested quote +On December 20 2012 09:13 Medrea wrote: You can just put it in the refrigerator to speed up the drying process then. What? Isn't drying the process of evaporation? Doesn't lowering the temperature move a liquid further away from the boiling point, thus making evaporation slower? And wouldn't taking it out of the fridge cause condensation to form because of the higher ambient temperature outside of the fridge? The answer to all 3 of these questions is yes. I'm not sure what your train of thought was with that one, bro.
This is why you cover pasta before putting it in the fridge. Ever leave a plate of pasta in the open in the fridge? Its as hard as rock in hours.
Why does meat get freezer burned? The cold rips the water out.
You can use the refrigerator to rip out moisture quickly from everything.
Why? Because unless you have an ancient fridge that has a freezer that slowly gets smaller and smaller as ice builds up, they are all equipped with dehumidifiers that remove moisture from the contents within. Which is again why we cover everything we want to keep moist.
That is why we have been putting electronics in refrigerators since the, I dunno, the 70's? About?
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Evaporation depends on temperature and humidity (in fact it's the vapor pressure that depends on the temperature). Refrigerator are usually really dry and so evaporation can occurs faster than in ambient temperature with ambient humidity.
You must beware about condensation but I don't think it would be a big problem just be sure to take it out and put it in a rather dry room. If it's really moist in your house be careful though.
Edit: After thinking about it, depending on the solvent you use it may be not a good idea to put it in the refrigerator with food :p
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well i can clear out the freezer, but im not really in a hurry to use my mechanical keyboard. id prefer it fixed right than fixed quickly.
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I wouldnt use the freezer.
Freezer will bring parts that have capacitance values too low.
You can also use rice. Dry uncooked rice also help bring the moisture out of things.
I always put things in the fridge when they get wet because sometimes water can get inside of things, and then it takes a really really long time, like weeks, to air out if its an almost perfect box (enclosed area). Inside a fridge you have a machine built for ripping out water.
Oh also about the freezer, you could end up freezing the water between two places, and make cracks. That will break the keyboard.
EDIT: And finally, its not risky, its not underground, its something that we have been doing for decades now. Its a life saver for cellphones that have been dropped into water or something.
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So, you had mineral oil over/near your keyboard why...?? f....f.....f...f...f..fap fap fap?
User was warned for this post
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On December 21 2012 08:51 Medrea wrote: I wouldnt use the freezer.
Freezer will bring parts that have capacitance values too low.
You can also use rice. Dry uncooked rice also help bring the moisture out of things.
I always put things in the fridge when they get wet because sometimes water can get inside of things, and then it takes a really really long time, like weeks, to air out if its an almost perfect box (enclosed area). Inside a fridge you have a machine built for ripping out water.
Oh also about the freezer, you could end up freezing the water between two places, and make cracks. That will break the keyboard.
EDIT: And finally, its not risky, its not underground, its something that we have been doing for decades now. Its a life saver for cellphones that have been dropped into water or something.
So... would I need to clear out the food from the fridge, or wrap it or anything? Or just stick it in the fridge and that's it?
I've completely taken apart my ducky, pcb and everything, so i dont think water will be an issue, and i'll let it dry for a while anyways. using water/IPA mix and IPA dabbing, depending on the part.
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On December 21 2012 14:12 Belial88 wrote:Show nested quote +On December 21 2012 08:51 Medrea wrote: I wouldnt use the freezer.
Freezer will bring parts that have capacitance values too low.
You can also use rice. Dry uncooked rice also help bring the moisture out of things.
I always put things in the fridge when they get wet because sometimes water can get inside of things, and then it takes a really really long time, like weeks, to air out if its an almost perfect box (enclosed area). Inside a fridge you have a machine built for ripping out water.
Oh also about the freezer, you could end up freezing the water between two places, and make cracks. That will break the keyboard.
EDIT: And finally, its not risky, its not underground, its something that we have been doing for decades now. Its a life saver for cellphones that have been dropped into water or something. So... would I need to clear out the food from the fridge, or wrap it or anything? Or just stick it in the fridge and that's it? I've completely taken apart my ducky, pcb and everything, so i dont think water will be an issue, and i'll let it dry for a while anyways. using water/IPA mix and IPA dabbing, depending on the part.
Nah just putting it uncovered on the top shelf is fine.
If thats what you are doing then just using the air is fine as well. So do that and forget the fridge. Remember it for future stuff though.
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i will do, thanks. i mean why not put it in the fridge for a week, right. very cool tip.
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On December 22 2012 16:00 Belial88 wrote: i will do, thanks. i mean why not put it in the fridge for a week, right. very cool tip.
Is that....?
Did you just make a pun?
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The reason people are suggesting the refrigerator is that most have a 'defrosting' cycle in them. This greatly lowers the water content in the air of the refrigerator. This area will both dry your keyboard and slow any chemical reactions happening with metal parts. The major downside to all of this is when you pull the keyboard out of the refrigerator it will attract the moisture back into the small nooks and crannies and it reheats.
I would say douse it in rice but then you have rice powder everywhere and you need to reclean it again. I would go with the trick that the ripster people mention of a warm radiating heat source. Heat lamp, hair dryer on LOW, they get really hot on high, basically anything you can hold your hand under for 10 minutes and not have it burn.
As for a solvent for the mineral oil if you have not yet found one, check your local hardware store. They will have that in their chemical section. Denatured alchol is pure alchol that has been modified for non human consumption, so if you are looking for pure alchol there you go.
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You dont have to worry about condensation. Mostly because it isnt enough moisture and also because it generally isnt conductive.
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i did not intend to make a pun. wasnt thinking of that.
i think my fridge is broken, lol.
I was offered some free Mineral Spirits today, ie paint thinner (as ripster recommended) but I recalled back to my experiences of painting warhammer 40k. I put a couple plastic models in paint thinner to remove a terrible paint job I had done years before. The plastic absolutely melted (after a better paint job they still looked better than before).
I know ripster said he tested paint thinner on plastic before, and the damage probably occurred from having the models in the thinner for overnight (that's how long it took to get paint off), but the memory just scares me to put my keyboard in that. Not to mention the PCB, and how fragile that might be.
Just going to stick with watered down IPA.
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On December 21 2012 08:51 Medrea wrote: I wouldnt use the freezer.
Freezer will bring parts that have capacitance values too low.
You can also use rice. Dry uncooked rice also help bring the moisture out of things.
I always put things in the fridge when they get wet because sometimes water can get inside of things, and then it takes a really really long time, like weeks, to air out if its an almost perfect box (enclosed area). Inside a fridge you have a machine built for ripping out water.
Oh also about the freezer, you could end up freezing the water between two places, and make cracks. That will break the keyboard.
EDIT: And finally, its not risky, its not underground, its something that we have been doing for decades now. Its a life saver for cellphones that have been dropped into water or something.
wont rice cause rice dust to get all over it?
i put the board in the fridge for like half an hour and it seemed like condensation got all over it ;/
I can tell there's IPA all inside some of the keys, and it isn't getting out no matter how much duster i use. I need a way to really dry out the board.
maybe i'll put the board in front of the space heater set to like 80-90*F.
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On January 07 2013 14:08 Belial88 wrote:Show nested quote +On December 21 2012 08:51 Medrea wrote: I wouldnt use the freezer.
Freezer will bring parts that have capacitance values too low.
You can also use rice. Dry uncooked rice also help bring the moisture out of things.
I always put things in the fridge when they get wet because sometimes water can get inside of things, and then it takes a really really long time, like weeks, to air out if its an almost perfect box (enclosed area). Inside a fridge you have a machine built for ripping out water.
Oh also about the freezer, you could end up freezing the water between two places, and make cracks. That will break the keyboard.
EDIT: And finally, its not risky, its not underground, its something that we have been doing for decades now. Its a life saver for cellphones that have been dropped into water or something. wont rice cause rice dust to get all over it? i put the board in the fridge for like half an hour and it seemed like condensation got all over it ;/ I can tell there's IPA all inside some of the keys, and it isn't getting out no matter how much duster i use. I need a way to really dry out the board. maybe i'll put the board in front of the space heater set to like 80-90*F.
The problem with the fridge is that removing it from the fridge will cause condensation either way. I'd avoid it. As you said, mineral spirits could cause damage to plastic (glad I'm not the only one who's lost a model that way).
You need to use something, but I wouldn't water down the rubbing alcohol, myself. Diluting it just means it doesn't evaporate as quickly. Use like 90%, it evaporates so fast I don't even worry about it spilling on electronics. Then if there's any nooks and crannies, you can just use canned air to finish the cleanup.
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well i dont mind it not evaporating as quickly, but the problem is that it just isn't evaporating at all. When I press the keys, I can sort of see the liquid come out just barely, from the switch (like very barely, i've already used up 2 cans of duster, it's not coming out and it's a very small amount as it is, but i can just see the edge of the switch go from dry black to wet black, if that makes sense). It's just stuck in there, and it's not water, it's 3 parts 91% IPA to 2 parts water.
So I need a method to pull the water out without getting rice dust all over the board (maybe stick it in a container of rice but wrapped in paper towerl? everything i read says stick the rice all up in it...), or condensation all over it.
I got a space heater, maybe stick it in front of that on like 70-90*F.
I also used 90% for a while and i was having the same issue where that wasn't coming out.
Now I can't tell if some of the keys are not fully right because liquid is still in them, or because they need lubrication.
I mean the keyboard isn't too bad, I could use it and all would be fine. It's only like the keys 0. -, +, and then the 3 keys below it every row down, a very small part of the keyboard, and they aren't even that bad. But there's something stopping them from operating perfectly like they should, and I'd like to fix that. Plus there's clearly water all up in it still and i need a method that pulls it out, i dont think it's just going to dry out.
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It still hasn't dried even since the 18th?
Since you seem to be on the fence about the fridge just go ahead and use a hairdryer or nice dry place in your house. Not like Im going to get offended or anything. Ive been putting random shit in rice bags in the fridge since the early 90's but I can see how people question it (stuff with nooks and crannies dont go directly in the rice, cellphones however can).
Just use whatevers. Since the keyboard doesnt contain anything like a battery afaik you can do just about anything.
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no i used the fridge but it got water all over it, there was condensation all over the board. like when you wiped it, it was clearly wet.
i didnt use any rice, or bag it. i just wrapped it in paper towel and stuck it in the fridge. I understand rice works but i dont want rice dust all in the switches, is all.
I'll just stick it in front of the space heater.
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so uhh if i stick my face like right between 2 really bad keys, and suck really hard, a bunch of oil comes out. i know its oil and not just leftover ipa because its oily, and not super bitter like ipa is...
i dont know how theres still oil after tons of soaks and stuff, im not sure what to do. maybe i gotta use a compressor or something, because 2 cans of duster did nothing.
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