The New Hotness

Comes a time in the life of every keyboard when you must simply tear it apart to clean out the crud. I’ve been using a Microsoft Comfort Curve keyboard for several years and it’s worked well, but the grunge finally exceeded even my lax standards.

A handful of screws secures the bottom cover; the shortest screws run down the middle. Surprisingly, the giant HEALTH WARNING label doesn’t cover any screws. A row of gentle snap latches along the edges holds the covers together; ease them apart with a small screwdriver or your fingernails.

The lower cover holds the crosspoint matrix under a giant silicone rubber spring mat, with the USB interface board to the upper left. I left those in place, as the top cover captured nearly all the crud.

The keycaps have stems that slide in guide tubes molded into the top cover, with triangular latches that both secure the stem and prevent it from rotating. I used a small pin punch to push the keycaps out, as shown in the top picture; the punch much be small enough to allow the latches to bend inward as they clear the notches.

The larger keys have equalizing wire bails that latch under guides molded into the top cover. They’ll slide right out, but don’t shove the pin punch too far too fast.

Many of the keycap stems have ridges along their length to ensure each one fits only in its proper position; the triangular latches also have different orientations. This view shows the numeric pad (from the “screen” side of the keyboard) with a variety of coded guide tubes, wire bail guides, and the surprisingly deep tub underneath the keycaps that may capture much of the inevitable liquid spill and route it out the drain hole near the far edge.

I tossed the keycaps and top cover in the dishwasher, which did a wonderful job of cleaning them out. A dab of silicone grease on the wire bail contact points should keep them sliding freely.

Reassembly is in reverse order, although I defy you to put all the keycaps back in their proper places without referring to another keyboard…