[Coco] Melted Keyboard Repair

Kevin Becker kevin at kevinbecker.org
Wed Feb 5 22:08:13 EST 2020


I ordered a precision micro hand drill and an assortment of screws from
Amazon.  There were some cheaper eBay options  that were shipping from
China but I went with the impatient Amazon Prime approach.  I used a
razor blade to completely slice the rest of the broken plastic
connectors as flush as possible and then drilled out tiny pilot holes
with the hand drill.  It was a little tedious but not really very bad
at all.  Easier than recapping a motherboard for sure.  The little hand
drill is pretty cool and I think it will come in handy in the
future.  I tested the first few screws to be sure it would work but
haven't completely reassembled it yet because I gave it a good scrub
down and want to let it dry.  I could pop every keycap off to acclerate
the drying but after spot checking a few keys, the undersides seem to
be in good shape and I felt it was better to leave them be, rather than
risk snapping off a clip.  So I'm letting it dry overnight before
screwing it all back together, but I did drill out every screw hole
with the hand drill in like 30 minutes or so.
I also attempted to melt one of the mysterious metal balls with my
soldering iron to no avail.  I have no clue how these things got there.
I took a few pictures along the way and will maybe write up a little
blog post if I get the motivation.  
Amazon links for the drill and screws:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FJ6VD2P/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07X1N69FM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

On Tue, 2020-02-04 at 18:51 -0500, pfitchjr at bellsouth.net wrote:
> Theres always the hackers friend, hot glue.
> -----Original Message-----From: Coco <coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com>
> On Behalf Of Gene HeskettSent: Tuesday, February 4, 2020 6:15 PMTo: 
> coco at maltedmedia.com
> Subject: Re: [Coco] Melted Keyboard Repair
> On Tuesday 04 February 2020 09:17:08 Kevin Becker wrote:
> > That is a great question.  I was hoping someone else had experience
> > repairing this before I dove in myself but failing that I took the
> > plunge.  I'm planning to get out my calipers and measure the holes,
> > then try to find a set of very small screws.  I think I should be
> > able to carefully drill some small pilot holes and screw it all
> > back together. It will be tedious but seems doable.


More information about the Coco mailing list