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A buddy told me I was cleaning my old keyboard all wrong and he was spot on
I used to just shake my vintage Apple keyboard upside down over the trash can. My friend who restores old macs said that actually pushes dust deeper into the switches. He showed me to use a soft brush at an angle instead. Now I spend 10 minutes doing it that way and my keys feel way snappier. Anyone else have a cleaning method they swear by for old gear?
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laura_chen411mo agoMost Upvoted
Totally feel you on the vinyl thing, I wrecked a few of my dad's old records doing that exact thing when I was a kid. And yeah, the keyboard dust trick blew my mind too. I used to just blast my old IBM Model M with canned air and thought that was good enough. But my buddy who fixes up old computers showed me that air just pushes the gunk deeper between the plates. Now I use a soft paintbrush at a 45 degree angle and it's night and day. The keys actually feel different after, like they woke up from a nap or something. It's wild how the "lazy" fix we all reach for just makes things worse over time.
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daniel_gonzalez1mo ago
Ngl, the paintbrush trick is a game changer for sure.
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emmam891mo ago
Wait have you noticed this same thing happens with pretty much everything we own? Like with vinyl records people used to just blow on them or wipe them with a rag but that actually scratches the grooves. Or with old game consoles blowing into the cartridge doesnt really fix it it just adds moisture. Its funny how the quick lazy way we all grew up doing actually makes things worse over time. Your friend sounds like he knows his stuff though I might try that brush method on my old mechanical keyboard. What kind of brush did he recommend for those vintage Apple switches?
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