The Black & White Pro Keyboard
Total Cost of Mod:
2 Auto Gloss White Spray Paint Cans-$ 4.95
1 Pro Keyboard - $0.00 (friends are great)
1 Bottle of Random Cleaning Material - $???
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Sales Tax: 7%
TOTAL : $10.60
Step 1: Disassembly (Part 1)
For one of Apple's Pro series products, the Pro Keyboard is pretty easy to take apart. There are four screws on the bottom of the case and one hidden one (see picture below) located under the serial number sticker. These are the main support screws for the keyboard. There are also 3 screws located under keys on the keyboard. They are all in the same row of keys if you get confused. To make it easy, I made a list so you know where each screw is located:
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Screw located under the "Caps Lock" key
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Screw located under the ";" key
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Screw located under the "6" key on the Numeric Keypad
After the screw are removed, it is now time to pop every key on the keyboard. It is easier to approach it going from the side (either left or right) because of the way the keys are mounted. A top or bottom approach is good, though when you are taking more than 100 keys off, it's a pain after a while. At this time I would like to mention this is also a great cleaning mod, because any keyboard gets dirty after a while. Mine was really dirty.
Remember: This is a view w/ the keyboard apart. The screw is hidden at that point.
Step 2: Cleaning the Keyboard
Cleaning a keyboard is something you should know how to do by now. But since everything is going to be apart, you might as well go the extra mile. Since all of your keys are removed, place them into a bowl, or something you can soak them in. I would suggest NOT putting any of the keys that have metal hinges with them into this bowl, because they have grease on them. This grease allows for continual abuse and should not be removed. These are the larger keys like the Shift, Return, Delete, and other similar keys. Clean these keys individually.
Now for the cleaning solution. Anything can be used, even plain old water just to soak them in. I have some cleaning spray called "Krud Kutter" that I used to remove the yellow off monitors with. It's great stuff and I swear by it. Anyway's, I filled the bowl with water until all the keys were submerged and then sprayed the cleaner into the bowl about 4-5 times. Not too much, or your keys will be sticky. You want to spray it with enough so it cleans the keys, but leaves them feeling clean when you start to type with them again.
I would suggest leaving the keys to soak while you paint the keyboard because that should be an adequate time.
Step 3: Disassembly (Part 2)
Since the screws have been removed, there are two more you need to remove. They are located towards the USB cable on the keyboard, and hold it into place. The part that is going to be removed is what keeps the USB cord from being tugged out of the keyboard. Very useful part, so don't loose the 2 screws that hold it in.
All that is needed to do now is slide the board that is in the machine out and place it somewhere safe. It's going to be really dirty so just take some paper towels or canned air to it and blow all the dust off. Since the board is out, you will notice the 2 clips that hold the keyboard stand into it. They pop out, but don't loose them. Well, if you don't use the stand, it doesn't matter to me if you loose them or not. I included a picture of the clip so you will know what I am talking about.
Step 4. Painting
I
started off by sanding all of the components with 320 grade sand paper.
It was wet/dry and I did it dry. Just enough to make the surface rough
so paint can stick to it properly . It took all but 10
minutes . It also took the bad scratches out of my keyboard, giving
my cosmetic damage from the previous owner a "redo". I'm a lazy
guy, but I also know that sanding for an hour can be redundant when a
simple sit down with one kind of sandpaper will do the trick . I
had other grades, but deemed it overkill for my purposes.
After sanding I started off with a light coat of the white spray paint to see how it would turn out. Since this is auto spray paint, it lays on thin, so don't panic if it's thinner than you think it should be. I laid two coats down (waiting over 10 minutes between coats) onto the keyboard, pausing to do another 320 sand job. I put the final coat on to give the keyboard some shine and let it dry for a bit. I came back to the board and took out my heat gun which is useful with auto paint. I went over the painted parts with the heat gun over a foot back so I would be close enough to seal/dry the paint and not too close to melt the board. I would probably cry like a two year old if I burned a Pro Keyboard.
After taking the heat gun to the board, I assembled everything. Well, that's pretty obvious, but I was kind enough to take some pictures of the final product. I know everyone likes to see people painting their mods, but it took so little time that getting out the camera would have taken too much time on that. Well, everyone does like after pictures though, so enjoy!
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