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How to Clean and Renovate a Used Model M Keyboard

The venerable Model M, first manufactured by IBM in the 1980s (and then licensed and sold to other companies), enjoys a hallowed space in the hearts and minds of keyboard enthusiasts. Its relatively simple-but-durable buckling spring switch mechanism has stood the test of time, literally: many keyboards from the original production runs are still functioning and being used by those who love the old-fashioned construction and feel.

Well-preserved examples can fetch over $300 on secondary markets, more than twice the price of the most expensive modern keyboard at retail.

But there’s the rub: these keyboards range in age from just under twenty to over thirty years old. Their mechanical operation is practically bulletproof, but a lot of them have seen better days. You can pick up an authentic Model M for much cheaper than $300, but it’s probably been sitting in a basement or storage room for at least a decade. In order to get it looking presentable again you’ll need to apply some elbow grease, sort of like restoring a classic car.

So that’s what we did. We tracked down a massive terminal-style Model M, the ugliest and most abused we could find, and bought it for a fraction of the price of a mint condition keyboard. Then we disassembled it, cleaned every nook and cranny, put it back together, and the result was a classic bit of computing that would proudly sit on any geek’s desk. Here’s everything we did to bring the old war horse back to fighting condition.

What You’ll Need

In order to restore an old model M keyboard, you’ll need a few things:

  • A 7/32″ nut driver or equivalent: the bolts holding the plastic case of the Model M together are a very specific size, so specific that you might not have a driver or ratchet even if you have an expansive collection of tools. They’re also deeply recessed into the plastic, so even a typical ratchet set probably can’t reach them. I bought this specific tool off of Amazon for $9.
  • Standard cleaning supplies: Dish soap, paper towels, rough sponges…whatever you have lying around.
  • A toothbrush: for fine scrubbing. Buy a new one, or use one you don’t ever intend to put in your mouth again.
  • Q-Tips: for those hard-to-reach crannies.
  • Rubbing alcohol: for cleaning portions of the keyboard that might rust from normal soap and water.
  • A keycap puller: for removing the keycaps. A knife or ruler can be used to pry them out, but if you want to make sure you don’t damage the plastic, use a specific tool like this one.
  • A few bowls: for loose keycaps and bolts.
  • Retr0bright tools and materials (optional): if your keyboard is particularly old and yellowed, it’s possible to restore the original color with some industrial chemicals. However, this process is long, tedious, and a bit dangerous. See the Retr0bright section below.
  • Tape and cling wrap (optional): for preserving any paper stickers. Canned air is also handy, but not absolutely necessary.

With these things in hand, you’re ready to take your dusty mess apart.

Step One: Remove the Plastic Case

Use your nut driver to remove the three bolts from the bottom of the case. All three of them are on the upper side (the one closest to the computer when it’s right-side up). They’re quite deep, and you might need to flip the keyboard upside down in order to get them out. Place the bolts in a bowl.

Once you’ve removed the bolts, place the keyboard face up on your table and pull the top half of the plastic shell off, pulling from the top area (where the manufacturer logo is) first. There are a few plastic tabs on the bottom portion of the case, but they shouldn’t give much resistance. Set the top half of the shell aside.

If your keyboard is particularly dirty, you might need to do a bit of cleaning here already; our eBay-bought board had about a decade’s worth of dust, crumbs, and even a bunch of pulled staples and paper clips in between the keycaps and the plate. There was so much dust it had actually condensed into little balls in the corners of the case. Remove everything you can, keeping your work area as clean as you can. Godspeed.

Step Two: Remove the Keycaps

Use your keycap tool to remove all the keycaps on the keyboard. This can be a little less than 90 or, as in our particular model, over 120. Before you start you might want to take a photo of the keyboard with all the keycaps in place, for reference later: depending on the particular model, it might be quite different from a modern keyboard layout. Place all of them in another bowl for later steps.

When pulling, try to use the tongs or clips of your tool to pull straight up, perpendicular to the keyboard itself. Unlike a modern mechanical keyboard, there’s only one stabilizer bar on the space bar key, and it shouldn’t be difficult to remove.

Step Three: Remove the Plate

With any loose items on the plate removed, you can now pull it free of the bottom of the plastic shell. There’s a small nut holding the data cable in place, screwed down on the upper-right corner of the steel plate. (That’s where it is on our terminal-style board, anyway—the location might be a bit different for smaller models). Remove it with your nut driver and place it in the bowl.

There’s a small plastic piece holding the data cable in place as it’s looped through the case (again, this design may vary on smaller Model M keyboards); remove it and put it in the same bowl as the keycaps, so that you can get a bit more give in the cable.

On our model, there’s a single four-pin data cable connecting the keyboard cable itself to the circuit board. Gently pull it out, and you should be able to remove the data cable altogether.

You can now pull the steel plate, with the key switch mechanisms and the circuit board attached, free of the bottom of the case. You should now have the following separate pieces: the data cable, the bottom half of the plastic shell, the top half, the steel plate, and all of your loose smaller pieces—the keycaps, space bar stabilizer, and the plastic retention clip.

Step Four: Clean the Case

Take the top and bottom halves of your case to a kitchen or bathroom, and clean them with warm water and hand soap, just like any dish. A rough sponge is good for getting most of the dirt, but you’ll want to switch to a toothbrush for any fine grooves in the plastic. Here’s where you might…

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