Re-glueing loose, clacky plastic clav key caps

[DAtkinson]

Wanting to fix the annoying plastic clack that is coming from a bunch of keys, basically all the black keys, whose plastic caps have become slightly loose from their metal frame. Has anybody had to do this? Do you just rip the cap off entirely and re-glue from scratch, or try to inject the glue without removing the cap? What adhesive did you use?

D

[bourniplus]

I'm hoping others will give better and more professional answers, but I had one key that did this, and I just added a small paper shim between the plastic and metal. The clacking sound didn't come back. This may or may not apply to your situation, mine was a white key if I remember correctly.

[mvanmanen]

I inject superglue with a fine needle between the key caps and frame...and then put a bead of glue along the edge and frame. It's important I think to remove any old glue you can and really give it some time to dry. Not sure if this is professional enough...but it has hold up very well for me and I have not damaged any keys from following this process

[DAtkinson]

Thanks. I can see where I'd able to inject glue with the white keys, but the issue I'm having is exclusively with black keys, which are much trickier - I can't see a way to inject glue into the flat contact surfaces at the rear of the key. Is there any way to make a glue injection with the black keys, or should I just bead around the edge and hope that that holds?

Looks like there is a ton of old glue around that edge also; what would be a safe way to soften and remove that glue without damaging the old keycap plastic?

Thank you!

[mvanmanen]

If you cannot get a teeny, tiny needle in then I would be inclined to just bead around the edge. The last thing you want to do is damage the key in the process of trying to fix it

I usually just scrape away the old glue with a blade and sandpaper, and obsessively get rid of any dust, and then apply the glue.

[DAtkinson]

Thank you, that's exactly what I did in the end. Carefully scraped away old glue along the seam, then used a sewing needle to bead glue around the edge. After letting them dry overnight, I've put the keys back into the keybed - no clacking! Hooray!