Restoring my Amiga 1000 keyboard, part 2: I've desoldered all the keyswitches and treated the rust on the top plate, sanded it and given it a few dustings of proper etching primer. It's looking better, but my borderline OCD says it needs more work. So I guess I'll sand and prime it, rinse and repeat, 'till my soul is at ease. I'll paint it black in the end, just like Stones said. The case is mostly fine, but it'll get a quick retrobrighting bath to remove a bit of yellowing on one side of the bezel.Then I'll need to open all the keyswitches and see if they can be saved - most of them didn't work. I guess the contacts are corroded. As far as I can tell these are Mitsumi Standard Mechanical type 2, quite different from the standard Cherry MX switches you mostly see nowadays. I've ordered a few replacements just in case. #amiga #Amiga1k #commodore #retrocomputing #keyboard

Only a few keys work on my Amiga 1000 keyboard, it turns out. The top plate is also a bit rusty, and everything is covered in 40 years worth of grime. After a bit of carefully applied rust remover it looks like this. Contact cleaner doesn't help the keyswitches much. Guess I have to tear it all the way down and open the switches. This'll take some time! No wonder why this machine was expensive back in the day - this keyboard is constructed just like a modern high-end mechanical keyboard, with proper switches secured in a rigid metal top plate. I've also got the top-end Amiga 2000 keyboard with Cherry MX blacks from 1988 or so, and it's a much simpler deal than this. No metal top plate on that one, the PCB and the plastic case is the only thing that supports it as you're typing away. #amiga #amiga1k #keyboard #retrocomputing #commodore