HP30b to WP34S keyboard pretreatment

[Neil Hamilton (Ottawa)]

I have a brand new, unopened 30b awaiting a new keyboard overlay to be reborn a WP 34s.

Is there a consensus on what treatment, if any, the keyboard should receive before applying an overlay?

I have not been especially pleased with my last several efforts but each machine had been used (complete with the requistite greasy fingers) prior to application. Undoubtedly my fault, not the overlay...

Best wishes of the season!

TIA

[Eric Rechlin]

1. Wipe the whole faceplate and keyboard down with a generous amount of isopropanol.
2. Use a black permanent marker (like a Sharpie) on the faceplate around the keys, so that where the overlay doesn't quite go up to the key you don't have ugly silver lines.

Eric

[Neil Hamilton (Ottawa)]

Thanks Eric!

I am not so concerned about #2 but many of my keys tend to lift so I assume #1 should do the trick nicely!

I am presuming that isopropanol is what I think of as "rubbing alcohol". I recall using some of this when cleaning up my HP-25 keyboard a few years ago and I think it left a white powdery film -- though it may well have been another step in that cleanup process.

What source do you use for the stuff?

Best regards...

[Eric Rechlin]

I just buy it at a grocery store or big box store (like Target). 93% isopropyl alcohol if I remember right.

Rubbing alcohol is sometimes the same thing but sometimes has other additives, which is why I didn't say that. Check the ingredients; it may be fine.

Eric

[Neil Hamilton (Ottawa)]

Hi Eric,

I did end up doing the Sharpie trick as you suggested and it worked wonderfully! The last overlay I applied was a version 2 and it seemed to have a slightly tighter fit -- or maybe I was just lucky -- but it did not seem to have the silver line issue. This overlay was a v3 from about a year ago (Jan '12 vintage). The trick worked just great!

A healthy dose of alcohol via Q-tip on the keys looks like it will keep the key labels down just fine.

The one issue I did have was when pulling off the screen protector installed by HP. The adhesive sheared off about half way through the process of pulling the sticker off. This left an ugly, sticky mess. Alcohol and a lint free cloth fixed this issue with a bit of repetition and elbow grease. Would have obviously been a problem if it had remained a 30b.

Cheers...