Easy-To-Clean Keyboard Design

Whatever you do, DO NOT LOOK DOWN. At your keyboard. It’s probably filthy, and covered with gunk - especially under the keys. Hey - I said don’t look down!

Anyways, I was cleaning my Logitech G15 keyboard in such a fashion that would make this guy proud. I was literally restoring it to factory condition.

Unfortunately, that meant prying every key off, and many of the resistance bars pinned underneath. There has to be an easier way! So I designed this keyboard.

I made a small keyboard (see above) - enough to get the idea across. Looks and operates like your typical keyboard.

Time to clean! I designed this removable pin system that locks all the keys down, sort of like food pinned to a kabob. There could be multiple pin sections at the front and back of the keyboard, to ensure each pin piece is not too big.

You can then lift all the keys out of the cradle base at once. This is because they are all plugged into a rubber membrane.Now you can clean the cradle/base section of the keyboard with ease.

This rubber membrane is extremely flexible, so you can clean between each key. You could almost shake the debris off of it like you would a carpet. If the rubber can withstand it, I’d recommend throwing this whole thing in the dishwasher! At least it can endure a wholesale wash in the sink.

Notes: Underneath the membrane would be a flat surface with a bunch of plugs for the keys to insert, I forgot to put that in! Also, the ‘plugs’ on the bottom of each key would be more cone-shaped, so they’d be easier to drop back into their respective slots. Larger keys, like the space bar, would be removable shells - they’d be sitting on smaller keys, so the membrane could remain flexible and accessible. I also designed this layout in mind to allow the keys to be back-lit, just like my G15.