Re: Flushing WD40? kerosene? out of Cherry MX keyswitch

Paul <[email protected]> Tue, 7 Jul 2026 06:32:17 -0400
Newsgroups alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt,sci.electronics.repair
Organization A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID <[email protected]>
On Tue, 7/7/2026 4:55 AM, Mr. Man-wai Chang wrote:
> On 7/7/2026 4:37 PM, Paul wrote:
>> On Tue, 7/7/2026 2:06 AM, Mr. Man-wai Chang wrote:
>>>
>>> If a keyboard's Cherry MX keywitch got some
>>> WD40 inside, is it possible to flush it out?
>>>
>>> Is replacing the MX keyswitch the only way?
>>>
>>
>> You'd flush it out with WD40.
>>
>> Well, you should not have used WD40 in the first place
>> (we could have told you that).
> No, it's a cheap keyboard that looked new in
> Sham Shui Po. I bought it home then found
> that some keys were stuck, notably the ENTER
> key and the Right Shift key under it.
> 
> I popped their keycaps and smelled the
> corresponding MX keyswitches underneath.
> It's like kerosene or WD40, I could not tell.
> 
> So, could those mysterious liquid be cleaned
> without replacing the corresponding keyswitches?
> 
> Maybe an arsonist suddenly aborted a dark
> operation and dumped the keyboard. I dunno... :)

It is probably less trouble to find another keyboard.

I don't know how much solder-heat a switch like that can take.

   Paul