Beamspring keycap yellowing

[Weezer]

Hey, just a quick question here. I have a beamspring with white keycaps and recently I've noticed that the S key is starting to yellow. None of the other keys appear to be yellowed at all and I'm a little bothered that one key looks out of place now. I wanted to ask before I attempted anything...what would be a good option for re-whitening the key? I've heard mixed things about retrobright for example. Any insight or comments would be appreciated

[SneakyRobb]

Hey, just a quick question here. I have a beamspring with white keycaps and recently I've noticed that the S key is starting to yellow. None of the other keys appear to be yellowed at all and I'm a little bothered that one key looks out of place now. I wanted to ask before I attempted anything...what would be a good option for re-whitening the key? I've heard mixed things about retrobright for example. Any insight or comments would be appreciated

Hi,

Later beamspring keycaps switched plastics. Not uncommon to see a few replacement keycaps with yellow legends. Do you mean the main body of the key is turning yellow?

Do you have an image of the cap?

Might be worthwhile to buy a selectric set, but unsure if same profile...

Robb

[lucar]

Hi,
I was asking myself the same question.
I've been given some 3276s to restore and some have one or two yellowed keycaps. I know how to retrobright but I'm afraid of bleaching the caps. Did anyone attempt a retrobright on those?
Luca

[Invisius]

Like SneakyRobb said, the yellowing ones are most likely replacements from a different factory (Greenock) that used a different formula.

Have a look at this thread, retrobright does not usually end well with dark doubleshots. A selectric set would be ideal for the alpha cluster, but if your yellowed keys are modifiers or f-keys, you might have a difficult time finding replacements.

[Weezer]

It's the main body of the key cap that's yellowed. They're from a 3276/3278 keyboard. Unfortunately I'm doubtful that I could get a replacement for them since they have uncommon legends and I don't think selectrics came with white keycaps (although I may be wrong).



The right key cap is the one that has yellowed. The camera doesn't quite capture the difference and the yellowing is more prominent in person.

[SneakyRobb]

Hrmm.

The main thing is that yes you can brite most yellowed plastic. I wonder if that key was always that colour or did it in fact yellow.

Regardless the issue here is that you only have these caps. Trial and error doesn't apply. You have no margin for error.

I wonder if you could try on a small area on the back. There have been, as Invisius mentioned previous retrobrites that result in weird colours.

For caps with black bodies and lighter legends it's much harder as you only want to brite the legends. So at least that's easier. Depending on the number of yellow keycaps you have, I would take the least valuable one you have and try brite on a very small patch on the back side. then proceed with further briten.

[Weezer]

You know, I could have sworn that it wasn't yellowed when I got it, but I won't rule out human error, I could have just overlooked it.

If there aren't any real feasible options other than retrobrite I think I'll try a tiny bit on the bottom front of the key, where it's totally concealed by the next highest row in front of it and see what kind of results I get.

[adamcobabe]

I'd say go for it. Don't use the gel peroxide, though. Just submerge it in 10% liquid hydrogen peroxide and expose to UV light for a few hours. Should be fine.