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ITASOR

macrumors 601
Original poster
Mar 20, 2005
4,398
3
Just a little tip to you all:

Don't try to clean your iBook's spacebar with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. Makes it shiny as a baby's hiney and takes all the "keyboardish texture" coating off.

Just so you don't have to find out the hard way.....

Off to buy a new keyboard...it's not bad at all, but the amount it will drive me crazy having an imperfection isn't worth it.

itasor
 

1hot5.0

macrumors newbie
Nov 10, 2005
27
0
Yeah, that stuff is pretty powerful. I only use it on things that I'm having trouble cleaning. Hope the new keyboard install goes ok.
 

mojohanna

macrumors 6502a
Jul 7, 2004
868
0
Cleveland
Damn the man when a product actually does what it is supposed to do and better!! We just are not used to those things much now adays.
 

Warbrain

macrumors 603
Jun 28, 2004
5,702
293
Chicago, IL
I've used it on my iBook so many times, it's great. But now that I know it messes with the space bar, I won't even try the keyboard. Takes a mistake by someone to learn.
 

Rocksaurus

macrumors 6502a
Sep 14, 2003
652
0
California
I was planning on using this where my wrists wrest on my iBook since there has developed a slightly dark area due to sweat/dirt I suspect. Do you recommend against this for all iBook cleaning in general or just the keyboard? Because I'd love to clean these wrist wrests... Just makin' sure. :eek:
 

JDOG_

macrumors 6502a
Nov 19, 2003
786
0
Oakland
Rocksaurus said:
I was planning on using this where my wrists wrest on my iBook since there has developed a slightly dark area due to sweat/dirt I suspect. Do you recommend against this for all iBook cleaning in general or just the keyboard? Because I'd love to clean these wrist wrests... Just makin' sure. :eek:

I'd use a Mars plastic eraser on that. Just make sure you blow the eraser dust AWAY from the keyboard or else you'll have to work it out of the underkey area.

I'm not gonna try a Mr. Clean Eraser on my iBook after reading most of this thread :eek:
 

California

macrumors 68040
Aug 21, 2004
3,885
90
JDOG_ said:
I'd use a Mars plastic eraser on that. Just make sure you blow the eraser dust AWAY from the keyboard or else you'll have to work it out of the underkey area.

I'm not gonna try a Mr. Clean Eraser on my iBook after reading most of this thread :eek:

I was unconvinced, too, at first. But OMG. My iBooks' palmrests are SPOTLESS. The trackpads are a little harder to get "clean" but SO much better than before the Eraser. As for the keyboards -- I'm hooked on iSkins, so mine are always pristine and under their condom covers.
 

Rocksaurus

macrumors 6502a
Sep 14, 2003
652
0
California
California said:
I was unconvinced, too, at first. But OMG. My iBooks' palmrests are SPOTLESS. The trackpads are a little harder to get "clean" but SO much better than before the Eraser. As for the keyboards -- I'm hooked on iSkins, so mine are always pristine and under their condom covers.

So it doesn't produce an unnatural smoothness or whatnot on the palmrests?
 

devilot

Moderator emeritus
May 1, 2005
15,584
1
Rocksaurus said:
So it doesn't produce an unnatural smoothness or whatnot on the palmrests?
Used Mr. Clean on my iBook G4 palm rests... beeeyootiful! iKlear couldn't get them like new. :eek: I still use iKlear for the other surfaces of my iBook, though.
 

LimeiBook86

macrumors G3
May 4, 2002
8,002
51
Go Vegan
Just the spacebar?

I have a spare iBook keyboard space bar if you want one, or did you apply it more to your iBook besides the space bar? :confused:
 

ITASOR

macrumors 601
Original poster
Mar 20, 2005
4,398
3
Just to clear this up: It works GREAT on the palm rests. Makes it look BRAND NEW. That's what I was using it for, when I noticed my spacebar looked dirty (even though it wasn't, just the light).

LimeiBook, you have a spacebar for an iBook G4? I might be going to the Apple store this weekend and I'm going to see if I can just get another one for free since the ribbon under my keyboard is abnormally thick and makes the right CMD (Apple) key so that you have to push it on the top instead of more towards the palm rest area. I've been ignoring it because it's really not that bad, but I mine as well see if they'll take care of it now, since I want a new one anyway. :)

EDIT: About the iSkin, I use one too, but I took it off when I was cleaning the palm rests for some reason and noticed the space bar appeared dirty. I really just wiped it quick without thinking.
 

dmetzcher

macrumors regular
Nov 26, 2005
115
0
NJ
JDOG_ said:
I'd use a Mars plastic eraser on that. Just make sure you blow the eraser dust AWAY from the keyboard or else you'll have to work it out of the underkey area.

I'm not gonna try a Mr. Clean Eraser on my iBook after reading most of this thread :eek:
Have you used the Mars Plastic Eraser on the iBook palmrests? I would love to find something that will clean them. If it works, please let me know and I'll get it.
 

mkrishnan

Moderator emeritus
Jan 9, 2004
29,776
15
Grand Rapids, MI, USA
ITASOR said:
Just to clear this up: It works GREAT on the palm rests. Makes it look BRAND NEW. That's what I was using it for, when I noticed my spacebar looked dirty (even though it wasn't, just the light).

Yes, ditto this. I was duly amazed. :)

I ran it very lightly over the keyboard, and I didn't knock a shine into any keys, but my keyboard is in near-new condition, because I have always used an iSkin, from within a week of getting my iBook.... So the keys are still very rough (since usually you knock a little bit of shine into them just by typing, unless you type very slowly and are very fastidious and washing your hands constantly).
 

jtown

macrumors 6502
Jul 3, 2003
306
0
Just making an observation...

The space bar is probably smooth because of normal use, not because of the Mr. Clean pad. Plastic wears down. My PC keyboard is 16 years old and you can tell I generally only use the left Ctrl and Alt keys I use because there are grooves where my fingernails hit them. The right side of the spacebar is totally smooth and rounded on the bottom edge because I only use my right thumb for spaces. The left side looks like it did in '89. The right side of my ibook keyboard is smooth, the left side looks brand new.

And, if it really is the eraser, BF[at]D. It's not going to look brand new forever and nobody is going to notice if your space bar is slightly smoother than it was when it was new.
 

JDOG_

macrumors 6502a
Nov 19, 2003
786
0
Oakland
dmetzcher said:
Have you used the Mars Plastic Eraser on the iBook palmrests? I would love to find something that will clean them. If it works, please let me know and I'll get it.

I have and it works pretty well, although from this thread I think I'm going to have a go with the Mr. Clean at some point this weekend. The only reason I'd say stay away from using Mars Plastic is that like other erasers it can leave some eraser residue that will go away after a few days of use.

Cheers.
 
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