Here are some "before" shots of my keyboard:



Just a normal, dirty heavy used keyboard.
So let's start. First step should be taking a photo of the keyboard. You'll be surprised at how hard it can be to remember which key was where. Next step is removing all the caps of the keys. I used a screwdriver and gentle force to jerk them of - they are usually just put on. After that, the keyboard looked like this:


Very... clean. But it's obvious that I don't at the PC - there were no crumbs inside. Just lots and lots of dust.
Now it was time to turn the keyboard over and remove the screws on the backside. Two of them were hidden under one of these rubber feet. It took me a while to realize that jerking on the plastic won't help and I'd have to look again for hidden screws. Without the faceplate, the keybord looked like this:

The white cover is just a thin rubber mat with little nubs on it. Beneath are the actual electronics of the keyboard:

The little board was fixed with another, tiny screw. After loosening it, I could take the whole electronics out of the case.

I just put everything in the dishwasher, expect for the rubber mat and the electronics. While doing this I noticed a strange signature as well as the manufacturing date of the keyboard printed on the inside of the case: My keyboard's birthday was August 6th, 1999. Great, another birthday I have to remember...


Well, back to the dishwasher. I put the key-caps into the basket where you'd normally put the cutlery. I let the dishwasher do a normal run at 55°C and our usual dishwashing detergent.
While the machine was working, I cleaned the rubber mat with lots of cold water.

As soon as the dishwasher was ready, I took everything out, dried it up and repeated the whole taking-apart-part - just in reverse. Putting the electronics back into the case, tightened that little screw on the board, added the rubber mat, and put the upper part of the case on it. After that I just put just that keys in, of whose position on the keyboard I was absolutely sure. After that, the keyboard looked like this:

Then I used my Digicam to check the positions of the other keys and put them in. Done.

Result: The keyboard is really clean. All keys are working normally, just a few keys (Space, Ctrl) were a bit harder to press at first, but this very soon changed. It was a very good idea to do this.