How can I reuse or recycle … broken computer keyboards?
Aside from the Spectrums and Commodores we’d had as kids, my brother and I got our first proper PC in the mid-1990s.
I don’t know whether it was the increased power of the machine, or the wider ranger of software we had, or because we were older, but whatever it was, that one, a 286, always sticks in my mind as our first computer because it was the first one we owned that could be used for something other than just playing Paperboy.
Still, despite the word processor and other such joys it held, we mostly used it for playing games. Our favourite game, for a long while, was a pinball game which used the ALT keys to work the flippers. Before long, the worn out ALT keys fell off. So we changed the key map to use the CTRL keys instead. And ditto. And so on, until we rendered our first computer keyboard pretty much useless.
I don’t go in for such abusive gaming these days but given our computer-based lives now, John and I still end up with broken keyboards from time to time, or just spare ones when one comes free with a new computer or something. When they’re still in working order, we give them away to friends or family in need, or the local computer recycling place, but any suggestions of what we can do with broken ones, or their parts?
(Photo by annaink)
How about using the keys to make name tags ?
Take them to your local Civic Amenity Site.
A magnet board, and magnets on the bottom of the letters of a few keyboards make a great tool for parents helping kids learn how to spell.(Please under adult supervision only)
make a purse out of the keys…
http://www.boingboing.net/2005/09/22/purse_made_from_keyb.html
cool toy for kids
Yes, if you take it apart, you can remove the wire which is a strangulation hazard,then do it up again and theycan play away to their heart’s content.
If there is someone who has trouble or is learning to type, a broken keyboard would be perfect to take into a bedroom to practice
Key Board jewelry
http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/cr_jewelry/article/0,2025,DIY_13762_5142748,00.html
You can take it apart, use the keys for jewelry, the metal board as an earring holder, the membrane to make a wallet out of it (a very durable one too), and the small things under the keys will work for decoration.
resettings substantive leakage nimbly administration!
immovable diagrammed,gloomy Toland conduce
Keyboard can be recycle!
http://www.manga-fu.com
I’m sure you could freecycle it to anyone who is learning to touch type