Replacing riveted keyboards without palmrest?

[Krynn72]

So is there a technique people are using to replace these keyboards without the full palmrest? There are SO many instances where I can find replacement keyboards no problem, but not a keyboard/palmrest assembly. My first couple experiments trying to figure out how to replace these has pretty dismal results, but there's just so many keyboards like it being sold that I have to assume some people have found a way.

To be clear, I'm talking about ones like this, that come with the holes in them for the plastic rivets to go through.

 

[jft135]

The way we've been doing them is to be gentle removing the old one, snap the new one in as well as you can, and then from the back side put a little dot of hot glue on each rivet. This seems to work pretty well, but is a PITA. We do our best to replace the whole palmrest when we can.

You'd be surprised how useful a hot glue gun is for random things in the shop. Do yourself a favor and buy some of the high strength sticks though.

https://www.amazon.com/Steinel-Strength-Strongest-Available-Materials/dp/B002NKM1UC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1496966935&sr=8-1&keywords=industrial+hot+glue&th=1

 

[sapphirescales]

All you have to do is use a tiny drill bit and drill on LOW speed and it takes them off instantly. In the end the rest of the components easily support the keyboard itself in 9/10 cases. However it's important to manage customer expectations. Let them know that there might be a little sag in the end and try to get them to agree to a full palm rest replacement. The sag only happens in 1/10 cases but it can happen and there's no way to know if it's going to be an issue until you do it. That's why it's always best to replace the entire palm rest if you can.

 

[NviGate Systems]

Use a hot air rework to heat the rivets until they give. Have a pair of tweezers or other tool handy to ease the keyboard up. Then use a solder iron with tip you don't care about once the new keyboard goes in and you pop the rivets back in then heat them with tip and spread them flat.

I also use silicone when the need arises or thermal epoxy as the cure time is very fast.

 

[SAFCasper]

We try our best to avoid replacing them unless it's absolutely necessary.

Tried epoxy, glue gun, soldering iron... either way it's time consuming and never perfect. It also takes 3x longer than simply replacing the entire assy - which means the repair cost is often no cheaper.

 

[NviGate Systems]

I have my replacement process down to 30-45 minutes including prep time.

 

[phaZed]

Like NviGate Systems, I also use a hot-air rework station. I use a medium round aperture at around 350c and spot-heat each rivet till it pops.(applying prying force to keyboard/metal plate backer). Each rivet takes less than a second and it usually leaves a "post" of sorts that the new keyboard can be re-fastened with.

For refastening, I just use a wide flat tipped soldering iron at low-heat and it melts them back down and holds like new.
For the fasteners that do not hold well or do not have enough material to 'rivet' I use a dab of gorilla glue.

If I was holding the 'palm-rest' w/keyboard in my hands, it usually takes 10-15 minutes or so to liberate the old keyboard and install the new, minus any gluing.