I knocked over my trusty QS8.1 and it broke the 2 little ‘key stops’ or ‘tabs’ that rest below the front of the key that prevent the key from rising above the other keys.
I tried gluing the little tabs back on with Gorilla Glue Construction Adhesive, but that didn’t hold.
I believe these keys are ABS, at least similar keys on Fatar parts websites describe them as ABS. The Syntaur website shoes them as part #'s K50WB and K50WC
Which glue might work the best?
And can I remove these keys by ‘popping’ off from the back?
JBWeld metal epoxy is probably the way to go for repairing the keybed.
The keys do pop off from the back, I’m not exactly sure on this model but with other similar keys you can insert a small flathead screwdriver into the opening near the top of the key to relieve the plastic and gently pull the key off.
because I was concerned about breaking a tab on either the key or the rear pivot point on the action, I chose not to work on removing the key.
Instead, I kept the key in place and used JB-Weld Plastic Bonder and ‘supported’ the broken tabs against the bottom of the key (not janky at all) with completely professional tools.
It cures in 30 minutes and it seems to hold…now we’ll see what happens when I put it all back together…
Popping the keys off the first couple of time was a little scary but the the little clips are pretty sturdy. The tricky part for me was that the plastic the keys are made out of is soft and will mar easily if you use it for leverage. For repairing a hole in the front of a key I used JB WaterWeld. It’s a white (sort of) putty two part epoxy. It can be shaped for fabrication. Once the repair was completed it was almost undetectable.
I’ve had success "plastic welding " on broken keys, using just a soldering iron and melting the broken bits back together. Add in a bit of ziptie or similar plastic when needed. Cheap fix, seems to last.
Just found this post. How is it holding up so far? I am an original owner for the QS8 and I have three keys with the green plastic clip broken. I tried super glueing it but it eventually wore off and disengaged. I like the plastic welding idea with the zip tie. Are you having any more issues with it?
My key repair is holding up well so far. I use the keyboard 4 or 5 times a week and it seems fine. I would definitely use the glue I show in the pictures. I tried another glue which didn’t work and I had to clean that off and start again. I can see that super glue would not work at all for this type of plastic and application.
