How to fix the noisy spacebar on the Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard 4000

How to fix the noisy spacebar on the Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard 4000

I've had this keyboard for almost 3 years and this is the first time I'm typing without hearing the space key. Yes, if you have one of these keyboards, you're probably aware of the noisy spacebar which ruins a perfectly good ergonomic keyboard. A few days ago, I started to look for a replacement and from what I can see, the Surface Ergonomic keyboard might be a good fit. However, I have a perfectly good keyboard and the only downsides are the fact that it's not wireless and the spacebar that wakes the entire house during the night. So, I thought I should try to fix it first.

The fix

I read a few ideas that involved gluing rubber bands or other complicated stuff, so I tried to do that. That's when I started looking in my son's room for some toy that might have those, but instead, I found a bullet from a nerf gun, which is actually perfect for this.

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The noise comes from these 5 plastic tubes because the key hits them every time you press it. That's why we need something that will stop the key from going all the way down and touch them. In order to do this, you need to cut 5 pieces from the nerf gun bullet and put it around each one. Make sure that they are a little bit taller than the plastic piece from the keyboard so it will prevent touching it. You can't place one in the middle because it's too wide, so you'll have to put it on the key itself, like this:

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Placement of the bullet pieces

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Nerf gun bullet cut in pieces

That fixes the problem like 80%, so for the rest I figured that the noise comes from the metal bar under the key. I put two small pieces from the bullet around them and then I placed the key back, and now it's perfect!

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Here's the difference before and after:

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