To thoroughly clean a mechanical keyboard, it is best to remove the keycaps. The best way to do this is to use a keycap puller, but a keycap puller is one of those strange things that should always be in a drawer somewhere, but you can never seem to find it. That said, there's no need to interrupt your summer projects to clean off board stains or replace old keycaps with snazzy new ones. You can make your own keycap puller with whatever you have lying around.

For the one I'm making today, I decided to use the HyperX x Ducky One 2 Mini keycap puller as design inspiration. It's small, easy to store, and sized to pull any size keycap.

The reason I want to use a keycap remover instead of clumsy fingers is to avoid the risk of breaking the stem and damaging the keyboard. The keycap remover acts like a pair of tongs that slide under the keys, allowing you to safely pull the keys out in a vertical motion without rocking from side to side. Mechanical gaming keyboards can cost $150 or more.

A quick and dirty keycap puller requires the following:

You can visually check the bends you make with pliers, but a ruler will help you make the exact bend that will fit the keycap. The average paper clip is about 6 inches long when straightened.

Step 1 is very simple. Straighten the paper clip completely so that it is easier to bend with pliers. Pliers also help to straighten areas that cannot be done with your fingers.

This is the part that requires precision. On each paper clip, make two 90-degree bends, 1 cm apart, so that the paper clip looks like a long rectangle with one side missing (see gallery above). The easiest way to do this is to secure the paper clip with pliers and press the clip with your thumb.

The two pullers should look like staples with very long legs. Next, bend the ends of each puller 90 degrees, pointing outward.

Stack the two bent paper clips on top of each other. Bring the legs together, wrap a twist tie around them and tie. two rounds. From here, wrap the ends around each leg. They should look like cute little handles. If there is excess paper clip sticking out, use pliers to cut it off.

Now you have a keycap puller that takes about 10 minutes of work and costs almost nothing. Now let's clean the keyboard!