Sigh. I really must take more pictures when fixing stuff. You’ll just have to take my word(s) for it…
It started a few years ago when the keyboard I was using at work died. I was given a new one. Now by new one I mean one that was hanging around unused. And they’re all the bog standard rubber membrane keyboards. Which are hateful. So the search began for a decent keyboard. I’ll skip the whys & wherefores and simply tell you I spent my own hard-earned on a Filco Majestouch (though it may have been v1, not v2 - I can’t see the differences) with MX Brown switches.
It’s slightly louder than a rubber membrance keyboard but so much nicer to use. No-one really makes a fuss. Especially those who still type with two fingers hammering away at keys as if they require sledgehammer levels of activation force.
And then hot-desking happened. Which means we pack away our stuff each night as when we come in we could be sitting somewhere else… I’ll blame that for the keyboard cable fraying thus making the keyboard a tad unreliable. So I brought it home one weekend and prepared for an evening in the shed.
It came apart reasonably easily. Threw screws and four of the usual hateful plastic tabs that click into place when you assemble the thing but are impossible to find when trying to disassemble for the first time. YouTube came in pretty handy for general advice here.
After getting over my surprise that the cable was sellotaped to the PCB (rather than hot-glued) I carefully removed it from the motherboard - fortunately a simple connector rather than soldered directly in and thought about what to do next. My first thought was to get a brand new cable and plug it in. But that would’ve been a bit more expensive than I’d envisaged (about £25) and, besides, where’s the fun in that?
Another solution was required. I decided a cheapo cable with a female USB connection on one end and it-doesn’t-matter-what on the other would be appropriate.
Whilst waiting for the cable to arrive I thought I’d give the Filco a clean - the case was off so the majority of keys were dead easy to pull off their switches. The larger keys (space bar, enter, etc.) were a bit more difficult as they’re held on by a thin metal bar held in to plastic clips … and I don’t have a key-puller which, I assume, would help. Careful application of small amounts of leverage in the right place (preferably not against the body of the key: it’s not very strong) and the metal bar pops out and the key easily prises off the switch.
Oh boy. I’d only had this keyboard a few years - how on earth had it got so filthy? A small mat of hair and other grime had accumulated. Quite an impressive mat in fact. So that’s where all my hair’s gone 
A quick brush up moved the mat to the shed floor and the keyboard was clean once more. Which just left the keys … which had the usual coating of grime down the sides. How does it get there? Easily cleaned with a damp rag though 
Then it’s just a case of pushing them back on to their switches. Again, more are dead easy but the larger ones with metal bars were a little trickier - but a few minutes with a jeweller’s screwdriver, to push the bar into the clips, and I was back in business.
It was at this stage I wondered about moving some keys around. I’ve always wondered what it’d be like to use one of these but, when I was buying anyway, they didn’t do UK layout (which has one more key than the 104 on a US keyboard) so I went elsewhere. Moving the keys around on my existing keyboard would surely be the next best thing. And would possibly confuse others even more 
In the end I put the on to spell out my name on the bottom row and left others basically where they belong. But then I noticed the keys are angled differently according to which row they belong in … which meant my name looked odd. Having decided I couldn’t put up with that I went back to the usual QWERTY layout.
Once the cable had arrived we went back to the shed … with the end-I-don’t-care-about chopped off I spliced the tiny wires together (the first time my helping hands have come in, err, handy) - twist, solder, heatshrink, then heatshrink the bunch of ‘em together. Plug back into motherboard and test … hey presto a working keyboard!
Now to reassemble. Ah bugger. The USB socket doesn’t fit exactly where I’d like - its body would interfere with one of the three screws holding the whole thing together. I wondered about just using two screws but dismissed that idea and decided I’d simply have the socket hanging out the back of the keyboard a bit. Of course the socket still won’t fit - the old strain relief being far smaller than the new socket - but I’d expected that. A few minutes with a Dremel and a sanding drum and enough plastic had been blitzed away for the socket to fit. Some hot glue and pushing and shoving later and we’re done.
Now to test. Shock of shocks it works. Into the bag & back to work. Job done.