Removing the numpad from a Microsoft Natural 4000 keyboard
I have been working on computers since an early age, but given ergonomics little to no consideration until in early 2000-teens, when I developed severe wrist and back palm pain from mouse and keyboard use, culminating with a forced vacation to give my hand time to heal, and using the mouse with my left hand, when I really had to, or pain in my right hand was too much.
I started exploring vertical or ergonomic mice and keyboards, but soon realised my posture was off-tilt due to the far right placement of the mouse, next to the numpad part of the typical keyboards.
When a work colleague recommended me the Microsoft Natural 4000 keyboard I was first fearful I would not adapt to the split layout. But that part was easy, while I found the keyboard extremely comfortable and easy on the wrists, especially with the tilt support it has.
I bought my own Microsoft Natural 4000 keyboard in 2019 and have been using it ever since.
The same colleague who recommended the keyboard had 2 broken such keyboards, victims of spilled tea or drinks. Since searching for ergonomic split layout numpadless or left side placed numpad keyboards yielded no acceptable results, I asked my colleague if he would donate his broken keyboards, with the intent to repair and then cut off the numpad to get a more narrow keyboard, so my right hand would stay not as wide as forced by the numpads.
This repository documents my findings in this exploration, in the hope it might be useful to somebody, although the Natural 4000 model has been discontinued since somewhere around 2019-2020, if not earlier.