Author Topic: Rit dye and keys (Read 196824 times)

rdjack21 · « **Reply #250 on:** Wed, 12 August 2009, 22:43:51 »

WOW Nice. This is making me want to try dying some keys as well.

nanu · « **Reply #251 on:** Thu, 13 August 2009, 10:04:11 »

I started out with light grey keys that I had sanded down to remove labels.

I tried RIT Tan and got a smoker's teeth look.
I sanded it partly away, then tried RIT Golden Yellow.
I ended up with some sort of a dirty mustard.

Picture is not underexposed

o2dazone · « **Reply #252 on:** Thu, 13 August 2009, 11:49:46 »

iMav needs to mail me that esc key

nanu · « **Reply #253 on:** Thu, 13 August 2009, 13:56:35 »

I'm just hoping iMav used an orange dye there. Needless to say, black dye is hard to get wrong.

I pulled thumb keys from a couple of generic boards obtained from the thrift store and dyed them black. The left key was originally grey.
The top two were cooked at medium heat, and the bottom one at less than medium heat. The right two come from the same black board, except the top one was sanded.

I chose to use the Win9x-logo keys after affixing custom stems (a bit wobbly but acceptable).

Rit dye also worked on my cheap mouse's casing. At least now my RX 1000 looks pro, lol.

It turned out that the silver paint didn't need to be sanded down in order for it to take the dye, but keeping it would have made that section glossy.

rdjack21 · « **Reply #254 on:** Thu, 13 August 2009, 14:44:58 »

Quote from: ripster;109508

(true believers wouldn't be satisfied with anything less than sandblasting).

I think I'm going to have to break down and get one of those sandblasters after I finish getting boards that is (got a few more I want).

Xuan · « **Reply #255 on:** Thu, 13 August 2009, 22:04:54 »

Probably a very dark grey dye would be cool on a M

sixty · « **Reply #256 on:** Sat, 15 August 2009, 22:44:49 »

edit: does youtube embedding not work?

external link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OsR5bLNY58

Hak Foo · « **Reply #257 on:** Sun, 16 August 2009, 01:02:33 »

I found F4-- it fell out before getting the proper dye job.

Since I didn't want to spend $4 on a packet of dye for one key, I peeled the keys off an old, hideously pimped 1391401 and did them too.

About 30 minutes at "steam and not bubble", and they took nicely, and ended up two-tone red (you can still see which keys were grey initially, as they ended as dark red)

VCheeZ · « **Reply #258 on:** Sun, 16 August 2009, 01:19:41 »

I have really been getting excellent results. Quality of the keys and quality of the dye is paramount. Here are some of my results... I have it down to a science

2-shot molded keys are a dream to work with.

VCheeZ · « **Reply #259 on:** Sun, 16 August 2009, 01:39:08 »

Royal blue, scarlet, sunshine orange, golden yellow, Royal blue/scarlet!

sixty · « **Reply #260 on:** Sun, 16 August 2009, 01:40:11 »

very impressive results. could you please also reveal how long and how hot you cooked these?

VCheeZ · « **Reply #261 on:** Sun, 16 August 2009, 18:40:57 »

Quote from: sixty;110019

very impressive results. could you please also reveal how long and how hot you cooked these?

I usually mix the dye fairly strong, 1/4 bag powder or 1/4 liquid bottle to about 2 cups of water. I bring it to just a boil, add keys, constant stir, and remove from heat within 2 minutes, before it reaches a boil again. Then I remove from the heat and allow them to sit for 5 more minutes. At this point, I spoon the keys out of the dye mix to drop them into a bucket of cold water to rinse. Meanwhile bringing the dye back to a boil for a 2nd dip. One more thing I do that may help...I let the keys soak in hot tap water while heating up the dye. I figure this helps to speed up the process of the dye penetrating the plastic.

rdjack21 · « **Reply #262 on:** Sun, 16 August 2009, 21:04:03 »

I have to say I really like those blue keys. What I have not seen yet though is a good purple dye. There are the darker purple keys like those you have but what I would like to see is something bright like the blues.

o2dazone · « **Reply #263 on:** Sun, 16 August 2009, 21:21:10 »

Well they are double shot molded

VCheeZ · « **Reply #264 on:** Mon, 17 August 2009, 04:04:35 »

Quote from: ripster;110137

Did I get that right? You dye each key twice?

Yes. If the color hadn't reached the intensity I was looking for. Most are a pastel until the 2nd dip.

Quote from: ripster;110146

Speaking of double shot ... Vcheez did you Rit dye the red lettering on that Black ESC key or did it just come that way? I'm thinking dying black doubleshots should result in just a different color key lettering. The white in my NeXT keys was a tad yellow so I used some Softscrub with Bleach and it came right out. Might have been yellow though from other substances I'd rather not think about.

Indeed...take advantage of th3e doubleshot blacks to dye the lettering!

lost eden · « **Reply #265 on:** Mon, 17 August 2009, 09:34:59 »

Does anybody have any results to show for Dylon dyes (UK brand)? Particularly on dual-shot Cherry? I may have finally found something to do with that second dual-shot Cherry G80 I found, but might experiment with the non dual-shot G80 if its caps are made of a similar beige plastic to the dual-shot ones, just to see how things go - I would hate to ruin any of these gorgeous dual-shot caps (ripster might kill me too!).

VCheeZ · « **Reply #266 on:** Mon, 17 August 2009, 11:45:16 »

Quote from: lost eden;110185

Does anybody have any results to show for Dylon dyes (UK brand)? Particularly on dual-shot Cherry? I may have finally found something to do with that second dual-shot Cherry G80 I found, but might experiment with the non dual-shot G80 if its caps are made of a similar beige plastic to the dual-shot ones, just to see how things go - I would hate to ruin any of these gorgeous dual-shot caps (ripster might kill me too!).

Just a heads-up...the non-duals/duals do NOT take dye the same way. I have dual/non dual G81 caps, and the duals take a much more even dye and can withstand more heat for longer periods of time.

lost eden · « **Reply #267 on:** Wed, 19 August 2009, 09:25:29 »

Looks like you can buy Rit dye on eBay UK, which I might do instead of experimenting with Dylon. Just got to decide on a colour scheme now! Definately red for [escape], maybe blue for [alt]+[F2] but I can't decide what colour to go with for the rest of the keys D: I quite like the idea of grey with black lettering & I guess I can experiment a bit as I do essentially have an entire spare set of caps... Maybe a photoshop mockup is required!

clickclack · « **Reply #268 on:** Thu, 20 August 2009, 01:56:28 »

Hi everyone!
I have been following this site for the last couple of months and figured I really should join. I am not too terribly forum savy so be gentle if I commit a few innocent faux pas.

First, I really enjoy the info on this site and find the members to be quite fun, interesting, and courteous.
And Second, I hope to add to this =)

So having said all that I guess I should say something useful in this post...ummm...
uhhhh.... I use a candy thermometer clipped on to the edge of the pot while on the stove. (i keep it attached the whole time) and I have noticed that most keys tend to undergo some sort of deformation at 170degF with prolonged exposure. Something like 5 minutes, however I have noticed that at the center of the pot the water is only like 150degF.

I am having tons of computer problems atm so putting pics up will be a pain...so please be gentle :S

nanu · « **Reply #269 on:** Thu, 20 August 2009, 11:24:19 »

Question: I'm too cheap to buy more dye. Do you suppose if I save dyewater in pickle jars it will work when reheated? I'll be trying it for certain after I finish more kosher dills!

clickclack · « **Reply #270 on:** Thu, 20 August 2009, 15:03:35 »

Idunno... i would think maybe not?
The dye seems to create a film on/in whatever container its in when sedate. The metal containers that i just happen to be using became heavily coated in the dye and either it interferes with its potency by chemically weakening the mix or just stealing away the actual dye, or maybe both!?!

Come to think of it, even if the above stuff happens I would still think it would be worth it. Hmmm... adding a tiny bit of dye to liven things up might be better than using all new dye each time.

clickclack · « **Reply #271 on:** Fri, 21 August 2009, 01:24:02 »

Speaking of pickles I just found my favorite Pringles chip - "Extreme Dill Pickle", I am sniffing an empty can as we speak! MMMMMMMM...yummy =P

Anywho, moving on...
I noticed when I was dipping the keys (I have only been dipping one at a time) that if I did not stir them before I droped them in, the thin floating film would sometimes adhere to the key. This would sometimes result in an uneven coating. But if I broke that initial layer and dropped the key in it didn't get the blotchy look. I also noticed that I had to do another quick stir right before I took them out so the film doesn't stick to it on its way out. I am using Rit dye (powder form)

I started using mesh and/or tin foil with perforations when dipping a key so that when it was submerged it broke that initial thin film and seemed to protect the key from some blotchyness.

sggsix · « **Reply #272 on:** Sun, 23 August 2009, 12:21:46 »

Okay, so I finally had time to do this. Here is a picture of one of my Cherry Keyboards that I dyed.

This process is easier than I thought. The only advice I have is to do lighter color dyes first then darker dyes later. This is especially important if you are using the same pot for all your colors. I found that even if you rinse the pot many times, some of the dye will be found in later batches. This is most evident if you look at my yellow keys which have a blue area near the corners of the keys. Anyhow, I hope you like my keyboard! Please message me if you would like to know anything else about how it went.

Thanks

PS: I used 4 colors on here of RIT dye. Their names are: teal, scarlet, golden yellow, and fuescha. The fuescha and scarlet are similar. The scarlet was used for my esc, f5-f8, enter, both controls, a,s,d,w. The fuesha was my 1-9 keys and my space bar.

sggsix · « **Reply #273 on:** Sun, 23 August 2009, 12:45:36 »

No, it's a cheap Cherry business keyboard. I got it specifically to test out the dying process.

Here is a picture of my precious Realforce 101. It is a crappy picture and it is not currently clean. But, you can also see a snipit of it on my avatar. I will make a nicer picture of it soon.

rdjack21 · « **Reply #274 on:** Sun, 23 August 2009, 22:19:15 »

What I'm really curious about is how well a dyed key takes to cleaning. And maybe how deep the dye penetrates the plastic.

does someone care to cut a dyed key in half to see? And test some cleaning solutions.

keyb_gr · « **Reply #275 on:** Mon, 24 August 2009, 06:13:22 »

IIRC someone already looked into this at some point. The result pretty much was that the dye goes in pretty deep and is not likely to come off or wear much... think dye sublimated lettering.

sggsix · « **Reply #276 on:** Mon, 24 August 2009, 18:54:22 »

Quote from: keyb_gr;111547

IIRC someone already looked into this at some point. The result pretty much was that the dye goes in pretty deep and is not likely to come off or wear much... think dye sublimated lettering.

I haven't done this yet, but I can tell it's pretty heavy duty from just looking at my keys. I will try to cut one in half as soon as I can to show you. (probably this weekend).

rdjack21 · « **Reply #277 on:** Mon, 24 August 2009, 21:01:59 »

That would be cool. The reason I ask is because on this HHKB Pro I got from megarat the left shift key was scratched by a key puller (megarat warned me of this before I bought BTW). The scratch is shallow but I can see the original key color where that scratch is. That has made me worry a little about it because I really like the current colors.

watduzhkstand4 · « **Reply #278 on:** Thu, 17 September 2009, 23:08:58 »

Now I really want to dye some of my HHKB keys. I know we use Rit Dye here but what do people use on kbdmania? They seem to create some nice colors on their keys.

itlnstln · « **Reply #279 on:** Fri, 18 September 2009, 08:13:50 »

Quote from: watduzhkstand4;118943

Now I really want to dye some of my HHKB keys. I know we use Rit Dye here but what do people use on kbdmania? They seem to create some nice colors on their keys.

I think they do group-buys on some of those keys. They pay to have them molded in that color.

rdjack21 · « **Reply #280 on:** Fri, 18 September 2009, 09:17:05 »

Yea but I still have questions about where they get them. I've seen some of the keys they have and some I like and some I don't but still I would love to know where they are getting Topre keys from.

watduzhkstand4 · « **Reply #281 on:** Fri, 18 September 2009, 10:15:21 »

Quote from: rdjack21;118991

Yea but I still have questions about where they get them. I've seen some of the keys they have and some I like and some I don't but still I would love to know where they are getting Topre keys from.

exactly. But the thing is, I've always thought the purple WASD keys originated there as well, in fact any colored keys, even for the Filco boards, only Leopold has it and no where else. I think it's time for us geekhackers to make a trip to Korea. =]

rdjack21 · « **Reply #282 on:** Fri, 18 September 2009, 11:21:30 »

Yea I finally found that wood wrist rest I would like to get for my 87U/86U and you would know it was Leopold that has them. Leopold is also the only place you can get Realforce keys but what they have is not a full key set from what I understand. I would want some blank white ones so I could dye them but I only see black ones.

Oh did anyone also notice Leopold also sales a case mod for the 87U it's a metal case instead of plastic with built in rest basically turns it into a wedge shape.

itlnstln · « **Reply #283 on:** Fri, 18 September 2009, 11:38:41 »

Quote from: rdjack21;119018

Oh did anyone also notice Leopold also sales a case mod for the 87U it's a metal case instead of plastic with built in rest basically turns it into a wedge shape.

They used to have one of these for the Filcos, too. They discontinued them, though. I would love to have one for my Filco.

ricercar · « **Reply #284 on:** Sun, 08 November 2009, 02:44:58 »

Be very careful about temperature when dying keys. I thought I was being careful, keeping the water below boiling, but there were three keys in my experiment that warped beyond usability.
use light colors and shorter times, as has been noted earlier in the thread. Navy blue Rit dye becomes black faster than I expected. Keys were grey blue one moment, and two minutes later they were too black to read all the legends.

AndrewZorn · « **Reply #285 on:** Sun, 08 November 2009, 15:10:36 »

i feel like instead of risking $60 topre keys for this i should just ask that someone dip mine next time they are all set up to do it

im saying i will mail them and everything and even pay you if you wish
i just dont think i can risk mine

42.tar.gz · « **Reply #286 on:** Sun, 15 November 2009, 06:56:53 »

I think I should try Rit Dye instead..

Although other people had better results when dyeing plastics with Simplicol, it doesn't seem to work with Cherry PBT keys. :-/

ch_123 · « **Reply #287 on:** Mon, 16 November 2009, 12:46:01 »

Quote from: sggsix;111458

No, it's a cheap Cherry business keyboard. I got it specifically to test out the dying process.

Was it a G83-6105? I used to use one of them back in the days before I went mechanical.

chimera15 · « **Reply #288 on:** Tue, 17 November 2009, 12:41:33 »

This is my new bluetooth mini hack, made from a zenith and a igo keyboard. As you can see the main keys from the zenith, especially the space key is extremely yellowed. I'm going to try to dye them. I've read through a lot of this thread, but it's really long. Any suggestions or pointing me to some clear directions? A lot of what I've read seems to be trial and error of what works.

Should I go red, or black for the yellowed keys?

chimera15 · « **Reply #289 on:** Tue, 17 November 2009, 15:38:28 »

He said that he had trouble dying large space keys, that they melted? Anyone else had that problem, cause this Zenith space key is extra huge and I don't have a replacement for it. I'm worried it won't turn out. Is it likely that the keys will melt or be disfigured? He said he rejected 3 out of 4 keys?

AndrewZorn · « **Reply #290 on:** Tue, 17 November 2009, 15:59:54 »

what a strange keyboard
that space bar is HUGE... no dedicated numbers, but only a few keys on top row? among other stuff i cant even identify

chimera15 · « **Reply #291 on:** Tue, 17 November 2009, 16:09:43 »

Quote from: AndrewZorn;133372

what a strange keyboard
that space bar is HUGE... no dedicated numbers, but only a few keys on top row? among other stuff i cant even identify

Yeah it's a mechanical hack of an igo bluetooth travel keyboard:

They don't have a number row, they use function keys to access them.

The rest of the oddity is from a zenith mechanical f style with all the extra junk except the main key section cut off to make a compact:

You can see in my ultra mini hack thread here and what it took to wire it:

http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Island:7665&do=comments&page=3

The top two keys on my hack in the upper left that would normally be in the number row are now the function keys, they're a lot more efficient placed together and near the numbers than next to the space key. And the others are ones that didn't fit in the normal scheme of the board like the \ key and caps lock and junk.

The igo had rubber dome scissor switches, which weren't bad to type on, but was still no alps mechanical. The way it is now, it's a dream, completely wireless alps mini mechanical. I used real complicated alps switches from yet another board for the switches, not the greens the zenith normally has. I'm getting use to have to pressing the function keys to get the numbers as well.

itlnstln · « **Reply #292 on:** Tue, 17 November 2009, 16:12:08 »

Wow, not only are Ctrl and Caps Lock swapped, they moved it to another zip code.

chimera15 · « **Reply #293 on:** Tue, 17 November 2009, 16:26:09 »

oops double post

chimera15 · « **Reply #294 on:** Tue, 17 November 2009, 16:26:46 »

Quote from: AndrewZorn;133372

what a strange keyboard
that space bar is HUGE... no dedicated numbers, but only a few keys on top row? among other stuff i cant even identify

Yeah it's a mechanical hack of an igo bluetooth travel keyboard:

They don't have a number row, they use function keys to access them.

The rest of the oddity is from a zenith mechanical f style with all the extra junk except the main key section cut off to make a compact:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Rare-Zenith-Data-Systems-Clicky-Keyboard_W0QQitemZ390115851952QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item5ad4b77eb0
You can see in my ultra hack thread here and what it took to wire it:

http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Island:7665&do=comments&page=3

Your post actually made me think though... I wonder if I could enable a number key row by wiring in the function key matrix, and the number keys together to one switch. One switch being depressed would then possibly activate both the fn key and the number key... hmm... might blow the board though too...need to think about that.

chimera15 · « **Reply #295 on:** Tue, 17 November 2009, 16:37:38 »

oops, tripple post.. God just wanted to add an ebay link and for some reason the board went post crazy. I guess cause I went back instead of just doing a new edit...hmm.

ernestrome · « **Reply #296 on:** Wed, 18 November 2009, 15:57:13 »

Quote from: chimera15;133272

Show Image

This is my new bluetooth mini hack, made from a zenith and a igo keyboard. As you can see the main keys from the zenith, especially the space key is extremely yellowed. I'm going to try to dye them. I've read through a lot of this thread, but it's really long. Any suggestions or pointing me to some clear directions? A lot of what I've read seems to be trial and error of what works.

Should I go red, or black for the yellowed keys? :)

You could try retrobrite if you just wanted to remove the yellowing.

http://www.psfk.com/2009/03/retrobrite-open-source-problem-solving.html

chimera15 · « **Reply #297 on:** Wed, 18 November 2009, 18:41:19 »

I kind of want to see if I can dye them for future projects as well. Those red and black keyboards looked awesome. Kind of worried about the spacebar now though...

I think the key might be to double dip them so they don't get so hot.

sixty · « **Reply #298 on:** Wed, 18 November 2009, 19:40:30 »

Quote from: 42.tar.gz;132624

Show Image

I think I should try Rit Dye instead..

Although other people had better results when dyeing plastics with Simplicol, it doesn't seem to work with Cherry PBT keys. :-/

Haha! That looks so familiar. We even used the same source and hoped for the same results. Check out my video here:

microsoft windows · « **Reply #299 on:** Wed, 18 November 2009, 19:51:09 »

How long did those keys sit out in the sun?

News:

Author Topic: Rit dye and keys (Read 196824 times)