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Signature Plastics custom double-shots testimonial
wyse_guy:
Just a quick testimonial, I had a great experience working with Signature Plastics on custom ABS doubleshots in late 2019.
The process was simple, I created my own design on KLE, sent a screenshot of it to Melissa at Signature Plastics, and basically had my custom keycaps 6 weeks later. Signature was very professional, friendly, and easy to work with. It was no more complicated than ordering custom t-shirts online, perhaps slightly more expensive.
These keycaps were made to support my homebrew POS software which I use in my convenience store business.
To support both the Wyse WY-50 and WY-60 keyboards, I had two different styles made. Signature Plastics still makes stepped keycaps in all the weird sizes like 1.25 wide, which the Wyse 50 keyboard has.
The color scheme is inspired heavily by the Verifone Ruby POS system, considered the omnipotent god of POS keyboards in my industry.
Really enjoyed this project! It's so cool to be able to get new keycaps for old Wyse keyboards, with the exact same font and perfect aesthetic match because it's from the original manufacturer still in business. What a treat!
NOS vintage Wyse WY-55 serial terminal, NOS vintage Wyse ASCII keyboard (840338-01) w/ Cherry MX blacks, mix of factory keycaps and new 2019 Signature Plastics keycaps.
Note the beautiful job Signature Plastics did matching the new custom "00" key on the numpad to the adjacent vintage factory "0" key. These are ~30 years apart in age.
Wyse WY-50 dumb terminal, Wyse 50 keyboard (840059-01) w/ Cherry MX blacks, mix of factory key caps and new 2019 SP key caps.
Color scheme inspired by Verifone Ruby Supersystem POS keyboard.
Keycaps are RA (red), ON (orange), YY (yellow), VV (green), VBV (teal), BO (blue), RDA (purple) on Wyse 60 keyboard only, and TGH (brown).
Legends are WFK (White as F**K), BBI (factory dark navy blue), and VBV (teal).
DCS profile looking great!
The Clear key was inspired by the SA 1976 keyset. VBV legend on TGH keycap, looks as great in person as you think it does, highly recommended!
rxc92:
Beautiful pics, thanks for the share.
pixelpusher:
Very curious how much this cost. People pay $100-$200 and wait 4 months to get custom caps from group buys.
Cool that they still make those stepped caps
wyse_guy:
--- Quote from: pixelpusher on Sat, 12 October 2019, 20:35:40 ---Very curious how much this cost. People pay $100-$200 and wait 4 months to get custom caps from group buys.
--- End quote ---
The real cost is in the $25-per-keycap setup fee to create permanent molds of your custom legend text.
My sets are only 31 keycaps, most of the group buys are for 104+ keycap sets. To make your own one-off full 104 keycap set would be quite expensive.
The new-legend fee is a one time cost. They keep your legends forever. It is relatively cheap after that to have them make additional sets of keycaps; plastic is cheap.
Economically, custom keycaps make sense if you can swallow the one-time expense knowing it enables you to cheaply make additional duplicate keycap sets in the future.
Total investment was more than a Mac Mini, less than a Mac Pro. I had 33 legends, total keycap count was 159 double-shot and 34 blank.
I was willing to sacrifice other things to afford this, because original Wyse manufacturer and font. There are so few electronic-related things from 1983 you can get made new in 2019.
wyse_guy:
New 2020 pastel keycaps arrived today!
We had more made with the same legends, but different colors.
Top row L-R = BFQ (blue), YCC (yellow), RCS (pink), GTD (dark grey).
Bottom row L-R = WA (white), VCO (green), RCJ (purple), GSX (light grey).
All legends are BBI.
The visibility is great in low light. Perfect for a dimly lit restaurant or store.
Comparison of same key from last year's batch and this year.
Interesting how the lines where the colors mix are so different!
Had them throw in a Linux mod kit for my home 840358-01 EPC keyboard while they were at it:
(BBI text on GTD keys)
Review:
Signature Plastics is a delight to work with! They are friendly, professional, and they produce a great product we love using every day. Happy to pay for it.
The keycaps feel good to type on, look good, and fit perfectly on the Cherry MX black stems. Good tight fit. Zero chance of keycaps flying off during excited typing fits.
This year we paid a total of $1,577.83 (shipping included) and got:
* 1 new legend (the rest were holdovers from last year)
* 12 sets 35 doubleshot keycaps, using 8 colors and 34 different legends.
* 7 sets of 9 blank keycaps.
It works out to ~$3.26 per adult lego.
Shoutout to Vecmar Corporation for offering new keyboard skins for old Wyse keyboards.
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