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Author Topic: Matte Das  (Read 6012 times)

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Offline JustCallMeCrash

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  • Posts: 219
  • Location: NC, USA
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Matte Das
« on: Wed, 16 November 2011, 08:39:58 »
At the risk of creating a duplicate entry (though I searched around and haven't found anything yet), I'm wanting to take the gloss off my Das.  

Maybe I should have put a question mark in the title, as I really haven't figured out the best way to go about this yet.  I'm sick to death of the smudges and all the fine scratches on my Das.  I love the board otherwise and don't want to get rid of it, but surely there's some way to make this case a bit less glossy or even flat without resorting to spray paint.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

EDIT: Here are some pictures of the final product.  
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These are HORRIBLE pictures.  This camera (cheapy Fuji) has a hard time with shadows.  The effect is very uniform and, while still a BIT reflective, it's certainly not glossy.  Maybe more of a satin than a matte finish.  I'm pretty happy with it, either way.  Sorry it took so long to get the pictures up.

My procedure:  The first step is to pull the case apart as illustrated here.
I seem to have gotten a BIT overzealous on the 3rd pass as most of the logo is now gone.  For some reason this doesn't bother me NEARLY as much as the gloss did.
Get a piece of 600 grit wet/dry sand paper.  Go use it for something else until it's almost completely used up.  Seriously... 600 grit is too rough but I don't have a good woodworking shop close to hand, so I made do.  At any rate, once it feels like shark skin wet it thoroughly and start rubbing.  I did the initial de-glossing with a circular motion then went back over the whole works with straight-line sanding.  This gave it a bit of a brushed metal look, of which I approve.  Dry the whole works and look it over closely.  I ended up going over the whole top with a soft paper towel, pressing very hard to get rid of the milky look the plastic achieved after sanding and drying.  This plastic is so soft that even a paper towel can scratch the surface.  I may take this back home and pull it apart again to spray it with a coat of matte lacquer, just to protect the finish.  That's it... it's pretty straightforward and you can probably skip some of these steps if you go up to a higher grit sanding paper.  I may try 0000 steel wool on an edge to see how that turns out.  If I do it, I'll update this.
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ErgoDoxen 6 total: Cherry MX Browns, Cherry MX Clears, NovelKeys Box Royal, 80g Gateron Yellows, NovelKeys Pale Blues, NovelKeys Box Navy.
Preonic 2 total: OG Gateron Yellows (GMK silencer clips), TBD (unassembled v2).
XD-75 (mixed Gateron Yellows, MX Blacks, MX Clears on layer toggles).
Das S Professional (was MX Blues, now Ghetto Reds).
G80-11900.
ML-4400 (2x) Cherry MY boards.

Offline JustCallMeCrash

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  • Posts: 219
  • Location: NC, USA
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Matte Das
« Reply #1 on: Thu, 17 November 2011, 12:51:40 »
Turns out 600 grit wet sanding does the trick.  No good camera here, but I'll try to remember to bring one from home to snap a couple shots.  It looks MUCH nicer without all the gloss.
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ErgoDoxen 6 total: Cherry MX Browns, Cherry MX Clears, NovelKeys Box Royal, 80g Gateron Yellows, NovelKeys Pale Blues, NovelKeys Box Navy.
Preonic 2 total: OG Gateron Yellows (GMK silencer clips), TBD (unassembled v2).
XD-75 (mixed Gateron Yellows, MX Blacks, MX Clears on layer toggles).
Das S Professional (was MX Blues, now Ghetto Reds).
G80-11900.
ML-4400 (2x) Cherry MY boards.

Offline JustCallMeCrash

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  • Posts: 219
  • Location: NC, USA
  • ErgoDox Lover
Matte Das
« Reply #2 on: Thu, 17 November 2011, 15:17:19 »
Quote from: ripster;454152
Sandblasting would work too.  F3 my sig for "sandblast".
I read your sandblasting wiki ages ago and that was my first impulse.  Issue with that is I don't have any place to do it.  I don't have an air compressor (yet... I've been eyeballing them for ages) and I don't have any idea whereabouts locally I can get that kind of thing done.  We live in the sticks, so it's not as prevalent here as it may be in some larger towns and cities.
At any rate, the wet sanding did a pretty good job.  That gloss was really making me angry... when a microfiber cloth (or even just your skin) leaves scratches on the surface of your board, the plastic is too damn soft.
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ErgoDoxen 6 total: Cherry MX Browns, Cherry MX Clears, NovelKeys Box Royal, 80g Gateron Yellows, NovelKeys Pale Blues, NovelKeys Box Navy.
Preonic 2 total: OG Gateron Yellows (GMK silencer clips), TBD (unassembled v2).
XD-75 (mixed Gateron Yellows, MX Blacks, MX Clears on layer toggles).
Das S Professional (was MX Blues, now Ghetto Reds).
G80-11900.
ML-4400 (2x) Cherry MY boards.

Offline hashbaz

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Matte Das
« Reply #3 on: Thu, 17 November 2011, 16:35:53 »
Nice!  I await pics...
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Offline JustCallMeCrash

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  • Posts: 219
  • Location: NC, USA
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Matte Das
« Reply #4 on: Fri, 18 November 2011, 09:46:52 »
Hey ripster, I found something I wanted to give you, but it says you can't take PMs.
Also, can you use a gif as your avatar?
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ErgoDoxen 6 total: Cherry MX Browns, Cherry MX Clears, NovelKeys Box Royal, 80g Gateron Yellows, NovelKeys Pale Blues, NovelKeys Box Navy.
Preonic 2 total: OG Gateron Yellows (GMK silencer clips), TBD (unassembled v2).
XD-75 (mixed Gateron Yellows, MX Blacks, MX Clears on layer toggles).
Das S Professional (was MX Blues, now Ghetto Reds).
G80-11900.
ML-4400 (2x) Cherry MY boards.

Offline JustCallMeCrash

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 219
  • Location: NC, USA
  • ErgoDox Lover
Matte Das
« Reply #5 on: Fri, 18 November 2011, 11:21:25 »
That is awesome.  You're welcome.
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ErgoDoxen 6 total: Cherry MX Browns, Cherry MX Clears, NovelKeys Box Royal, 80g Gateron Yellows, NovelKeys Pale Blues, NovelKeys Box Navy.
Preonic 2 total: OG Gateron Yellows (GMK silencer clips), TBD (unassembled v2).
XD-75 (mixed Gateron Yellows, MX Blacks, MX Clears on layer toggles).
Das S Professional (was MX Blues, now Ghetto Reds).
G80-11900.
ML-4400 (2x) Cherry MY boards.

Offline JustCallMeCrash

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 219
  • Location: NC, USA
  • ErgoDox Lover
Matte Das
« Reply #6 on: Fri, 18 November 2011, 15:14:38 »
Crap.  Forgot the camera.  I'll take the board home over the weekend and post some pics.
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ErgoDoxen 6 total: Cherry MX Browns, Cherry MX Clears, NovelKeys Box Royal, 80g Gateron Yellows, NovelKeys Pale Blues, NovelKeys Box Navy.
Preonic 2 total: OG Gateron Yellows (GMK silencer clips), TBD (unassembled v2).
XD-75 (mixed Gateron Yellows, MX Blacks, MX Clears on layer toggles).
Das S Professional (was MX Blues, now Ghetto Reds).
G80-11900.
ML-4400 (2x) Cherry MY boards.

Offline JustCallMeCrash

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 219
  • Location: NC, USA
  • ErgoDox Lover
Matte Das
« Reply #7 on: Sat, 17 December 2011, 18:16:28 »
Bump.  I finally added (****ty) pictures.
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ErgoDoxen 6 total: Cherry MX Browns, Cherry MX Clears, NovelKeys Box Royal, 80g Gateron Yellows, NovelKeys Pale Blues, NovelKeys Box Navy.
Preonic 2 total: OG Gateron Yellows (GMK silencer clips), TBD (unassembled v2).
XD-75 (mixed Gateron Yellows, MX Blacks, MX Clears on layer toggles).
Das S Professional (was MX Blues, now Ghetto Reds).
G80-11900.
ML-4400 (2x) Cherry MY boards.

Offline NguyenAdam

  • Posts: 143
Matte Das
« Reply #8 on: Sat, 17 December 2011, 19:14:31 »
I can't see the pics.
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Offline sinis

  • Posts: 255
Matte Das
« Reply #9 on: Sun, 18 December 2011, 01:14:20 »
Quote from: NguyenAdam;472954
I can't see the pics.


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Offline pitashen

  • Posts: 1200
Matte Das
« Reply #10 on: Sun, 18 December 2011, 01:26:31 »
I don't imagine DAS with matte finish would look as good as the mirror finish... not saying i like to use a keyboard with mirror finish, but visual wise, Das goes better with mirror finish.
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Offline digitalleftovers

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Matte Das
« Reply #11 on: Sun, 18 December 2011, 01:33:37 »
The last non-gloss DAS (DAS II?) really appealed to me.  I really like how this turned out.  GOOD JOB.
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Offline bienc

  • Posts: 72
Matte Das
« Reply #12 on: Sun, 18 December 2011, 02:08:07 »
Looks really good! Would have been interesting to have left a the logo alone (having the logo area stay glossy) but that would probably look off. I think I would have just sanded the logo off to make it a more uniform look. I quick coat of matte spray would probably be good for the finish.
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Offline JustCallMeCrash

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  • Posts: 219
  • Location: NC, USA
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Matte Das
« Reply #13 on: Sun, 18 December 2011, 08:08:15 »
Thanks for the compliments.  I did sand the logo completely off... I would like to get a DAS decal to put up there, but I can't seem to locate one.  I even contacted Metadot directly and they don't have anything.  My wife has a friend with a Crikut machine, so I might ask her to do one for me out of vinyl.
Be aware that this will still mar pretty easily but you won't be wiping it down as often since it doesn't show fingerprints.

You can (GENTLY) buff the logo without removing it... I just got carried away.
« Last Edit: Sun, 18 December 2011, 08:10:16 by JustCallMeCrash »
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ErgoDoxen 6 total: Cherry MX Browns, Cherry MX Clears, NovelKeys Box Royal, 80g Gateron Yellows, NovelKeys Pale Blues, NovelKeys Box Navy.
Preonic 2 total: OG Gateron Yellows (GMK silencer clips), TBD (unassembled v2).
XD-75 (mixed Gateron Yellows, MX Blacks, MX Clears on layer toggles).
Das S Professional (was MX Blues, now Ghetto Reds).
G80-11900.
ML-4400 (2x) Cherry MY boards.

Offline hashbaz

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Matte Das
« Reply #14 on: Mon, 19 December 2011, 01:20:50 »
I like it.
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