Author Topic: My first attempt at keycap making  (Read 39844 times)

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Offline Kenda

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My first attempt at keycap making
« on: Thu, 21 April 2016, 19:58:09 »
Hey guys, here is my noobie keycap. There's some problem with it such as lose stem and rough surface, need some sanding. Thanks Booper, nubbinator and all other artisans compiled their WIP posted them on here. Learn alot from them.
« Last Edit: Fri, 09 December 2016, 10:11:13 by Kenda »

Offline Bambino

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #1 on: Thu, 21 April 2016, 20:06:45 »
Alert alert alert***

Cool stuff! What process did you use to make it? Is it casted? Is there glue on the interface?


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Offline Kenda

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #2 on: Thu, 21 April 2016, 20:48:44 »
Hi, it's multilayer casting, i forgot to take photo for the whole process :(

Offline cozmonort

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #3 on: Fri, 22 April 2016, 09:14:47 »
Hahah I really like this, really unique cap! Always good to see people taking keycaps in different directions :)

Offline Kenda

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #4 on: Mon, 25 April 2016, 20:21:28 »
Hahah I really like this, really unique cap! Always good to see people taking keycaps in different directions :)
Thanks, good to hear that someone like it. Will try to improve its quality :)

Offline Kenda

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #5 on: Mon, 06 June 2016, 12:54:20 »
It's been awhile since last update. Been busy with day time job. Finally got sometimes to work on this little guy. I call him Grumpy. Let me know what you guys think

Offline Zorberema

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #6 on: Mon, 06 June 2016, 15:44:18 »
It's been awhile since last update. Been busy with day time job. Finally got sometimes to work on this little guy. I call him Grumpy. Let me know what you guys think

I like it, looks great for a first real sculpt! Keep up the work, looks really promissing! :)

Offline kenmai9

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #7 on: Mon, 06 June 2016, 15:45:44 »
hahah its so cute!! look forward to your continued progress :)

keep it up

Offline Wazazaby

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #8 on: Tue, 07 June 2016, 05:12:43 »
The keycaps is so cute :O nice work!

Offline Kenda

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #9 on: Wed, 08 June 2016, 20:20:44 »
Thanks guy. Here's a little update for the first few castings. Those parts at the head gave me big trouble at filling resin into them as well as those tooth. So I removed some details and added in some.

Offline kenmai9

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #10 on: Wed, 08 June 2016, 23:00:36 »
that green one is sick! show us the booty :)

Offline dannrawr

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #11 on: Thu, 09 June 2016, 00:14:03 »
dragon born or what? hoho
 

WTF any Bruce, Cosmonauts

Offline xtrafrood

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #12 on: Thu, 09 June 2016, 01:08:17 »
Hi-keeba! Very nice :)

Offline suicidal_orange

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #13 on: Thu, 09 June 2016, 03:09:28 »
Grumpy is a good name, he does not look at all happy :))

Just a word of caution as those spikes look pretty big - do they hit the caps around it?  That's something you should try to avoid.

You've got the hang of multishot and a design that looks great with it - good work!
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Offline Kenda

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #14 on: Thu, 09 June 2016, 11:07:42 »
dragon born or what? hoho

It's based on the dragon head, but I try to make it like a monster sort of character


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Offline Kenda

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #15 on: Thu, 09 June 2016, 11:10:25 »
Grumpy is a good name, he does not look at all happy :))

Just a word of caution as those spikes look pretty big - do they hit the caps around it?  That's something you should try to avoid.

You've got the hang of multishot and a design that looks great with it - good work!

Thanks. I tried it on my board before with the master and had to trim down those spikes. They're good on the TKL and 60% board now. I'll upload some photos soon


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Offline Kenda

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #16 on: Thu, 09 June 2016, 11:14:40 »
Here's some more update of today progress after some mods to the master. I got better result at casting with less color bleaching out from the tooth and horns part




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Offline romevi

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #17 on: Thu, 09 June 2016, 14:30:38 »
Thanks to csmertx, I want this cap.

Offline Kenda

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My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #18 on: Fri, 10 June 2016, 00:58:47 »


Small update tested with different color schemes



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Offline Marshal

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #19 on: Wed, 15 June 2016, 16:55:28 »
Show Image
Show Image


Small update tested with different color schemes



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These are crazy cool, did you paint them?

Offline xtrafrood

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #20 on: Wed, 15 June 2016, 19:26:18 »
Thanks to csmertx, I want this cap.

*evil laugh*

But seriously, the multishot dragon has so much detail around the horns

Offline Kenda

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #21 on: Fri, 17 June 2016, 12:41:49 »
Show Image
Show Image


Small update tested with different color schemes



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These are crazy cool, did you paint them?


Hi, these are multishot casting, maybe I should just paint it to save time :(

Offline Kenda

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #22 on: Fri, 17 June 2016, 12:49:13 »
Have a day off today so spend some time to do some sculpting. The first one is an orc, the idea came up after I watched the warcraft movie. The second one is an owl, I always have it in the back of my head as the only time I can work on keycap is at night time. I'm becoming pne of them now I think lol. Sorry for the poor quality photos. And I'll have some updates soon after finish casting them.

Offline romevi

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #23 on: Fri, 17 June 2016, 12:55:05 »
Show Image
Show Image


Small update tested with different color schemes



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

These are crazy cool, did you paint them?


Hi, these are multishot casting, maybe I should just paint it to save time :(

No! No paint!

Offline romevi

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #24 on: Fri, 17 June 2016, 12:55:35 »
Have a day off today so spend some time to do some sculpting. The first one is an orc, the idea came up after I watched the warcraft movie. The second one is an owl, I always have it in the back of my head as the only time I can work on keycap is at night time. I'm becoming pne of them now I think lol. Sorry for the poor quality photos. And I'll have some updates soon after finish casting them.

Wow! That ork thing is very well sculpted!

Offline Kenda

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #25 on: Fri, 17 June 2016, 13:01:18 »
Have a day off today so spend some time to do some sculpting. The first one is an orc, the idea came up after I watched the warcraft movie. The second one is an owl, I always have it in the back of my head as the only time I can work on keycap is at night time. I'm becoming pne of them now I think lol. Sorry for the poor quality photos. And I'll have some updates soon after finish casting them.

Wow! That ork thing is very well sculpted!

Thank you. I'm still thinking about the ears part as they'll give me trouble at casting. On the side note, It's a little tall compared to other caps. I don't know why but maybe it's my style of making caps that's so big compared to others :(

Offline romevi

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #26 on: Fri, 17 June 2016, 13:03:29 »
Have a day off today so spend some time to do some sculpting. The first one is an orc, the idea came up after I watched the warcraft movie. The second one is an owl, I always have it in the back of my head as the only time I can work on keycap is at night time. I'm becoming pne of them now I think lol. Sorry for the poor quality photos. And I'll have some updates soon after finish casting them.

Wow! That ork thing is very well sculpted!

Thank you. I'm still thinking about the ears part as they'll give me trouble at casting. On the side note, It's a little tall compared to other caps. I don't know why but maybe it's my style of making caps that's so big compared to others :(

The ears do look problematic. Maybe tuck them in a bit?
Also, have you tried trimming the base so it's not as tall?

Offline xtrafrood

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #27 on: Fri, 17 June 2016, 13:15:53 »
More great work! I'm really diggin' the Orc/Ork's expression.

Offline Kenda

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #28 on: Fri, 17 June 2016, 22:27:45 »
Have a day off today so spend some time to do some sculpting. The first one is an orc, the idea came up after I watched the warcraft movie. The second one is an owl, I always have it in the back of my head as the only time I can work on keycap is at night time. I'm becoming pne of them now I think lol. Sorry for the poor quality photos. And I'll have some updates soon after finish casting them.

Wow! That ork thing is very well sculpted!

Thank you. I'm still thinking about the ears part as they'll give me trouble at casting. On the side note, It's a little tall compared to other caps. I don't know why but maybe it's my style of making caps that's so big compared to others :(

The ears do look problematic. Maybe tuck them in a bit?
Also, have you tried trimming the base so it's not as tall?

The whole head is actually bigger than the keycap base. If i trim it down, it might hit the side of the keyboard case. I'll give it a shot. Worse case I have to remove the ears and trim the head to make it fit to the keycap size


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Offline Kenda

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #29 on: Mon, 20 June 2016, 02:45:37 »
Here is a small update on the owl. I added in somw details on its belly. Tested on mine 60board but seems like its belly is a bit big so have to trim it down a bit.

Offline Epic

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #30 on: Thu, 23 June 2016, 13:47:13 »
Your owls came out great! Do you use any equipment (vacuum pump or pressure pot) when making these?

Offline romevi

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #31 on: Thu, 23 June 2016, 13:50:19 »
For real, those owls are amazing and super clean.

Offline xtrafrood

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #32 on: Thu, 23 June 2016, 14:18:39 »
For real, those owls are amazing and super clean.

Yep!

Offline romevi

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #33 on: Thu, 23 June 2016, 14:19:41 »
For real, those owls are amazing and super clean.

Yep!

To say it another way, I love those hooters.

Offline xtrafrood

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #34 on: Thu, 23 June 2016, 14:26:54 »
For real, those owls are amazing and super clean.

Yep!

To say it another way, I love those hooters.

Hey, I see what you did there.. They are nice though

Offline ramnes

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #35 on: Thu, 23 June 2016, 14:38:31 »
Very nice, keep up the good work!
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Offline Epic

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #36 on: Thu, 23 June 2016, 22:11:43 »
When you cast these keycaps, do you make a lot at once? I would imagine it being expensive if you had to make a batch of a specific color and only use it for one small piece of the entire cap  (i.e. eyeballs) and discarding the rest.

Offline Kenda

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #37 on: Fri, 24 June 2016, 11:44:00 »
When you cast these keycaps, do you make a lot at once? I would imagine it being expensive if you had to make a batch of a specific color and only use it for one small piece of the entire cap  (i.e. eyeballs) and discarding the rest.

Hey, for casting I do use a vacuum chamber to get rid most of the bubbles. Unfortunately I can't use a pressure pot because I only work on it at night, so the bottm of my keycaps still have imperfections. And for the ones I casted up to now, I still in the testing process so wasting resin is unavoidable. I see other artisans made lots of molds to cast to save resin. I'll do that once I finish testing all my designs

Offline Kenda

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #38 on: Fri, 24 June 2016, 11:54:39 »
Thanks for your support guys. Back again to have a small update for the Orc. Finally got it done. It's huge but I had no choice to make it this way. And the color of it is a bit off due to my crappy phone. Let me lnow what you guys think about it.

Offline Kenda

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #39 on: Sun, 26 June 2016, 22:47:19 »
Testing different colors

Offline romevi

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #40 on: Sun, 26 June 2016, 23:05:59 »
Testing different colors

Love the colors! They remind me of the initial batch of the Yoda cap by WoB.

Offline Kenda

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #41 on: Sun, 26 June 2016, 23:28:40 »
Testing different colors

Love the colors! They remind me of the initial batch of the Yoda cap by WoB.

Yeah I think you're right, it looks similar to WoB colorway. Need to fix the red orc, it's more orange red not the darker red like this one.

Offline slickmamba

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #42 on: Mon, 27 June 2016, 01:44:20 »
yo these look badass man! Keep it up!
Hi :)

Offline SBJ

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #43 on: Tue, 28 June 2016, 06:10:46 »
Testing different colors
Very, very cool.
Your progress is amazing.

Offline xtrafrood

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #44 on: Tue, 28 June 2016, 07:20:56 »
One of the few keycaps in which a big size actually suits the sculpt. :)

Offline Kenda

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #45 on: Tue, 28 June 2016, 11:14:56 »
Just wondering is the orc keycap too big? Is its expression good enough? My friends told me it's not mean enough as an orc.


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Offline Kenda

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #46 on: Sat, 02 July 2016, 12:36:17 »
My girlfriend helped me design this awesome logo for me. It's called DC caps :)

Offline tinymakesthings

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #47 on: Sat, 02 July 2016, 16:00:16 »
Nice work man! The logo looks awesome too :)

Offline Aran.E99

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #48 on: Sat, 02 July 2016, 16:41:07 »
really awesome work here, better than what i could ever do, and this is your 'first attempt', damn! :p
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Offline Kenda

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Re: My first attempt at keycap making
« Reply #49 on: Mon, 18 July 2016, 10:36:33 »
really awesome work here, better than what i could ever do, and this is your 'first attempt', damn! :p
Haha actually it's my million attempt in making caps. My failures box is filled and need to get a bigger one. It's fun to sculpt and cast. Still enjoying it everyday :)


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