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Author Topic: Difficult to make POM keycaps compare to PBT or ABS?  (Read 4272 times)

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Offline KeyboardRookie

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Difficult to make POM keycaps compare to PBT or ABS?
« on: Fri, 17 August 2012, 09:33:21 »
I could find ABS or PBT keycaps easily, but it seems hard to find POM keycaps.
Is there any special reason why people don't make POM keycaps often?
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Offline dorkvader

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Re: Difficult to make POM keycaps compare to PBT or ABS?
« Reply #1 on: Fri, 17 August 2012, 11:22:08 »
I would say because many don't like how "slippery" most POM keycaps seem to feel.

That said, there are lots of POM keycaps to be had. Many black cherry lasered keycaps are POM (perhaps all of them?). Also, the keycaps on the noppoo choc mini are POM. POM is also available from china (Imsto, etc.) I believe you can get it in translucent jelly colours, which might look pretty on a backlit keyboard.
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Offline KeyboardRookie

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Re: Difficult to make POM keycaps compare to PBT or ABS?
« Reply #2 on: Sat, 18 August 2012, 03:47:01 »
Quote from: dorkvader on Fri, 17 August 2012, 11:22:08
I would say because many don't like how "slippery" most POM keycaps seem to feel.

That said, there are lots of POM keycaps to be had. Many black cherry lasered keycaps are POM (perhaps all of them?). Also, the keycaps on the noppoo choc mini are POM. POM is also available from china (Imsto, etc.) I believe you can get it in translucent jelly colours, which might look pretty on a backlit keyboard.

Thank you for giving me good information. I'll try.
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Offline KeyboardRookie

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Re: Difficult to make POM keycaps compare to PBT or ABS?
« Reply #3 on: Sat, 18 August 2012, 08:13:20 »
Quote from: KeyboardRookie on Sat, 18 August 2012, 03:47:01
Quote from: dorkvader on Fri, 17 August 2012, 11:22:08
I would say because many don't like how "slippery" most POM keycaps seem to feel.

That said, there are lots of POM keycaps to be had. Many black cherry lasered keycaps are POM (perhaps all of them?). Also, the keycaps on the noppoo choc mini are POM. POM is also available from china (Imsto, etc.) I believe you can get it in translucent jelly colours, which might look pretty on a backlit keyboard.

Thank you for giving me good information. I'll try.

Additionally, POM keycaps are hard to make surface roughly?
Since it's usually slippery, it would be ok as long as a maker considers rough surface when they make a mold. Isn't it possible?
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Offline IvanIvanovich

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Re: Difficult to make POM keycaps compare to PBT or ABS?
« Reply #4 on: Sat, 18 August 2012, 11:06:57 »
I only have had Cherry POM, and as far as I can tell they use same molds as they used for the older thick style PBT back when they still did dyesub. Has same texture etc, just POM is so much more slick it really doesn't help a lot. The newer ones have quite raised and rough feeling lasering, that may be helpful a little.
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Offline KeyboardRookie

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Re: Difficult to make POM keycaps compare to PBT or ABS?
« Reply #5 on: Sat, 18 August 2012, 15:05:01 »
Quote from: lysol on Sat, 18 August 2012, 11:06:57
I only have had Cherry POM, and as far as I can tell they use same molds as they used for the older thick style PBT back when they still did dyesub. Has same texture etc, just POM is so much more slick it really doesn't help a lot. The newer ones have quite raised and rough feeling lasering, that may be helpful a little.

So, you think the reason of slippery is because of the molding they use? or because of property of material?
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Offline IvanIvanovich

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Re: Difficult to make POM keycaps compare to PBT or ABS?
« Reply #6 on: Sat, 18 August 2012, 16:34:32 »
Material, even when pom has a lot of texture it doesn't make it not slippery. It's just one of the characteristics
 of the type of plastic, it always feels kind of greasy I guess is a good way to describe it.
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Offline N8N

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Re: Difficult to make POM keycaps compare to PBT or ABS?
« Reply #7 on: Sat, 18 August 2012, 16:48:02 »
My Cherry lasered caps are PBT... when did they switch?  I assume recently?

I've been told that the Noppoo Choc Pro keycaps are POM and I thought that they felt fantastic, but I had to ditch them because of the goofy font.  Replaced them with a set of WASD lasered ABS, when they started their new laser process.  It looked almost exactly the same, but now it looked squared away and *actually* professional instead of weird.  Now it's actually wearing the Cherry PBTs although I think I will finally bite the bullet and get some dyesubs rather than trying to complete this set, unless someone coughs up some old school Cherry keys quickly.

I do like the feel of the Cherry keys as well.  Possibly more so than the doubleshots, but the doubleshots do look pretty (while they last.)
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Filco Majestouch-2 with Cherry Corp. doubleshot keys - Leopold Tenkeyless Tactile Force with Wyse doubleshots - Silicon Graphics 9500900 - WASD V1 - IBM Model M 52G9658 - Noppoo Choc Pro with Cherry lasered PBT keycaps - Wyse 900866-01 - Cherry G80-8200LPBUS/07 - Dell AT101W - several Cherry G81s (future doubleshot donors) (order of current preference) (dang I have too many keyboards, I really only need two)

Offline dorkvader

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Re: Difficult to make POM keycaps compare to PBT or ABS?
« Reply #8 on: Sun, 19 August 2012, 09:27:08 »
Quote from: N8N on Sat, 18 August 2012, 16:48:02
My Cherry lasered caps are PBT... when did they switch?  I assume recently?

I've been told that the Noppoo Choc Pro keycaps are POM and I thought that they felt fantastic, but I had to ditch them because of the goofy font.  Replaced them with a set of WASD lasered ABS, when they started their new laser process.  It looked almost exactly the same, but now it looked squared away and *actually* professional instead of weird.  Now it's actually wearing the Cherry PBTs although I think I will finally bite the bullet and get some dyesubs rather than trying to complete this set, unless someone coughs up some old school Cherry keys quickly.

I do like the feel of the Cherry keys as well.  Possibly more so than the doubleshots, but the doubleshots do look pretty (while they last.)
I always thought that the beige/white were PBT, and the black was POM. I don't have any cherry PBT, but my black cherry laser'd set is almost certainly POM.

Unfortunately since they have similar densities, hardness, and chemical resistance, it's hard to empirically determine POM vs. PBT. The "Swoothness" test is as good as any I've seen thus far.
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Offline IvanIvanovich

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Re: Difficult to make POM keycaps compare to PBT or ABS?
« Reply #9 on: Sun, 19 August 2012, 10:40:36 »
That is correct. Cherry lasered white/beige or light grey is pbt and the black is always pom as far as I have seen going back to at least 1998.
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Offline N8N

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Re: Difficult to make POM keycaps compare to PBT or ABS?
« Reply #10 on: Sun, 19 August 2012, 13:40:08 »
Ah, makes sense.  I've never had any black Cherry keys that weren't doubleshot.  thanks for setting me straight.  All my lasered keys are in fact beige/grey.  Are the newer all beige ones PBT as well?  (I'm ASSuming that they are PBT, because, well, when you pull one, it has "PBT" molded right into it.)
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Filco Majestouch-2 with Cherry Corp. doubleshot keys - Leopold Tenkeyless Tactile Force with Wyse doubleshots - Silicon Graphics 9500900 - WASD V1 - IBM Model M 52G9658 - Noppoo Choc Pro with Cherry lasered PBT keycaps - Wyse 900866-01 - Cherry G80-8200LPBUS/07 - Dell AT101W - several Cherry G81s (future doubleshot donors) (order of current preference) (dang I have too many keyboards, I really only need two)

Offline KeyboardRookie

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Re: Difficult to make POM keycaps compare to PBT or ABS?
« Reply #11 on: Sun, 19 August 2012, 19:47:31 »
According to POM keycaps in use,
POM keycaps are only possible to make in black?
Have you seen any different color yet?
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Offline IvanIvanovich

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Re: Difficult to make POM keycaps compare to PBT or ABS?
« Reply #12 on: Mon, 20 August 2012, 12:21:36 »
They have all sorts of colors, KBC has about half dozen colors in thier 'jellies' line which is pom. Also earlier Noppoo ones were brown which was why it was called Choc in the first place.
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Offline KeyboardRookie

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Re: Difficult to make POM keycaps compare to PBT or ABS?
« Reply #13 on: Wed, 22 August 2012, 03:15:32 »
Quote from: lysol on Mon, 20 August 2012, 12:21:36
They have all sorts of colors, KBC has about half dozen colors in thier 'jellies' line which is pom. Also earlier Noppoo ones were brown which was why it was called Choc in the first place.

Oh, thank you for information. I didn't know the origin of choc.
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