3D printed Key cap (cherry MX)

[franklima260]

Hey guys and gals,

I am new to mechanical keyboards but have been into 3D printing for a while now. So I thought hey... let make some key caps.

So to go over the design concept I wanted to combine the spherical key cap bowl with wide finger pad of chicklet style keys. Pictures bellow.










I still need to work out a few details mostly dealing with the stem and the depth of the bowl for quality printing on FDM printers (RepRap and Makerbot).

I have attached the STL and STEP if you want to play with the files yourself.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3207174/Key2b.zip

Let me know what you think, Frank

[82times]

Looks like a great way of experimenting with different profiles.

I'm curious about what you'd estimate the materials cost to be for, say, a single keycap.

...this could be a good excuse to finally buy a 3D printer...

[badman5]

YES. Keep experimenting and hit me up once yuo have some nice slim caps, when i get my mechanical keyboard i will probably buy a full keyboard worth of caps.I want slim mechanical kb. This seems like the best solution so far.

[franklima260]

Cost per key works out to about:
 $6.25 each but...
the break down is $0.32 for materials and  $5.93 for machine time. If you are not planing on selling the key caps or don't care about selling sustainably you can ignore the machine time cost. So.....

$6.25 each or $0.32 you pick.

Frank

Ps. I have access to a bunch of printers 2 are mine and 2 more at my local maker space so I can more or less get away with 'at cost' if I ever get the design worked out.

[Vibex]

If you get some proto types you are happy with, let me know. I like testing things and playing with designs.

[SSIPAK]

Is it possible for you make Topre keycaps? Im sure plenty of people would be interested.

[franklima260]

Hey guys and gals,

New designs (from left to right):
The original design with an improved stem design.
2mm deep dome (I think this would do well for the 'F' and 'J' keys)
1mm deep dome I think this is the best feeling key.



Attached are all three key types in "STL" and "Step" formats:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3207174/Key1-2-3.zip

To print just make sure they are properly oriented, no support  is required as all the keys have support already model in. I have found that printing with a raft helps but is not required.