Thanks
The contours needs to be done with a ball nose really. the sides of a cherry or OEM keycap are not a plane (except r4), so you are kinda stuck. My machine is precise and very fast, so this is not a big deal to surface... if the keycap stays put. I have entertained the vacuum fixture idea, but for a few reasons this is problematic. 1 being there is you only get about 10lbs of holding force, and 2, if there is any change in the wood shape or deviation of the surface, it wont sit flat. Did also look at adding an extension to the cap to allow something to grip, but removing it is problematic (vac comment). There are 2 things I see done with metal caps. One is to leave a square ledge on the bottom of 1.6mm for a vise to grip but I don't like that look and it is a bit of a weak area to grip. Another is to thread the stem, but we cant do that with wood. I did have one idea to mill the sides from the bottom with a side cutter. Undercut the part. Then you flip it over and grab it with a dovetail vise jaw. Downside here is you need to spit the keys off individually, and make a jaw set for each different keycap.
I will revisit this in a few weeks. Fixing my CNC on Tuesday (servo died) and ill be making a number of new caps inlays in different woods ands corian and a case.
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Wood is certainly a tricky material to work with when you're machining small items like keycaps. The approaches used to machine metal keycaps seldom apply since wood does not have the same structural integrity as metal (especially if you're looking at features as thin as 1.6mm), its likely to chip and break if speeds are too high. You'll definitely need to lower your feeds and speeds for the intricate parts.
You mentioned having to make different jaws for each keycap, does that mean you're considering making keycaps for the different rows? Most manufacturers just stick to the function row for simplicity's sake.
For machinability, the timber I would recommend is Jelutong (more accessible in my part of the world). It has few pores and imperfections, you can stain it if you don't like the look and it has good dimensional stability when exposed to moisture.
Corian is definitely worth investigating. It machines nicely, is isotropic (unlike wood) and offers more finishing options.
That was the premise of this design. But it threw up some roadblocks primarily about the angle and USB location. I then separated into smaller parts that bolt together, with an ABS plate. Still a bit annoying. To be clear, making ONE is easy. you just do what you gotta do and if it take 9 hours of personal time and a bunch of hot glue, no big deal. But if you want to "produce" them, it is a whole different topic.
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I saw my spouse spin up a business and I have seen other makers in the KB space unable to handle orders due to life and I don't want that stress nor do I want people to think lowly of me because I overcommitted. I have 2 kids who are in activities and a full time job. I want to create keyboards for myself. Keyboards that don't exist and keyboards I want to use. My personal favorite keyboard is the Apple M3501, which I have hand wired and use at work.
So yeah, if it takes 40hrs of prep/milling/finishing for a single keyboard, i'd never be able to sell the product for it's "value" and would either be undercutting existing maker businesses or undervaluing myself and I want neither of those things.