Author Topic: Keycaps made with Pottery Clay  (Read 6628 times)

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Offline ju6ju8Oo

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Keycaps made with Pottery Clay
« on: Sun, 18 March 2018, 10:15:00 »
Keycaps made with Pottery Clay, anyone tried?

Offline jmg123

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Re: Keycaps made with Pottery Clay
« Reply #1 on: Mon, 19 March 2018, 13:52:58 »
No, but i do make quite a bit with clay. The problem i forsee is the uneven 5 to to 10% shrinkage you get when firing. It would probably be best to make a large enough hole on the underside of the ceramic key to be able to take a stem cut off a plastic key. That way you could glue the plastic stem into the ceramic key and make sure you get a good fit to the switch.

Offline ju6ju8Oo

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Re: Keycaps made with Pottery Clay
« Reply #2 on: Tue, 20 March 2018, 21:06:12 »
a plastic stem sounds like a good plan!

Offline keylabskeycaps

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Re: Keycaps made with Pottery Clay
« Reply #3 on: Sun, 08 April 2018, 18:15:00 »
I haven't personally tried that, I use super sculpy medium for all the stuff I work on. I think pottery clay would run into a bunch of issues with detailing and drying out and everything. It might be worth a try, but it could end up just being a pain.

Offline Thereminz

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Re: Keycaps made with Pottery Clay
« Reply #4 on: Sun, 15 April 2018, 11:20:51 »
No, but i do make quite a bit with clay. The problem i forsee is the uneven 5 to to 10% shrinkage you get when firing. It would probably be best to make a large enough hole on the underside of the ceramic key to be able to take a stem cut off a plastic key. That way you could glue the plastic stem into the ceramic key and make sure you get a good fit to the switch.

Wouldn't the plastic melt in the kiln

Offline rowdy

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Re: Keycaps made with Pottery Clay
« Reply #5 on: Mon, 16 April 2018, 21:44:41 »
No, but i do make quite a bit with clay. The problem i forsee is the uneven 5 to to 10% shrinkage you get when firing. It would probably be best to make a large enough hole on the underside of the ceramic key to be able to take a stem cut off a plastic key. That way you could glue the plastic stem into the ceramic key and make sure you get a good fit to the switch.

Wouldn't the plastic melt in the kiln

I suspect the idea is to fire the keycap first, and glue the stem in when it has cooled.
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Offline HPE1000

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Re: Keycaps made with Pottery Clay
« Reply #6 on: Mon, 16 April 2018, 22:26:54 »
I seem to remember a thread a few years ago where someone said they attempted it and their keycap exploded in the kiln and destroyed a bunch of peoples stuff so they gave up.

Offline Blaise170

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Re: Keycaps made with Pottery Clay
« Reply #7 on: Tue, 17 April 2018, 09:00:14 »
I seem to remember a thread a few years ago where someone said they attempted it and their keycap exploded in the kiln and destroyed a bunch of peoples stuff so they gave up.

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Offline 89sec

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Re: Keycaps made with Pottery Clay
« Reply #8 on: Fri, 08 June 2018, 22:44:20 »
To my knowledge, creating anything to such a precise degree out of pottery clay will be a massive challenge, if it is at all possible. Perhaps it would be more feasible to create a solid butt and separately mill the stem.

Offline lasernasaur

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Re: Keycaps made with Pottery Clay
« Reply #9 on: Mon, 11 June 2018, 01:31:04 »
Instead of pottery clay I think air dry sculpting clay would be better for the job. but even that I have not tried. Still new to the Keyboard Hobby, and just slowly easing my way in.

Offline molecularronin

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Re: Keycaps made with Pottery Clay
« Reply #10 on: Tue, 12 June 2018, 21:41:01 »
I was thinking this exact thing earlier. I think porcelain caps would be totally rad.

Offline AuthenticDanger

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Re: Keycaps made with Pottery Clay
« Reply #11 on: Tue, 12 June 2018, 23:25:32 »
I was thinking this exact thing earlier. I think porcelain caps would be totally rad.

Ceramic caps exist. Porcelain caps would certainly be possible.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Ceramic-Backlit-Keycap-Artisan-R4-OEM-Key-Caps-For-Cherry-MX-Mechanical-Keyboard/152717937998
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