Using acrylic sealer spray on keycaps?

[Lunatique]

Have any of you tried using acrylic sealer sprays during your keyboard DIY? I'm talking about ones like this, often used in arts and craft:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003W0BZHC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I'm thinking about painting the legends of a keycap set in custom colors with acrylic paint (using a small sable brush. I used to ink comic books so I'm very skilled with a sable brush and fine detail work), and then seal the painted legends with the acrylic spray. It seems like a good idea based on common sense and understanding of acrylic sprays (which I used a lot of in my analog art days, sealing charcoal, pastel, watercolor, and mixed media artworks), but I have no idea if it'll react in unpredictable ways with keycaps.

In this scenario, it's the RealForce 87U's black keycaps that I'm thinking about painting.

[DrHubblePhD]

Have any of you tried using acrylic sealer sprays during your keyboard DIY? I'm talking about ones like this, often used in arts and craft:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003W0BZHC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I'm thinking about painting the legends of a keycap set in custom colors with acrylic paint (using a small sable brush. I used to ink comic books so I'm very skilled with a sable brush and fine detail work), and then seal the painted legends with the acrylic spray. It seems like a good idea based on common sense and understanding of acrylic sprays (which I used a lot of in my analog art days, sealing charcoal, pastel, watercolor, and mixed media artworks), but I have no idea if it'll react in unpredictable ways with keycaps.

In this scenario, it's the RealForce 87U's black keycaps that I'm thinking about painting.

I think the primary concern would be that the natural buildup of oils and the ware and tear of daily use would most likely make the keys fade over time.

[MGH]

Be warned, I used that same sealer on a little spray paint project and it reacts with the paint, causing it to peel if you aren't careful. But that was also my third time spray painting in my life, so I may have just screwed up some steps.

[PunksDead]

There is a difference when spraying clear coat over enamels vs acrylics. Besure to get the proper sealer for your paint or it crackles

[Mandolin]

It needs a primer, otherwise the varnish will fall off. The acrylic just hardens and sits on top of the plastic.
It works as a temporary solution, and you'd have to regularly varnish it.
If subject to flexural forces (as if you were to drop it), the varnish will peel off. It will resist well compressive forces.

If it's for making artisan keycaps, something cool to do would be to use a crystal clear Polyurethane resin mixed with an oil based PU lacquer, on top of the cast. It will bond chemically, if used within the curing time (full cure is not in minutes, but hours)

Otherwise you'd need to sand them to promote adhesion and mechanically adhere to it. Sealers and glue work well on porous surfaces (paper, wood) because they drip in between it's pores and mechanically interlock in the outer layer, so it acts as a composite material. With non porous (ceramics, metals, plastics) surfaces it's trickier, and advisable a mix of mechanical adhesion and chemical, so sanding it is needed to grip to the base object, and the glue must be designed to adhere to the thing you're trying to stick to it, basically.

IF you are painting keycaps the pipeline is:
- (1) Base keycap prepared, deoiled, sanded.
- (2) Primer
- (3) Paint
- (4) primer* (you could skip this step if the varnish is of the same base that the paint)
- (5) varnish

Also, the solvent component in the plastic primers (around 20%) is most of the time too strong for keycaps and they start to melt quickly. I won't use spray based primers, or if needed a workaround is to spray on a sheet of paper or a tile, wait for it to evaporate a little, and then drip a clean non synthetic brush into it, and apply a thin layer over the keycap. That's enough.

[Lunatique]

Thanks for the replies.

I'm only going to paint the legends, not the entire keycap surface. I'll basically use a very thin sable brush and just paint colors of my choice on top of the original legend on the keycap, and that's it. So imagine the black on dark gray keycaps of the RealForce 87U (dye-sub PBT), with acrylic paint coloring just legends in custom colors like this:


The paint will be artist grade acrylic paint like Winsor & Newton, Liquitex, etc.

So based on that, do the previous tips still apply?

What about using a liquid form acrylic matte varnish like this?: http://www.amazon.com/Liquitex-Professional-Matte-Varnish-8-oz/dp/B000KNPLTM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1421739793&sr=8-2&keywords=acrylic+varnish+matte&pebp=1421739797908&peasin=B000KNPLTM

Is it possible to just paint the legends, then apply a few coats of the varnish?

I've painted a lot of art and craft project with acrylic paint before--many didn't even use protective sealant or varnish and I've never had anything weird happen such as paint unstuck from the surface, or flaking off, or whatever. Acrylic paint is really resilient, being flexible and permanent. Would it be so different painting legends on keycaps? I guess the fact keycaps are meant to be touched all day is the real difference here--thus the need for a protective layer of sealant/varnish of some kind.

[fohat.digs]

If the keyboard is going to be subjected to real use in real life, any sort of paint job is only temporary.

People in this forum even look askance at pad-printed keys with clear coat, which is surely far more durable than anything you could do by hand.

If you could live with lower visibility, then re-legendable caps would provide long-term durability.

[Lunatique]

If the keyboard is going to be subjected to real use in real life, any sort of paint job is only temporary.

People in this forum even look askance at pad-printed keys with clear coat, which is surely far more durable than anything you could do by hand.

If you could live with lower visibility, then re-legendable caps would provide long-term durability.

But what if I use the liquid varnish and just reapply periodically? That would work and it's not too much hassle to just dip a brush in the varnish and brush over the legends once every six months or so.

I've never seen any re-legendable keycap sets for Topre, and those re-legendable keycaps with the clear plastic tops aren't exactly appealing.

Another option is simply sell the black keycaps and buy a new set with higher visibility legends, or sell the whole keyboard and buy a white/gray version instead.