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geekhack Community => Keyboard Keycaps => Topic started by: ddrfraser1 on Sun, 21 June 2020, 11:09:07

Title: PBT doubleshot dolch at KBDfans - what went wrong?
Post by: ddrfraser1 on Sun, 21 June 2020, 11:09:07
So I ordered these guys a few months ago and I was pretty excited to try them out cause they looked super chonky and they were cheap and doubleshot. However, when I got them the color was super weird and blotchy. It looked like a botched retrobright job. On to of that, the texture was like sandpaper and I think you could even rub to top layer of plastic off with your finger if you tried and it would come off in a flaky powder. It reminded me of plastic that had been left out to bake in the sun for years. Needless to say, I have not spend more than 30 seconds typing on these. I’ve seen a few people talk about it online with similar disdain but I’m curious, does anybody know the story behind this train wreck?

[attachimg=1]
Title: Re: PBT doubleshot dolch at KBDfans - what went wrong?
Post by: DALExSNAIL on Sun, 21 June 2020, 15:02:22
kbdfans doesn't give 2 ****s about quality honestly.

It's very likely those are just some bulk bin taobao china sellers caps, marketed to kbdfans buyers as wonderful caps for cheap.
Title: Re: PBT doubleshot dolch at KBDfans - what went wrong?
Post by: funkmon on Tue, 23 June 2020, 02:33:39
They don't look terrible from here assuming they were less than $40 for the whole set. How cheap were they?
Title: Re: PBT doubleshot dolch at KBDfans - what went wrong?
Post by: suicidal_orange on Tue, 23 June 2020, 04:27:07
Is it the anti-[something] coating that some caps have?  Would be more help if I knew what the something was to search but try giving them a wash to get the flaky layer off and hopefully the appearance should be fixed.
Title: Re: PBT doubleshot dolch at KBDfans - what went wrong?
Post by: jamster on Tue, 23 June 2020, 05:14:15
Is it the anti-[something] coating that some caps have?  Would be more help if I knew what the something was to search but try giving them a wash to get the flaky layer off and hopefully the appearance should be fixed.

Anti microbial? TaiHao caps were reputed for some weird coating years ago.
Title: Re: PBT doubleshot dolch at KBDfans - what went wrong?
Post by: ddrfraser1 on Tue, 23 June 2020, 13:58:05
They don't look terrible from here assuming they were less than $40 for the whole set. How cheap were they?

Right, strangely, in the photo they don't look too bad. That's part of the problem I guess. But up close, man, blotchy as hell and not at all a nice texture to type on.
Title: Re: PBT doubleshot dolch at KBDfans - what went wrong?
Post by: Gampela on Wed, 24 June 2020, 09:49:48
Could you post some more pictures illustrating better the blotchiness?
Title: Re: PBT doubleshot dolch at KBDfans - what went wrong?
Post by: ddrfraser1 on Thu, 25 June 2020, 15:43:21
Could you post some more pictures illustrating better the blotchiness?


Ugh... it’s a horror show  :-X


[attachimg=1]
Title: Re: PBT doubleshot dolch at KBDfans - what went wrong?
Post by: jamster on Mon, 29 June 2020, 20:44:22
From the photos, that looks like a coating or something else affecting mainly the surface. It does look nasty.
Title: Re: PBT doubleshot dolch at KBDfans - what went wrong?
Post by: DogSpark on Tue, 30 June 2020, 18:49:34
It tastes really weird.
Title: Re: PBT doubleshot dolch at KBDfans - what went wrong?
Post by: Polymer on Wed, 01 July 2020, 16:55:15
Could you post some more pictures illustrating better the blotchiness?


Ugh... it’s a horror show  :-X


(Attachment Link)

Have you tried cleaning them?  Or is that just baked into the plastic?
Title: Re: PBT doubleshot dolch at KBDfans - what went wrong?
Post by: ddrfraser1 on Sat, 04 July 2020, 20:15:58
Could you post some more pictures illustrating better the blotchiness?


Ugh... it’s a horror show  :-X


(Attachment Link)

Have you tried cleaning them?  Or is that just baked into the plastic?

Baked in  :(
Title: Re: PBT doubleshot dolch at KBDfans - what went wrong?
Post by: hellla on Mon, 06 July 2020, 01:02:24
Yikes! So much potential :(
Title: Re: PBT doubleshot dolch at KBDfans - what went wrong?
Post by: Surefoot on Mon, 06 July 2020, 02:22:35
It's very likely from Winmix, who are responsible for the OSA trainwreck too. They are usually producing very low cost, zero QA sets so this kind of mishap is not surprising. Still disappointing as i have seen another set from them that did not suffer the colour blotches, and they are one of the very few with the tooling needed for double shot PBT. As for the texture, YMMV, some people like more, some less, and the Winmix sets are on the rougher side (this applies to their OEM profile sets too).
Title: Re: PBT doubleshot dolch at KBDfans - what went wrong?
Post by: ddrfraser1 on Mon, 06 July 2020, 09:39:13
It's very likely from Winmix, who are responsible for the OSA trainwreck too. They are usually producing very low cost, zero QA sets so this kind of mishap is not surprising. Still disappointing as i have seen another set from them that did not suffer the colour blotches, and they are one of the very few with the tooling needed for double shot PBT. As for the texture, YMMV, some people like more, some less, and the Winmix sets are on the rougher side (this applies to their OEM profile sets too).

Fair. I like more texture too but this crumbly feeling would be pretty hard to pass off as texture. Blah.
Title: Re: PBT doubleshot dolch at KBDfans - what went wrong?
Post by: JCraftCables on Mon, 06 July 2020, 09:39:34
Yikes! I was almost considering these... I guess it's best to stick to some brand name keycaps like ePBT minimally (for PBT).
Title: Re: PBT doubleshot dolch at KBDfans - what went wrong?
Post by: Surefoot on Tue, 07 July 2020, 05:45:45
Yikes! I was almost considering these... I guess it's best to stick to some brand name keycaps like ePBT minimally (for PBT).
Infinikey and Keyreative are doing very good PBT sets too.
Title: Re: PBT doubleshot dolch at KBDfans - what went wrong?
Post by: ddrfraser1 on Tue, 07 July 2020, 09:07:23
I think manofinterests sold his for $40. I'm not sure I could get that for them but obviously I'm not interested in keeping them. I had half a mind to put them on a crappy board in my shop, one that I don't mind getting damaged and dusty but... again, blah.

Yikes! I was almost considering these... I guess it's best to stick to some brand name keycaps like ePBT minimally (for PBT).
Infinikey and Keyreative are doing very good PBT sets too.

Good to know.