Jixr's #2 QFR

[Jixr]

Alright guys, so this is my second board, ( yes I know we can only enter once officially but the turn out has been kinda low so far )

So My "its blue" board is pretty straight forward, I wanted to do something a bit crazy with my other QFR

So, I'm calling this one #2, as its all I can think of right now.


So While i'm working on sanding down another case top, I had the Idea awhile back to make a hybrid board, basically, mixing up some cherry switches.
The idea being, I currently have two boards on my desk, my blue, and this one, so when I was typing I would grab this one, and use blue for gaming ( note blue is the red switched one )
So If i put reds on the WASD and the rest blues, then I could have a hybrid board, kinda unique and what not. Kinda two boards mixed into one.


So what I did was pop out the WASD, esc, and space bar keys. And  turned the WASD's into reds, and for giggles made the spacebar and esc greens ( ghetto's )



And it works out alright, the difference is not really noticeable in the switches when i'm typing ( typing this whole thing out with it ) but in gaming its cool because I still get my reds, and clickys for everything else. Played some BF3 and it worked out fine as expected, but in other games like star craft is a bit weird sine you're pressing around and hear "clack, clack, clack, THUD, clack" but usually i'm too into the game to notice.

Currently the case is about half way done being sanded, not exactly sure what color i'm going to paint it.
I would like to get some keycaps for it, but I don't want to shell out too much as i'm also have a custom WASD keycap set up in the books

I was thinking some of the cheaper colored cap sets you can get for $20 or so, or get myself the front printed white caps I want and put my white blanks on this one.

I've also though about maybe crowdsourcing it? if any of you guys have an idea of what I might can do with it tell me and I'll see what I can do.

[Puddsy]

If you crowdsource, let me know, I can contribute out of my crap bag.

To give you an idea of what that would look like, here's my QFR (not crowdsourced, I'm just nuts).

[Jixr]

Anyone have any good ideas about maybe what color I can paint it with the stock keycaps and still look decent?

I really can't afford to buy another keycap set to make it look fancy, but still have a few cases that I would like to paint up.

I was thinking maybe a crazy neon color thats uv reactive, or maybe a white base then glow in the dark on top of it.


any ideas?

[Jixr]

Well, since it was raining today, I ended up sanding down the case for my #2 board. I'm just playing around with this one, Looking at the supplies I have on hand, I have black, some leftover blue form my other board, and some Yellow that I used to paint a computer case awhile back... Meh... Lets see how the yellow looks. ( its "Sun Yellow" so it wont be crazy bright ) Worst case senario if it does not come out decent i'll just sand it smooth and paint over the yellow.

Though I did have an idea to do a white base coat, then glow in the dark paint, then clear, and then polish the hell out of it. Put some white caps and add a black light and watch it glow.

[Jixr]

here is the yellow, I ran out of paint, so its not really finished, but you can get an idea of how it looks.

It looks a bit too... batman-y for me ( i'm not sure of any readily avalible keycaps that would go well with yellow )

Also, for giggles I put this case on my "its blue" board and it turns my board into something that looks like it came out of Wario world.


It looks pretty bright in the picture, but its more dull IRL

[rowdy]

Looks fantastic!

KeyPop's BumbleBee set would go well with this case

[Jixr]

Well, I kinda ran into two problems, I ran out of paint, and me being lazy for this one caused some of the paint to chip off, so I gotta sand everything down and get some proper paint this time.

[Jixr]

Just got back from the store, laying down the white base coat today.

[HPE1000]

I will be interested to see how this turns out 

I think I am going to paint my other within the next week, took me a good 2+ hours to sand it down though...

[Jixr]

well, I spent the day laying down the white base coat, but there was a problem, and this case is now just a test case.... ( i still have 3 left )


Apparently I wasnt thinking and made a rookie mistake, and instead of letting the yellow cure for a few days, I just sprayed the white over it, and the white ( different brand ) is not sticking to the yellow at all so its chipping pretty badly.

So i will go ahead and spray the glow in the dark paint on the white to see what its turns out like, and to see how well it glows, and how well I can finish it. If it goes well I'll start to sand another case top and get more paint and try again.

[Jixr]

just started the glow paint, and checked on it 5mins later and it orange peeled and basically peed the thing down to the plastic.

I had a black light turned on while painting it to see the areas that I painted with teh glow paint, but apparently it take it a good bit before It will react to UV light, so I was soaking the thing with paint before It would glow and ended up a massive blob.


I was in a rush and basically didn't follow any of my own rules. Oh well, the case was warped and had busted tabs anyway.

Fail.

Notes:
- Don't paint on days when its been rainy
- Make sure you have enough paint to paint whole case
- Let dry for a few days before painting more layers/colors

Its not really worth saving, so into the trash it goes.

[shrapneL]

Aw! So sad!!

[HesterDW]

Did the exact same thing on my second case. Got cocky!

[Krogenar]

Show Image

here is the yellow, I ran out of paint, so its not really finished, but you can get an idea of how it looks.

It looks a bit too... batman-y for me ( i'm not sure of any readily avalible keycaps that would go well with yellow )

Finally someone does a full-on bright yellow case. Looks awesome.

[Jixr]

yeah the yellow didn't look that bad, but it would have been hard finding a set of keys that would have gone well with it.

the only yellow keys i've seen in person have all been a dull yellow, and black didn't look good either.

[Krogenar]

yeah the yellow didn't look that bad, but it would have been hard finding a set of keys that would have gone well with it.

the only yellow keys i've seen in person have all been a dull yellow, and black didn't look good either.

White keys?

[rowdy]

Show Image

here is the yellow, I ran out of paint, so its not really finished, but you can get an idea of how it looks.

It looks a bit too... batman-y for me ( i'm not sure of any readily avalible keycaps that would go well with yellow )

Finally someone does a full-on bright yellow case. Looks awesome.

+1

yeah the yellow didn't look that bad, but it would have been hard finding a set of keys that would have gone well with it.

the only yellow keys i've seen in person have all been a dull yellow, and black didn't look good either.

http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=46824.0

Although you have missed the GB, it is understood that KeyPop will have a few sets for sale in their store afterwards.

[Jixr]

yeah, as awesome as it would be to have a really nice keycap set, I can't justify spending more than $60 for a keycap set, and I would only spend $60 for a fully custom WASD layout. ( yeah i know they are looked down upon )

[Jixr]

Spent all afternoon sanding down another case, this is the last one I have, I wanna keep my other 2 i have left stock.

Just started with the white base coat, so hopefully this one will turn out better than the one I trashed.

[Jixr]

Alright...


I spend the weekend painting it white, sanding, painting, sanding, painting, sanding, letting it cure, then I tried out the Glow in the dark paint. I painting it during the day, misted it, let it set for about 10mins, and basically continued doing that till I ran out of paint, ( entire can of glow paint )

Since it was daylight, It was hard to see how thick I was laying it on and what areas I covered. After I ran out of paint I let it sit for a few hours, and then had to do some pretty intense wetsanding, the paint dried really gritty and stringy, and by the time I got done sanding, I put it under a black light and here is out it came out.


It really does look cool under UV light or in the dark, but you can clearly see the areas I missed ( corners and such ) and areas that were removed from sanding. Even with the white base it looks black in the dark.

Honestly I think it would take probably another 2 cans of Glow paint to cover the entire thing, and at about $10 a can its not cheap ( considering i've spent nearly $50 in paint and supplies to paint these cases )



It does glow well though, In the dark its the classic green glow, but in the daylight It just looks a white top that got really dirty and grimy ( kinda like how white lego's look after a few years )

Even with the stock QFR caps, a white top does look pretty good, so Hopefully I have enough white to paint it all a nice flat white, and if not I have a whole can of blue like my other board and I'll just have two blue ones, or just shelf the project for awhile and come back at it another time.

I'm kinda bummed, after the first case I tried to glow got ruined, and this one pretty much turned out like crap as well, even though I took more time and precautions than I did my blue one.

I have 2 cases left ( grey and blk ) and I want to keep them stock.

Also are other peoples cases as warped as mine have been?

[Krogenar]

I spend the weekend painting it white, sanding, painting, sanding, painting, sanding, letting it cure, then I tried out the Glow in the dark paint.

YEAH!!!! It's sort of keyboard science-y.

I think the GitD case looks pretty good, actually -- the trouble with doing anything that glows, or throws off light is that every teensy tiny little flaw is magnified. Still, it looks cool. Maybe try masking with the glow-in-the-dark coating, rather than full coverage? At any rate, it's awesome that you risked it.

[Jixr]

Yeah, its pretty much just a clear coat with whatever the glow chemcial is mixed in.

it was a fun little experiment though.

[Jixr]

bleh, its not nearly as good as my blue one, its not bad, but just not up to my personal standards.

but for most people it would look good to them.

Oh well


IMG_5789.jpg by claytongfinley, on Flickr