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geekhack Community => Keyboard Keycaps => Topic started by: jkercado on Sat, 22 September 2012, 22:54:18
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:eek:
(http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll236/jkercado/temporary_zpsa2a3db27.jpg)
My wife likes the color. I wonder how they will look on a black keyboard. Has anyone here tries brown on black before..?
;D
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Love the colour, looks great IMO. Chocolate/coffee!
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Haha they do look like chocolate alright. What color were you aiming for?
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Lol I kinda like the color and might want a set
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eww looks like poo and the die looks all clumpy on some of the keys.
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I was aiming for dark gray, but the RIT dye apparently has some sort of fundamental brown tint. Rayuki, the keys actually came out even, uniform, and nice--in that picture they're still wet...
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Not bad at all! Post pics of them on your board!
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I kinda like those! Please be sure to post a pic of them on the KB!
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I was aiming for dark gray, but the RIT dye apparently has some sort of fundamental brown tint. Rayuki, the keys actually came out even, uniform, and nice--in that picture they're still wet...
ahh fair enough makes sense then. perhaps check out the dye thread there is a guy in there who did a heap of tests with this sort of thing
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That's the "Real" choc pro keyborad. If you putthem on an SSK, it'll be a "real" choc mini :p
Looks excellent! I may have to try RIT dying my greys to green.
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That's the "Real" choc pro keyborad. If you putthem on an SSK, it'll be a "real" choc mini :p
Looks excellent! I may have to try RIT dying my greys to green.
I have a blank set, the ideas this thread gives me ^____^
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I was aiming for dark gray, but the RIT dye apparently has some sort of fundamental brown tint. Rayuki, the keys actually came out even, uniform, and nice--in that picture they're still wet...
Pics of them in the end? :)
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I want pictures! :D
I actually think it'll look pretty good!
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Yes. This happened to me too when I test-dyed Cherry PBT caps with "Black" RIT dye. Then I did some searching on the web and found that others have had this problem too with "Black" RIT and other types of plastics and with synthetic fabrics.
I assume that dyeing with brown's complementary colour (blue/cyan/turquoise dye) could make it more black, but I have not tried that.
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Mmmm....those keys look scrumptious. Why am I salivating?
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Mmmm....those keys look scrumptious. Why am I salivating?
'Cos they look like chocolates. :D
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Ooooh! I've always been a fan of that sort of brown colour - my first proper mobile phone was that kind of colour!
I'd love to see them installed on the 'Board :D
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I really don't get it.
My black RIT powder dye on IBM keycaps results were GREAT! (all mine were old, and very clean, granted, if that matters)
All these threads talking about brown and red tints but no true black make me wonder how I got so lucky.
Are you stirring and keeping the bath hot? Is the concentration strong?
Try a second dose.
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Here's the keyboard:
(http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll236/jkercado/temporary_zps674de28d.jpg)
The color differences are way less noticeable in person, especially the spacebar. Still not too convinced about it. Doesn't look bad per se, it's just very unusual...What do you guys think?
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Almost reminds me of wooden keycaps.
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I thought about leaving the brown keys only on the main character cluster (letters, numbers and symbols), and put back the blanks blacks everywhere else...
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I thought about leaving the brown keys only on the main character cluster (letters, numbers and symbols), and put back the blanks blacks everywhere else...
I reckon it would look stellar with cream/beige alpha-numerics and the brown modifiers, spacebar, etc. Kind of like Cream Cheese & Coffee.
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I think this looks way better. :)
(http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll236/jkercado/temporary_zps601ab4f9.jpg)
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I kind of like it to be honest. Especially with those blank black keys.
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I kind of like it to be honest. Especially with those blank black keys.
Thanks! The brown looks darker in person, so it looks even better. :) All the keys brown was too much brown; the blank blacks provide a nice contrast.
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Almost reminds me of wooden keycaps.
This.
An impression enhanced by the slightly different texture/colour on each key cap.
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Third version, less brown, I think it's even better. Brown can be a bit overpowering...
(http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll236/jkercado/temporary_zpsb70b9825.jpg)
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The second version looks really nice (black mods). I've never been a fan of the enclosed alpha look (i.e., the third version).
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Almost reminds me of wooden keycaps.
def this. it looks as if they were dyed unevenly, and it really makes it looks like wood.
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This looks about the same as my cocoa brown experiment.
When I get around to doing a "faux wood" board, which I want because all my desks are wood, I will use the uneven color to my advantage.
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I would also try beige mods, I think that would look great!
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Seeing these pics brings back bad memory. I posted my results for black RIT dye, and it was pretty much the same: uneven brown with scratch-like marks on the caps. I'll see if I can find that thread.
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Ok, found the post from a while back, so instead of bumping that thread I'll just copy/paste over post:
After searching long and hard for blank dark grey or black PBT's, none were to be found anywhere so I decided to use RIT dye to try and get the desired shade of grey and black that I wanted. I thought this was a good idea after seeing several successful attempts from other people. I also saw many failed attempts of dying, and I'm shameful to add to this statistics.
I bought blank white PBT caps from qtan, and started my procedures, taking precaution in every step to do it right and not cut any corners since I only had one shot at doing this. First was the prepping, which took a little over an hour. I first rinsed all the caps under running tap water, then shook them dry. They were then submerged and washed under distilled water to get rid of all the trace elements in tap water, and shook dry. They were then submerged under 91% Isopropyl alcohol to get any remaining impurities and oil out. I then used napkins to wipe each surface of every individual cap. Prep was finally done.
Next step was the actual dying process, which took a total of 4-6 hours. I first boiled about a half cup of water to dissolve about half the pack of RIT dye. After mixing it all and dissolving it, I poured this concentrated dye solution in a small pan and diluted it to about half the pan. The heat was turned up to low-medium to get a warm dying solution. Then I put all the caps in, gently stirred, and checked about every 10 seconds. After a few minutes of this, there was almost no change to the white color of the caps, so things started to go wrong already. Finally after 30 minutes, it was starting to turn a different color; it wasn't gray! It was a hint of brown instead. But the color was so light, I figured if I kept it in there a little longer and turned the heat up a little, it should probably get to the right grey. I turned the heat to medium gently stirred it, and after about another hour, it's pretty clear now that this was getting browner instead of grey. The color was still pretty light though. After a few hours of heating and stirring, a lot of the water from the dying solution was lost in the form of steam, so I added more water until about half the pot was full again. I also added some salt to see if it'll help the colors absorb. After a few more hours of babysitting these caps, it was a dark brown instead of the grey I had hoped for :Cry:.
After washing them off and towel drying each one, I also realized they didn't dye evenly. Most of them had blemishes and scratches, and some of them were darker than others. Since I wanted a grey and black them, I put all the larger modifier caps and arrow keys (and the function keys above it) back in the dying solution to turn it so brown that hopefully it turns black. Since it seemed like this process took too long for any change, I turned the heat up just a tad more, and added the rest of the dye packet. After about another 2 hours, it was a very very dark brown, almost black. I took it out, washed it, and dried them again. I put all the caps on my keyboard, and here is what it looks like.
This is what I wanted the colors to look like, except blank keys.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/WhiteFireDragon/5867547609_c2dc7a56c1_b.jpg)
This is how it turned out.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/WhiteFireDragon/keyboard/IMG_0207.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/WhiteFireDragon/keyboard/IMG_0209.jpg)
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Fortunately, I didn't get the weird scratches. I actually was way more careless than you. I took them straight from the ziploc bag they used to be in, removed them from the key stems, boiled water, dumped it in a bucket, dumped the whole RIT pack, stirred, dumped the keycaps, and then kept stirring and checking.
I actually like how they look--very different from normal, they catch the eye in a subtle, almost elegant way, a truly custom look.
:)