geekhack
geekhack Community => Keyboard Keycaps => Topic started by: jakemfbacon on Tue, 04 December 2012, 16:42:16
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Hey guys so I have this mousepad in galatic blue : http://gearedgs.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=59_65&product_id=5
Is there anywhere that I could get keycaps that would match it?
here is a picture sorry for the quality!
(http://www.overclock.net/content/type/61/id/1158490/width/500/height/1000)
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looks alot like the TL blue...
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never think about this kinda matching! nice :)
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never think about this kinda matching! nice :)
yeah I thought it would be pretty cool. I would say the mousepad is kinda a torquise color...
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I guess I could also paint some keys ... I have the orginal keycaps form the quickfire as well as my razer blackwidow. I could just sand them down? But then what kinda paint woudl you guys recommend?
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http://www.ritdye.com/store/colors/evening-blue ok this looks like to be the color I would want... if the keycaps I want to dye are black how would you guys suggest going about it?
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I'm not sure you can dye black keycaps - if the dye soaks in the keycap will still look black.
Any chance you can get hold of a cheap white set for dying purposes?
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I'm not sure you can dye black keycaps - if the dye soaks in the keycap will still look black.
Any chance you can get hold of a cheap white set for dying purposes?
would sanding them not take off enough of the black color? sorry for the dumb questions i have never done this before lol. And Yeah I can and I also have some extra white pbt keycaps I can use instead. Should I sand them first or just dye them?
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My poker is actually matching very nicely with my Logitech MX mouse right now. Both have metal accents and similar matte black finish.
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You can just dye white pbt caps. Don't try to dye abs caps, they'll deform from the heat. Also don't use liquid dye, buy rit powder. And make sure to use salt in the mix when dyeing.
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I'm not sure you can dye black keycaps - if the dye soaks in the keycap will still look black.
Any chance you can get hold of a cheap white set for dying purposes?
would sanding them not take off enough of the black color? sorry for the dumb questions i have never done this before lol. And Yeah I can and I also have some extra white pbt keycaps I can use instead. Should I sand them first or just dye them?
In general they will be completely black plastic (unless they are doubleshot, which yuo probably don't want to sand down at all!).
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http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=36496
That's my first dye attempt on old pbt caps. They used to be the colour of the spacebar. No sanding used.
The pink and blue are the dyed caps.
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That's a good effect, but starting from white as white keycaps. Starting from any other colour you'll be fighting with that colour, especially black.
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hmm ok. well i got liquid rit dye before reading this :( and have already started dying it. WHy does the powder work better? when you dyed your keys did you have to boil the water a few times before getting to the color you wanted?
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hmm ok. well i got liquid rit dye before reading this :( and have already started dying it. WHy does the powder work better? when you dyed your keys did you have to boil the water a few times before getting to the color you wanted?
From other users I've heard that liquid isn't as good. No personal experience. I just boiled the water with dye and salt. Then kept the caps in there for about 45 mins maybe an hour. Stirring every few minutes.
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OK so i don't know what i am doing wrong... I have been reboiling the dye and dying the keys for like the past 3 hours and they will just not get very dark. I am using PBT keycaps.
I know it is the liquid dye but that can't be the problem can it? Other people have used the liquid with success.
here are some pics:
THe esc key is just some nail polish from my gf I tried lol... not sure if I like it enough to do the wasd keys yet.
[attachimg=1][attachimg=2]
not sure why they are posting sideways...
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Hmmm I would say retry with the rit powder. Don't really know what else.
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Hmmm I would say retry with the rit powder. Don't really know what else.
i guess I will... kinda weird haha
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hmm ok so I actually got them to dye. Just had to keep the water at a boil. I was afraid they would melt and the instructions I was following said to let it boil then take it off with the keycaps in. Maybe it wasn't for pbt i don't know.
Here are my results although still not quite the same color lol. I might try mixing that color with the teal rit. SUggestions?
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I think they turned out quite well, but matching exact colors by hand will never be successful with fewer than three trials in my experience. Luckily they look lighter than the mousepad still, so you might be able to dye them a little darker, but if you have a spare key of the same material I would definitely recommend testing on it with your mixtures first.
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hmm ok so I actually got them to dye. Just had to keep the water at a boil. I was afraid they would melt and the instructions I was following said to let it boil then take it off with the keycaps in. Maybe it wasn't for pbt i don't know.
Here are my results although still not quite the same color lol. I might try mixing that color with the teal rit. SUggestions?
Looking much better! Ya you gotta keep them at a boil the whole time. Pbt won't melt or warp. Matching colours is definitely hard. It's really all about experimenting.
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Ideally having a dozen spare keycaps of the same colour lying around so you can experiment on those first to get the colour right, then dye the main keycaps.
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Ideally having a dozen spare keycaps of the same colour lying around so you can experiment on those first to get the colour right, then dye the main keycaps.
yeah haha... i ran out of dye because i thought i just needed more to get them to dye .... but I if I was to mix some do you think the evening blue and teal might get me to the color of the pad? I will just experiment. How much water to dye ratio is usally needed??