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geekhack Community => Keyboard Keycaps => Topic started by: vivalarevolución on Tue, 18 December 2012, 19:10:09

Title: How do I get Blank Spherical Keycaps?
Post by: vivalarevolución on Tue, 18 December 2012, 19:10:09
Anybody know? My preliminary search has yielded nothing but getting in a rare group buy.
Title: Re: How do I get Blank Spherical Keycaps?
Post by: asdf on Tue, 18 December 2012, 19:18:06
SP's extra inventory has blank keycaps with DSA profile. http://www.keycapsdirect.com/key-capsinventory.php
DSA profile from the SP looks like this http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=21206.msg404821#msg404821
Title: Re: How do I get Blank Spherical Keycaps?
Post by: IvanIvanovich on Tue, 18 December 2012, 19:18:45
You could buy them direct from Signature Plastics (http://www.keycapsdirect.com/key-capsinventory.php), but a full set will be kind of expensive as their caps are $1 each buying this way. Low profile spherical are the DSA, high profile is SA.
Title: Re: How do I get Blank Spherical Keycaps?
Post by: TotalChaos on Tue, 18 December 2012, 19:23:26
I was heavily interested in this subject for quite a while.

But basically I was going to have to get lucky and find someone selling them.  I am not a lucky person :)

Or I would have to spend thousands of dollars to get SP to make me some.

So now I have switched to plan B which is to make a keyboard using cylindrical keycaps (since they are cheap and everywhere) and glue rubber on top.  I will use stickers to put the legends on the front or just write on the rubber with a magic marker.

However, in the event u uncover something interesting I might still get some cylindrical keycaps.

For using the keycaps "as is" without anything glued onto them I prefer, POM, Deep Well, Spherical keycaps.

The normal spherical keycaps that SP offers to make for a zillion $ are very shallow.  That is ok and everything.  Like a C64.  Its just that the keyboard I am trying to replicate had very very smooooooooooooooth, very deep well cylindrical keycaps.  And it was heaven.

I am not interested in Pad printed keycaps.  Unless the pad printing is on front.

I also prefer my spherical keycaps to be All Same Row profile.  None of this random angles and shapes for every row nonsense.

Good luck to u. :)
Title: Re: How do I get Blank Spherical Keycaps?
Post by: TotalChaos on Tue, 18 December 2012, 19:45:46
You could buy them direct from Signature Plastics (http://www.keycapsdirect.com/key-capsinventory.php), but a full set will be kind of expensive as their caps are $1 each buying this way. Low profile spherical are the DSA, high profile is SA.
Wow!  Thanx!  I never saw this page before!

SA is 12mm profile u say?  And they are all the same row!!!  Awesome!  The only trouble is they have no 1.25x modifier keys and missing some other >1.25x keys.  Hmmm...

I wonder if it would feel weird to type on a keyboard of spherical keys where most of the >1x keys are cylindrical?

Everything always so complicated.

I don't require blank keys.  Maybe they have printed ones somewhere so I can form a complete set?  dunno...
Title: Re: How do I get Blank Spherical Keycaps?
Post by: dorkvader on Wed, 19 December 2012, 00:10:30
QWERkeys has a very nice large sphericals. I have some blanks. They only have flat profile, but I have been very impressed with the quality of the keycaps I got from them.