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geekhack Community => Keyboard Keycaps => Topic started by: cribbit on Thu, 17 July 2014, 13:44:58

Title: Single custom key?
Post by: cribbit on Thu, 17 July 2014, 13:44:58
I'm looking to get an orange on black PBT key with an Interrobang (‽) as the legend. How would I go about acquiring this?
Title: Re: Single custom key?
Post by: CPTBadAss on Thu, 17 July 2014, 13:45:40
Make it. It's not going to be very cheap if you go any other route.

Here's a link about a guy who did his own DIY dye-sub. (http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=35873.msg1173895#msg1173895)
Title: Re: Single custom key?
Post by: Xenderwind on Thu, 17 July 2014, 13:56:33
Make it. It's not going to be very cheap if you go any other route.

Here's a link about a guy who did his own DIY dye-sub. (http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=35873.msg1173895#msg1173895)
Pretty sure you cant do orange on black for dye sub.  Doesn't dye sub only work with darker colors on lighter ?  He'd have to use UV printing.
Title: Re: Single custom key?
Post by: CPTBadAss on Thu, 17 July 2014, 13:57:36
Pretty sure you cant do orange on black for dye sub.

He can't do it with that attitude. :P

But seriously, I don't actually know. Krogenar would know though. I wonder if Imsto would do a small run of dye subbed caps. Or maybe QWER could help? But Imsto and QWER would probably *not* do a run of one.
Title: Re: Single custom key?
Post by: Xenderwind on Thu, 17 July 2014, 13:59:16
Pretty sure you cant do orange on black for dye sub.

He can't do it with that attitude. :P

But seriously, I don't actually know. Krogenar would know though. I wonder if Imsto would do a small run of dye subbed caps. Or maybe QWER could help?

Imsto does single custom keycaps.  I just got mine in the mail a little while ago http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=33130.msg1400354#msg1400354

Title: Re: Single custom key?
Post by: CPTBadAss on Thu, 17 July 2014, 14:00:53
Oh good ****. I had no idea. Thanks for the heads up :D
Title: Re: Single custom key?
Post by: Photekq on Thu, 17 July 2014, 14:03:11
Yeah, you definitely cannot dyesub orange onto black.
Title: Re: Single custom key?
Post by: CPTBadAss on Thu, 17 July 2014, 14:04:05
Yeah, you definitely cannot dyesub orange onto black.

But you can do black onto orange. Maybe that will work.
Title: Re: Single custom key?
Post by: cribbit on Thu, 17 July 2014, 15:45:48
I'd really like orange onto black.

What about doubleshot? Isn't that taking one piece of plastic (the legend) and molding the rest of the cap around it?

Doing it myself is something I'm looking at, since I'm at a large engineering university and have access to all the shops. Being the summer right now though, I'm having trouble finding information on what exact machines I can use in terms of molding plastics, and what sort of quality I could expect.
Title: Re: Single custom key?
Post by: jdcarpe on Thu, 17 July 2014, 15:52:58
You could always talk with the good folks at Signature Plastics and see about doing a group buy for the key. You might want to do an interest check first. But if others were interested, that would be the way to go.
Title: Re: Single custom key?
Post by: CPTBadAss on Thu, 17 July 2014, 15:57:41
What about doubleshot? Isn't that taking one piece of plastic (the legend) and molding the rest of the cap around it?

Check out this thread here (http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=45018.0)

Doing it myself is something I'm looking at, since I'm at a large engineering university and have access to all the shops. Being the summer right now though, I'm having trouble finding information on what exact machines I can use in terms of molding plastics, and what sort of quality I could expect.

My university didn't have a injection molding machine but maybe yours does. I also went to a large engineering school. I would have loved to try it out if I had the chance.
Title: Re: Single custom key?
Post by: Xenderwind on Thu, 17 July 2014, 16:01:29
I can't imagine doing it yourself being that easy.  And a GB with sp would be expensive per keycap unless you get a high order number, which I don't see happening with such a niche keycap.

You can go with the imsto route and have a black background and orange font printed onto a white keycap.  It would just have white sides and probably a tiny bit of the bottom of the top.
Title: Re: Single custom key?
Post by: cribbit on Thu, 17 July 2014, 16:20:33
A friend raised the idea of milling a metal key with the interrobang recessed, then pouring in the plastic. If that works they might be fun to make for others, too. Luckily, the esc key isn't hit too often, so it doesn't have to feel that great or be exactly perfect as long as it looks nice.
Title: Re: Single custom key?
Post by: CPTBadAss on Thu, 17 July 2014, 16:21:39
There's no reason why it wouldn't work but I think you underestimate how important caps look and feel to people.
Title: Re: Single custom key?
Post by: cribbit on Thu, 17 July 2014, 17:10:40
I meant more for my own use. And who knows, it could come out so nice I make a whole keycap set.