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geekhack Community => Keyboard Keycaps => Topic started by: Willyc277 on Fri, 13 February 2015, 00:44:09
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Just saw some topre blanks on Shapeways. Was wondering if these are in production and if anyone had any experience with them. http://www.shapeways.com/product/V4J7GSMQS/topre-dcs-r5-keycap?li=search-results-1&optionId=40168651
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Neat find, would order a couple... but DCS profile?
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Interesting! I would like to replace the FN key on my HHKB with another color, and blank would be fine. Which Row am I looking for, R2? I see he has R1-5 in development...
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Anybody? I'd like to place an order (I think this a "fabricate on demand" kinda thing) and I'm not sure what Row # the FN key on HHKB is. Happy to report back on quality etc once it arrives.
Thanks!
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Anybody? I'd like to place an order (I think this a "fabricate on demand" kinda thing) and I'm not sure what Row # the FN key on HHKB is. Happy to report back on quality etc once it arrives.
Thanks!
http://elitekeyboards.com/proddata/doc/hhkbp2_basic_layout1500.png
Diagram says Fn is row B... not exactly sure what this means, I'm still a HHKB noob (mine is JIS layout, don't know the row numbers on that either)
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Anybody? I'd like to place an order (I think this a "fabricate on demand" kinda thing) and I'm not sure what Row # the FN key on HHKB is. Happy to report back on quality etc once it arrives.
Thanks!
http://elitekeyboards.com/proddata/doc/hhkbp2_basic_layout1500.png
Diagram says Fn is row B... not exactly sure what this means, I'm still a HHKB noob (mine is JIS layout, don't know the row numbers on that either)
Thanks! I just PM'ed the designer through that site, so let's see what he says. They're so cheap I was going to order 2 or 3 colors just to see what looks good.
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R5 is the ESC row.
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R5 is the ESC row.
Cool, but I was asking about the FN key, not the ESC key.
To be clear, these are 3D printed as it turns out and *might* be crap? Not sure, but they're cheap enough to try out.
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Glad this thread came back from the dead! Hope to here from someone about these soon.
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[edit: mispost]
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can someone sacrifice himself and buy and give an example photo for a test?
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can someone sacrifice himself and buy and give an example photo for a test?
Put in an order yesterday -- will report back. It's 3D printing, so my hopes are not high for the consistency of the plastic or the durability. But who knows! It was only like $12 total for two keys so not a big deal.
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can someone sacrifice himself and buy and give an example photo for a test?
Put in an order yesterday -- will report back. It's 3D printing, so my hopes are not high for the consistency of the plastic or the durability. But who knows! It was only like $12 total for two keys so not a big deal.
Well if they are like any of the MX caps I bought, Frosted High Detail are great quality.
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can someone sacrifice himself and buy and give an example photo for a test?
Put in an order yesterday -- will report back. It's 3D printing, so my hopes are not high for the consistency of the plastic or the durability. But who knows! It was only like $12 total for two keys so not a big deal.
Awesome let's see, I am highly interested in high resolution pictures and comparison to original topre keycaps on board :)
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What material is used? I doubt if 3D printer can handle things like PBT.
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These are being made with some kind of "strong and flexible" plastic that plays well with the 3D printers and finishing machines they use. I hope to have mine next week-- my order is in progress now. I have a feeling it's going to be somewhat soft and less smoothly polished than most keyboard keys? Not sure. I don't imagine they'll be a good way to get a "FN" label onto it either, but I'm cool with it being blank.
http://www.shapeways.com/materials/strong-and-flexible-plastic#info
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Hi guys,
As dchadwick is well aware (seeing as he's already spoken to me!) I'm the guy who made these.
If you've seen any of the 3D printed Cherry MX keycaps I've designed you should have got an idea of the kind of finish and durability you can get from the Shapeways plastics (I think there's some pictures around here of a few people that have them. There are also some pictures from cherp who sometimes does "finishing" effects on them like dyeing and painting them).
I agree that the 3D printed plastic is not quite as smooth as the normal moulded keycaps, but with the polished "Strong & Flexible" plastics you do get a pretty good smooth finish and I've found it to be very consistent. I've got a bunch of them on my keyboard and they fit in nicely with the stock keycaps.
I also agree that there's probably not really an easy way to apply a label to it which is why most of my other keycaps have some kind of design on them (rather than just being blanks). Hopefully if these come out ok in terms of fitting the switch then I can put some more interesting designs onto the topre caps. The reason they're in beta is because I haven't actually got a Topre keyboard to test them out on but they're made to Topre specifications and I think 1 or 2 people have bought them as betas and said they fit ok.
It'd be great if you can let us all know what you think when you get them dchadwick. It's always useful for me to get feedback from the people that buy these things.
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Eh. Not good. I expected these to be a little rough, but they're not usable at all. The texture reminds me of touching an old chalkboard or one of those pumice stones people use to polish their feet. Like I said, I assumed they might not have the smoothest finish in the world, but these are downright unpleasant to touch. I guess one could polish them with sandpaper? I don't know.
As far as the shape: it fits the right profile with the keys next to it, so that's something. But there are little subtle ridges on the sides that don't really go with the contours of the real keys -- like an extra angle on a face that's supposed to be straight. Weirdly, on one side the ridge protrudes out and on the other side it protrudes in. You can see it on the side of the key in the photo here.
They fit on the Topre switches, but not as well as real keys. They're not loose and rattling around, but they also don't click into place at all when pressed down (real Topre keys snap loudly into place when you press them in).
The colors are nice, though?
(http://f.cl.ly/items/2y3N2c1O2f1U2j0V1X3Z/IMG_6124.JPG)
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with the polished "Strong & Flexible" plastics you do get a pretty good smooth finish and I've found it to be very consistent. I've got a bunch of them on my keyboard and they fit in nicely with the stock keycaps.
Hmm. Did I get a weird batch or something?
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with the polished "Strong & Flexible" plastics you do get a pretty good smooth finish and I've found it to be very consistent. I've got a bunch of them on my keyboard and they fit in nicely with the stock keycaps.
Hmm. Did I get a weird batch or something?
What you explained is consistent with my experience with "Strong and Flexible". I'd be afraid to use one on Topre for fear of the stem breaking. They also seem to be like Cheetos in that they constantly give off dust and it gets everywhere.
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with the polished "Strong & Flexible" plastics you do get a pretty good smooth finish and I've found it to be very consistent. I've got a bunch of them on my keyboard and they fit in nicely with the stock keycaps.
Hmm. Did I get a weird batch or something?
Hmmm I actually tend to like it pretty rough :p
Thanks for being the guinea pig!!!
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Hi dchadwick,
I'm really sorry you weren't happy with the results. I'll try to answer a few of the points you made.
The finish: I can't imagine you got a "weird batch" or anything. Perhaps the feel of them is subjective but the ones that I've received have always felt quite nice and smooth, not as smooth as moulded plastic, but still definitely pleasant to use. Maybe because there is no legend on the top of yours, just a large flat area, it's easier to notice the graininess of the plastic material? I've certainly not experienced the "Cheeto dust" thing otherwise I would have recommended people varnish the keycaps or something. Nubbinator did you order the "Polished" strong and flexible material or the unpolished ones?
The shape: Well I'm glad they fit in line with the rest of your keycaps. With regards to the "extra angle" on the face, do you mean the little ridge at the top of the green keycap? Now that you've mentioned it I've had a look but I can't actually see the same effect on any of the keycaps I've ordered. Because the 3D printing process builds up in layers there can be very subtle things like this that occur but it's generally not noticeable and doesn't affect the prints' functionality. Is it also there on the blue keycap?
The fit: It sounds like I might have to make a slight adjustment to the fit then. With the 3D printed keycaps you have to be pretty careful because I could make the stem 0.1mm tighter and then it might not fit. I'll investigate this though and see if I can improve it. It may not get to be as perfect a fit as moulded plastic but the more accurate I can make it, the better! (If anyone knows where I can get hold of individual topre switches then that'd be a really easy way for me to test these out!)
The colours: Well I guess that bit worked out alright! :S
Once again I'd like to apologise that you weren't completely satisfied with the keycaps but also thank you for trying them out as all your feedback really is helpful to get them one step closer to coming out of beta.
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I've certainly not experienced the "Cheeto dust" thing otherwise I would have recommended people varnish the keycaps or something. Nubbinator did you order the "Polished" strong and flexible material or the unpolished ones?
I didn't get any of your caps, but I have bought stuff and caps from Shapeways in both those materials. Everything I have ever gotten in either of those materials have felt that way.
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The finish: I can't imagine you got a "weird batch" or anything. Perhaps the feel of them is subjective but the ones that I've received have always felt quite nice and smooth, not as smooth as moulded plastic, but still definitely pleasant to use. Maybe because there is no legend on the top of yours, just a large flat area, it's easier to notice the graininess of the plastic material?
Do these things respond well to, say, a really fine sanding? I'd be curious whether I could smooth it out, because as I said it's quite rough.
The shape: Well I'm glad they fit in line with the rest of your keycaps. With regards to the "extra angle" on the face, do you mean the little ridge at the top of the green keycap?
No, I mean there's an angle on the side of the key. You can see it in the photo I took.
Anyway, don't sweat it too much, this was a very inexpensive little experiment, so I'm not losing any sleep over it :)
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Ah I see what you mean, I thought that was just a shadow. I wasn't expecting that to happen. That'll definitely need some correction!
I believe you can sand the plastic down a bit and you might get a smoother result. You'll need some pretty fine sandpaper to do it though. I would warn against it with the coloured plastics though as the colour doesn't run all the way through. They objects are printed and then dyed so you only get a thin layer of colour on the outside. If you sand it then you may end up with the top of your keycap being all white.
Maybe if you find the right colour paint/dye you could sand and then recolour it?
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Ah I see what you mean, I thought that was just a shadow. I wasn't expecting that to happen. That'll definitely need some correction!
The convex ridge on that the left side of each key is concave on the right side, by the way.
I would warn against it with the coloured plastics though as the colour doesn't run all the way through. They objects are printed and then dyed so you only get a thin layer of colour on the outside. If you sand it then you may end up with the top of your keycap being all white.
Maybe if you find the right colour paint/dye you could sand and then recolour it?
Yeah, not really worth it then.