geekhack
geekhack Community => Keyboard Keycaps => Topic started by: condoriano on Thu, 14 May 2015, 00:41:05
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I recently started to get into the basic stuff for making my own keyboard metal plates to send to the fab. I am wondering what are all the possible sizes for keycaps and stabilizers. So far everything i have seen is things such as 1, 1.25, 1.5, etc units. Because i assume there are keycaps available that have that size. So i believe i could probably not make a layout with a key size of say 1.2 because no keycaps are made of that size. Where can i get a list of all possible key size. Lets say i want a space bar of 4 units, where can i find the actual keycap? What is the actual dimension of 1 unit?
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1 unit is 0.750", or 19.05mm.
In some instances, you may see 1.25 unit caps (for example) written as 1.2 unit -- this is usually just due to truncation, and should still reflect a 1.25 unit keycap.
Signature plastics sells keys in their pimpmykeyboard keyshop: http://keyshop.pimpmykeyboard.com/
I don't know if you can actually find a spacebar of 4 units. It depends on what moulds are available. You could contact signature plastics (a keycap manufacturer) and ask what dimensions they have available for keys. Most keys are made more complicated by row profiles. The keys on your keyboard are likely sculpted to approximate a curve when sloping along a flat surface. This causes each row of keys to have a different profile. All keycap lengths may not be available in all profiles. Spacebars usually are in their own profile, due to being convex rather than concave. This should be a mostly complete list of what is available for spacebars, not sure about other keys: http://deskthority.net/wiki/Space_bar_dimensions
If a mould does not exist for a particular keycap or legend, it may be possible (with some manufacturers) to create a mould, however this can be expensive. If you want a single keycap made, or a small run, this can also be expensive, as there are setup costs associated with making a run of caps, which are constant no matter how many caps are being made.
There's probably a lot more to it than this -- I don't know a ton about keycap manufacturing.
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good info, thx;
i must say im disappointed by the fact that there doesnt seem to exist much available keycaps between 2.75 (right shift) and 6 (spacebar). Going to have to search further.