geekhack
geekhack Community => Keyboard Keycaps => Topic started by: Nai_Calus on Sun, 14 June 2015, 20:46:36
-
Stabs are related to keycaps.
So, you have your fancy low-profile custom case with your modded gateron with clear top/RGB switches in your fancy light colour of choice, and it all looks perfect... Except the bloody black stabs sticking out like a sore thumb.
I'm assuming Costar would be easier to pull something like that off on than Cherry, but has anyone tried this?
We see clear switch tops and now we're getting more MX to Topre sliders, I wonder if someone might make white/clear stab inserts. Cherry probably couldn't happen but Costar seems like it should be possible.
I dunno maybe I'm the only one bugged by this.
-
Cherry would be hard, since it has too many parts touching each other that are visible. And generally plasti-dip creates a rubbery surface which has a lot of friction.
Though if you just want white Costar inserts, don't they all come white as default?
If you not you can buy them here: http://www.wasdkeyboards.com/index.php/products/keyboard-parts.html
But as far as I know the mounting brackets are black normally. And it would be tricky to paint it since the part that contacts the wire are exposed so it would rub against it.
It's do-able but I think the paint will come off from wear and tear.
lol if only there is an easy way to color plastic. :P
-
Derp, wrong term. Not the inserts that go into the keys, the things that clip into the plate. :P My brain went with insert because you insert them into the plate I think. (Incidentally the knockoffs on Monoprice's 9433 have black inserts as well, and are also even harder to work with than real costar stabs, which I didn't think was actually possible but apparently is.)
-
They do exist somewhere -- the Keycool Hero 84 on Massdrop right now has a picture showing white clips and inserts for costar stabs. Don't know where one would buy them though.
-
Probably the only way to paint them would be Cerokote, as it can be applied in a no bake formula, and it is about the thinnest coating you could find for a reasonable price. Even then, the coating will be in the realm of .006"-.008" thick in a best case scenario. And I think that would still be to thick.
-
Best you can do is probably white Costar style stabs from a Keycool Hero 84:
(https://massdrop-cf2.imgix.net/resizer/1500x1000/r/MD-4823_20141219145747_d994a66276548de6.jpg?fm=jpg&q=70)
Or a Cherry MX or MX-compatible Chicony 5181 or 5182 (the one shown is an Alps version, but the main part of the stabs is the same):
(http://i.imgur.com/mQBClVM.jpg)
-
I painted Cherry stabiliser housings the other day. I noticed that you can't have paint on the clips that hold the metal bars because then the bars won't clip and move properly. I will have to remove the paint there and maybe even paint the tops some more.
I masked off the internal shaft where the sliders go. I used Adhesion Promoter to get the grey primer to stick better.
I'm not going to bother to paint the black sliders.
Or a Cherry MX or MX-compatible Chicony 5181 or 5182 (the one shown is an Alps version, but the main part of the stabs is the same)
That one has blue clicky SMK switches, the ones often called "Monterey". Indeed they are compatible with Costar, but most of the ones on mine are already broken. Maybe cheap plastic.
I have also found grey Costar-style mounts on an Alps keyboard.
-
I imagine that for cherry stabs the paint will be too thick and friction would be a huge problem in how the housing, wire, and contact points with the keycaps would work. I thought about it too, however decided against it because it was too much effort/risk for a small aesthetic payoff.