geekhack
geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: Steezus on Sun, 16 August 2015, 11:22:03
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Has anybody ever spray painted, vinyl wrapped, hydro-dipped, a switch plate before? I had a plate for my RS96 that I want to use but it's not the color that I want. It's currently red and I wonder if it would be possible to put almost like a metallic paint on it that would look good when the LEDs reflect off of it. Another option that I was thinking about was having the plate hydro-dipped with a graphic on it, something like a carbon fiber pattern or maybe even a cool PCB styled pattern.
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Hydrodipping it could yield some interesting results, but I'm not sure how it would hold up to lots of switch placement and removal. Anodizing it would be your best bet for look and wear resistance, but it would set you back quite a bit more than any of your other options
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The RS96 plate was made in multiple colours, right? I think your best best is to swap it with someone else for another colour.
The only way to remove anodizing is to sand it off, and that can be very difficult for the edges.
The only way to make the edges not red would be to paint. You would have to paint with aluminium-etching primer right after sanding is done otherwise the aluminium will have time to oxidise and not allow the primer to get a grip ... but you can't possibly sand all the small edges in time for that (unless you are sandblasting with the perfect pressure and grit for this application), so you would have to settle for primer sticking well to the surface only. You should use sandpaper glued to a perfectly planar surface in order to avoid rounding off edges.
Also, be sure to not introduce any oils to the surface in the process - your fingers have natural oilks.
Also, after paint, snap the switches in only once - permanently, because you will otherwise chip the paint every time you unsnap a switch.
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The RS96 plate was made in multiple colours, right? I think your best best is to swap it with someone else for another colour.
The only way to remove anodizing is to sand it off, and that can be very difficult for the edges.
The only way to make the edges not red would be to paint. You would have to paint with aluminium-etching primer right after sanding is done otherwise the aluminium will have time to oxidise and not allow the primer to get a grip ... but you can't possibly sand all the small edges in time for that (unless you are sandblasting with the perfect pressure and grit for this application), so you would have to settle for primer sticking well to the surface only. You should use sandpaper glued to a perfectly planar surface in order to avoid rounding off edges.
Also, be sure to not introduce any oils to the surface in the process - your fingers have natural oilks.
Also, after paint, snap the switches in only once - permanently, because you will otherwise chip the paint every time you unsnap a switch.
Thanks, that was something I was afraid of. As for swapping plates with somebody, the GB occurred months ago and only 20 people or so participated with a few getting theirs from a Taobao agent. I don't think I would find much luck with somebody that still has an un-built RS96 willing to trade plates.