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geekhack Projects => Making Stuff Together! => Topic started by: Heysakha on Sat, 01 July 2017, 20:51:06

Title: Manual Plastic Injection for keycaps
Post by: Heysakha on Sat, 01 July 2017, 20:51:06

(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/01/b4/79/01b479373df785cec2f18f9e5a8f4db7.jpg)

Does anyone know about that manual injection machine? will it be able to cast keycaps?

Title: Re: Manual Plastic Injection for keycaps
Post by: hasu on Sun, 02 July 2017, 19:42:46

Intriguing. Ask them and share their answer!
https://www.techkits.com/

Title: Re: Manual Plastic Injection for keycaps
Post by: ɔiɈɘʜɈƨ∍∀ on Wed, 19 July 2017, 22:00:00

Im sure it would cast caps if you have a custom mold made for it but I don't think it would be any better than a good resin/vacuum/pressure pot setup for the same price

Title: Re: Manual Plastic Injection for keycaps
Post by: Leslieann on Wed, 19 July 2017, 23:00:10

It can kind of do keycaps, however, this is the cheap, easy part of the process, as ɔiɈɘʜɈƨ∍∀ said, the mold is the issue.

You can cast a mold yourself (they sell materials for this), but it's not going to be strong enough for long term use. More than that, injection mold making is almost an art in itself and it only gets (MUCH) more complicated if you expect to do double-shot, which this wouldn't really do. Even if you did use this, it's probably not strong enough to give good texture (which also complicates the mold), and in order to get best results you need the ability to heat and cool the mold quickly, neither of which this does.

Basically, you can do a keycap, but would it be fast or something you will be proud of or even want to run, probably not.