Not-so-ugly Model M.

[hamenoskili]

So I just picked up this model M off CL...decided to spice it up a bit....stupid me forgot the "f" key. Its sitting in the dye as I'm typing this..... But after the dyed key caps and using rust-oleums metallic paint and primer in one....this is the result I got.... For the most part. If this is in the wrong part of the forum please move or delete. Enjoy!!

[Defect]

Very cool

I would have preferred the inverse colors personally

[HoffmanMyster]

Firstly, there is no such thing as an ugly Model M, so this should be titled "Slightly better looking Model M, in my opinion".  But that's getting a bit nit-picky. 

Secondly, I just hope the 'F' cap dyes the same!   

Looking good though.   

[Elrick]

So I just picked up this model M off CL...decided to spice it up a bit....stupid me forgot the "f" key. Its sitting in the dye as I'm typing this..... But after the dyed key caps and using rust-oleums metallic paint and primer in one....this is the result I got.... For the most part. If this is in the wrong part of the forum please move or delete. Enjoy!!

You've done great, to me it looks like a heavy duty REALFORCE anniversary model, cheers for that  .

I actually like the look of it better than seeing another Black, White or Grey coloured Model-M.  You should be proud of your efforts here because most here would never do that level of customization.

Thank you for showing it here on Geekhack, crack a tinnie and enjoy what you've done here  .

[hamenoskili]

Thanks for the replies guys. And yeah, I got my fingers crossed the f key comes out as close as possible to to the others..... I'll be sure to never make that mistake again..... If I ever even go down this road again, lol.

[rowdy]

Looks good

[Doyniish]

Nicely done! I dig it!

[lightsout714]

Wow that looks very nice. Great job.

[False_Dmitry_II]

What dye did you use?

Very cool

I would have preferred the inverse colors personally

Can't really be done. The more grey keys are what unicomp calls pebble, and they are all their standard color. All the keys that came with originally are on here, he just specifically dyed only the ivory keys.

[ShawnMeg]

Looks nice.  Congrats.

[hamenoskili]

What dye did you use?

Very cool

I would have preferred the inverse colors personally

Can't really be done. The more grey keys are what unicomp calls pebble, and they are all their standard color. All the keys that came with originally are on here, he just specifically dyed only the ivory keys.

I used 1 cup of Rit Dye (Evening Blue) to 4 cups water.  Took them out and rinsed them every 20 minutes about, three times. The water close to a constant boil the whole time. I picked up the dye at Joann fabrics for 3.99, one bottle is right around 1 cup.

[microsoft windows]

Nice keyboard there. Although I will admit I have never seen an ugly Model M--they're beautiful keyboards!

[fohat.digs]

I used 1 cup of Rit Dye (Evening Blue) to 4 cups water.  Took them out and rinsed them every 20 minutes about, three times. The water close to a constant boil the whole time. I picked up the dye at Joann fabrics for 3.99, one bottle is right around 1 cup.

As far as I can remember, you are the first person to successfully dye PBT caps using liquid RIT dye.

I was afraid that after the formula change a few years ago, RIT was off the table altogether.

[terrpn]

no such thing............

[hashbaz]

This looks great! (hope your F key turns out )

RIT dyeing is what brought me to geekhack in the first place.  I really wish we still had the pictures of iMav's original HHKB dye job.  That was a thing of beauty.

[False_Dmitry_II]

As far as I can remember, you are the first person to successfully dye PBT caps using liquid RIT dye.

I was afraid that after the formula change a few years ago, RIT was off the table altogether.

I was pretty sure it was too. Especially liquid, I was able to get some to work back when I originally did it, but those were only colors like yellow or orange. I also do notice how long he had it in there, it should never take anywhere near that long.

I used 1 cup of Rit Dye (Evening Blue) to 4 cups water.

Did you perchance take note of the copyright date on the bottle?

[hamenoskili]

I still have the bottle sitting at home, I'll check it when I get out of work, and yeah....the caps all in all were probably in there for a bit over an hour with the three increments I used.

[admiralvorian]

beautiful dyejob.

ugly ugly paint! maybe show it on a different light?

[hamenoskili]

These pics are with my phone and no flash, but not natural light either....a stand up lamp is in the room somewhere. That's the best I'm going to get than f'n "f" key . Ironic?

[hamenoskili]

Did you perchance take note of the copyright date on the bottle?
[/quote]



2011 Phoenix Brand

[False_Dmitry_II]

http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=56376.msg1272434#msg1272434

You can look up the formula change on their site.

I am surprised you got it to work at all. If you do another one you should do it with iDye Poly, I'll be updating that thread once I do some more dying with it within a week or two. The Scarlet rit that I mentioned started working in under a minute, and was done probably within 10 minutes.