Milling a keyboard plate

[OfficialTull]

Hi everyone! I'm new here and to introduce myself I figured I'd ask the community about an idea I've been tinkering with for the past few hours.
Has anyone had any luck or even tried milling a keyboard plate?
I'm a machinist by trade and restore cars and game during my off hours and for some reason I can't bring myself to pay for a plate to be cut when I might be able to make one myself for a hell of a lot cheaper.
So anyone out there take this task on before?

[jdcarpe]

Yep, people do it all the time. I believe the ones that I designed and LeandreN is selling are milled. I know for sure GON's plates are milled.

[Charger]

I have not done it myself but I know gonskeyboardworks does milled plates. I have even just laid out and cut a 4x6 plate for a numpad and that worked fine. When I get my cnc router / plasma cutter working I will probably try making a plate or 2 as well.

[Melvang]

I have not done it myself but I know gonskeyboardworks does milled plates. I have even just laid out and cut a 4x6 plate for a numpad and that worked fine. When I get my cnc router / plasma cutter working I will probably try making a plate or 2 as well.

Fair warning I doubt plasma will have the accuracy needed for a switch plate, plus you will get tons of heat distortion.  Nothing against your ability, just limitations of the cutting method.

[Charger]

I have not done it myself but I know gonskeyboardworks does milled plates. I have even just laid out and cut a 4x6 plate for a numpad and that worked fine. When I get my cnc router / plasma cutter working I will probably try making a plate or 2 as well.

Fair warning I doubt plasma will have the accuracy needed for a switch plate, plus you will get tons of heat distortion.  Nothing against your ability, just limitations of the cutting method.

Oh I assumed that, I plan to use a trim router on it for trying to cut plates I may try the plasma cutter just to see what it does or maybe one some thicker metal just for the hell of it.

[kurplop]

I've milled several plates manually (without CNC) and they turn out fine. Go for it and share your creation with us.

I just noticed that you're new here. Welcome to Geekhack. I think you'll find a lot of friendly and helpful people here.

[Charger]

I've milled several plates manually (without CNC) and they turn out fine. Go for it and share your creation with us.

I have been tempted to try this myself but my mill kind of lacks any thing that resembles a high speed for a smaller cutter.

[Melvang]

I have not done it myself but I know gonskeyboardworks does milled plates. I have even just laid out and cut a 4x6 plate for a numpad and that worked fine. When I get my cnc router / plasma cutter working I will probably try making a plate or 2 as well.

Fair warning I doubt plasma will have the accuracy needed for a switch plate, plus you will get tons of heat distortion.  Nothing against your ability, just limitations of the cutting method.

Oh I assumed that, I plan to use a trim router on it for trying to cut plates I may try the plasma cutter just to see what it does or maybe one some thicker metal just for the hell of it.

Just making sure.  A fair amount of people just assume CNC=perfect

[Charger]

I have not done it myself but I know gonskeyboardworks does milled plates. I have even just laid out and cut a 4x6 plate for a numpad and that worked fine. When I get my cnc router / plasma cutter working I will probably try making a plate or 2 as well.

Fair warning I doubt plasma will have the accuracy needed for a switch plate, plus you will get tons of heat distortion.  Nothing against your ability, just limitations of the cutting method.

Oh I assumed that, I plan to use a trim router on it for trying to cut plates I may try the plasma cutter just to see what it does or maybe one some thicker metal just for the hell of it.

Just making sure.  A fair amount of people just assume CNC=perfect

not a problem I have, me and my brother are making the machine ourselves so we will be lucky it it even resembles adequate lol

[kurplop]

I've milled several plates manually (without CNC) and they turn out fine. Go for it and share your creation with us.

I have been tempted to try this myself but my mill kind of lacks any thing that resembles a high speed for a smaller cutter.

I think my highest speed is about 5000 rpm. I have used endmills as small as .045". How does that compare with your specs?

[Charger]

I think my highest speed is about 5000 rpm. I have used endmills as small as .045". How does that compare with your specs?

I think the mill is designed to go up to 1400 rpm but not sure I can even get it to run at its highest speed do to an under powered motor on it. It tends to have starting problems on its highest speeds so you kind of have to slack the belt when starting it. Its an old van norman #6 which is a universal mill so vertical / horizontal and tends to be for slower speed work.

[njbair]

Milling a plate is not the most cost effective way, if you have to have someone else do it. But if you have the equipment it's totally doable.

I'm on mobile so I'm not going to dig up the link, but look up koalapear's Monarch build log. He milled a plate out of .090" stock for extra rigidity, and since that's too thick for switches to clip into, he milled out little ledges on the sides of the switch cutouts to make those areas thinner. That's something you couldn't do with a laser cutter or water jet.

[OfficialTull]

I would be doing it with a good old manual mill. While I have access to a couple cnc mills and the necessary software, they're currently in the middle of some pretty heavy production and frankly I'm quite fond of some good old hands on building!
Now the idea of cutting relief steps into a thicker material is quite intriguing, I'll have to look into that. For now though I think I'll keep my first build a bit more simple. I'm going to have enough trouble picking the soldering iron back up with any sort of proficiency as is!
I'll keep you guys posted on the progress. I'll start making chips tomorrow night after the shop closes for the day, gotta love small shops where your boss will let you work on pet projects like that.