Painted keyboards, where are they?

[Key_Capt]

Hi all, and thanks in advance for any insight provided.

So, I was just browsing r/customkeyboards and someone posted a painted high gloss keyboard. I think it looks amazing and it just got me wondering why are there not more painted cases?

Are there technical/adherence reasons for not painting and baking aluminum keyboard cases?

[jamster]

Cerakote is an option on some of the boutique cases.

Otherwise, paint doesn't strike me as a good idea for a bunch of reasons. It's hard to do well, it's hard to do consistently, it adds a layer of non-negligible thickness to precision parts that are supposed to be mated together. It''s also not really that strong (cerakote and powdercoating would be more durable).

This is why anodisation is far more common- it's stronger, is done in batches, adds no thickness to the material.

Painting is maybe something you'd do as a painstaking one-off project, by hand. You'd probably want to get it done professionally, not whip out a spraycan.

[Leslieann]

The surface on a keyboard can actually take a beating.
I've had two boards and in both cases the paint just wasn't durable to last like you think.

Cerakote and powder is a good option, but even automotive spray paint just tends to take a beating in my experience.
Things get bumped into, dropped on them, you'd even be surprised what fingernails can do when driven straight into paint. Another thing people dislike is glossy, particularly with dark colors, it attracts fingerprints badly.

[Riverman]

I painted a Filco with silver wheel paint to match my iMac, thinking it would be as tough as any paint I could find.  It looked great, but it got a few little dings in the front edge of the case, just from normal use over the course of a few months.