Help me Mod an IBM Model M - So Frustrated

[jacosajh]

So, this is like the 5th time I've tried to dye an IBM Model M keys Blue.

Results - Fail

The blue didn't stick at all. I have no idea why. I even tried different shades (Royal Blue, Navy Blue, and even mixed in Black once).

The funny thing is this is the 2nd set of Model M keys I've dyed. The first one was dyed red. Actually, I tried to dye some keys red and some keys blue. The red stuck right away, but the blue didn't. At that time, I just thought I did something wrong with the blue, so I just dyed all the keys red.

I've tried it several times (as I said above) since then on another Model M, but with Blue. It hasn't stuck once.

I've seen several threads with some people showing Model Ms with Blue Keys so I'm sure it's possible?

Am I missing something?


What I'm using: Rit Dye
Method: Taking a pot of water, throwing in some salt, and getting it to boiling; then I throw in the dye, wait for it to simmer again, and then throw in the keys for about 10-15 while the pot is simmering (I've even tried leaving it overnight and turning off the heat after 15 minutes).

Someone please help!

[Atenacius]

I don't have any experience with rite dye but if all else fails, you can order a set from Unicomp. Costs more but less hassle.

[jacosajh]

So pretty much I can go to Unicomp (pckeyboard.com) and order all the keys in blue? Or is it another website?

Wow, that would've been so much easier and I bet cheaper, after all the time and dye I had to buy.

[Atenacius]

Unicomp's printing is so inconsistent. The Esc keys I got earlier this week were all off-center.

jacosajh, pckeyboard.com is the site you want. When you order, they don't give you a selection of keys to choose from. You can email them for a pricing list of the different keys they have but you can just write exactly what you want in the comments section when you're checking out. Their customer support is pretty good so you can email them and ask how much it would cost for a complete 101 key set in blue

[jacosajh]

Nice! Thanks. Definitely saved me from a lot more stress, time, money.

[False_Dmitry_II]

Could be the powder vs liquid thing I ran into. Powder seems to be better so far. Also a tad of dish soap to keep the film from forming.

But it sounds like you've already bought that other stuff.

[theferenc]

I've said this before, but you have to stir the keys constantly while they are cooking. Best method I've found so far (and yes, this works with the liquid dye, including 2 different shades of blue):

Start with hot tap water, add salt and dye.
Put keys in wire strainer or something similar to keep them off the bottom of the pot.
Insert keys into water with dye, and turn on the heat to 7/10 on an electric stove.
Stirring constantly, cook them for 18 minutes.

I've done this on multiple stoves, with multiple houses' hot water. Water starts between 125 and 140 degrees F, ends around 185-190 degrees F. All measurements done with a calibrated potentiometer originally intended for monitoring medical sterilizers.

Using the above method, I've dyed several hundred keys, in multiple different colors. I can't stress enough the importance of stirring your keys the whole time.

[jacosajh]

Thanks for all the replies, but I've done all of the suggested.

I've tried:
Powder vs Liquid
Mixing different shades of blue
Mixing blue (and different shades of blue) with black
Stirring constantly vs not
10 minutes, 15 minutes, overnight, etc.
I've done it with varying temperatures (once, hot enough to melt and warp some of the plastic on the casing)

I've gone through like $60 worth of dye, and tried on different keyboards thinking there might be a difference in plastics used between different manufacturing years

Nothing. The best I got was a VERY light purple from leaving them overnight. And I think that's just because the dye got hard on the plastic. I bet if I rinsed them out some, they'd come right off. The blue doesn't seem to want to penetrate the plastic at all.

Tomorrow, I'm going to try and get plastic dye spray from an auto shop and see if that works.

[False_Dmitry_II]

If that's what you wanna try, get VHT from amazon. I didn't find any locally. Or duplicolor if you can find it. The VHT is supposed to be better though.

But yeah, when I was doing my red keys that made me very angry. Hours upon hours of standing there stirring and nothing happened. I dropped in a pack of powder dye and was done in an hour. Not sure why these differences happen between people who do it.