DIY LED window in keycap?

[TD22057]

I'm thinking about trying to make my own LED window in a caps lock and num lock key and was wondering if anyone had attempted this before.  My plan is to drill a small hole in the front (vertical) wall of the keycap.  The put some wax paper (or maybe cellophane tape) over the hole on one side and fill the other side with clear epoxy.  Modify a couple of cherry switches to have an LED in them and I think it should look pretty good.

Any thoughts?

[damorgue]

I did it with a 3D printed cap. I only did it once, and had 2 issues.

A) My epoxy resin wasn't really clear when solid, it was a sort of yellow tone.

B) It shrunk. The top of the resin surface was a bit concave. My method: I used tape on the top of the cap, turned it upside down and poured some in. I then used a toothpick to ensure that the resin had filled the entire hole and wetted(?) the surfaces to create a flat surface against the tape. I think it solidified a bit over the entire surface from the back and crated a film across the hole, which caused the problem. THe resin against the tape solidified last, which is the opposite of what you want. The entire resin then shrunk against that film, and once the tape was removed the top surface of the resin wasn't flat but a bit concave.

Good luck to ya, should be possible if you get it right from the start or iterate a bit to create a better method than mine.

[samwisekoi]

I did exactly what you are proposing, and the pictures are posted somewhere here in a DIY thread with a near-identical name.

Short answer was that it worked.  I used clear epoxy.

 - Ron I samwisekoi

[TD22057]

I did exactly what you are proposing, and the pictures are posted somewhere here in a DIY thread with a near-identical name.

Short answer was that it worked.  I used clear epoxy.

 - Ron I samwisekoi

Thanks - found it (searching for window returns way too many results).  However - you never posted any pics of the final product with the epoxy in...

[CPTBadAss]

Can you link samwisekoi's thread?

[TD22057]

Of course: http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=38536

[Soarer]

Hot glue might work OK... it won't be clear, but should work well as an indicator. If not, it's easy to remove!

[samwisekoi]

I did exactly what you are proposing, and the pictures are posted somewhere here in a DIY thread with a near-identical name.

Short answer was that it worked.  I used clear epoxy.

 - Ron I samwisekoi

Thanks - found it (searching for window returns way too many results).  However - you never posted any pics of the final product with the epoxy in...

Sure I did.  http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=38536.msg747592#msg747592

(Thanks TD22057 for doing the research!)

 - Ron | samwisekoi

[CPTBadAss]

Thanks for the links guys. Appreciate it

[wcass]

i did this to a model M. afterword i decided that i liked the look of the indirect light spilling out from behind the key better than through a window - with the added bonus of less work. with the model M, the light LED is much closer to the edge of the keycap, so YMMV.