Looking for PBT/ISO keycaps, adviced appreciated

[nandykins]

Heya,

I'm relatively new to the world of custom keyboards/keycaps, and I'm not sure about the best way to achieve my goals. I'm looking for something that matches these requirements:

• ISO layout
• Full sized
• Thick PBT (grainy texture, not flat/shiny)
• Cherry profile
• Completely blank/unprinted
• Color-wise, I'm a bit flexible but I would like to have pure white, pure black or white/pink. I don't really like blue/green/gray or other, flashy colors.

The only thing that comes remotely close which I've managed to find is https://www.teraset.net/ducky.php#8 but their blank white set is out of stock, and as far as I can tell these use OEM profile, not cherry.

Does anybody know of another way I could find a set of caps that matches my ideal? Price is not an issue.

Ps. Sorry if this forum is not appropriate for my question, I'm unfamiliar with geekhack's etiquette.

[berserkfan]

answer: it's tough. Most of the manufacturers are in China and most of the buyers are in the USA, so nearly all PBTs are NOT ISO and not Cherry profile.

[IvanIvanovich]

Basically, sorry to tell you but you're not going to get it as it doesn't exist. Only place known that has ISO enter key mold in Cherry profile for PBT is Cherry themselves... and they have never released blank ISO PBT sets or any boards with them as far as I know. Additionally, Cherry PBT have a very fine texture not a course and rough one. Only stuff they made a long time ago is thick, current PBT from Cherry is thinner.
Closest you are going to get would be to take one of groupbuy sets in ANSI, like those I run for example, and pair it up with an ISO enter key from vintage Cherry set or GMK.

[Nover]

Dye some Dyesubs? QWERTZ ones at least aren't that rare.

[Findecanor]

Cherry has made keyboards with blank keys but they are only sold to companies that are supposed to print their own layouts on them. Only a very few of them have come in hands of enthusiasts.
The second-generation DAS Keyboard was such a Cherry G80-3000 with blank black POM keys, not PBT.

If the requirements had been tenkeyless, then I would have suggested a "Navy" very dark blue Leopold's ANSI set + a Cherry ISO Enter key, which is what I am using on my TKL keyboard right now. The Leopold set contains a 1.25 key for left Shift and the key next to it, but is one key short for a full-size ISO: the home-row key next to Enter has to be borrowed from the numpad.
My camera is crap. I plan to dye the Enter key blue some time later.


Edit: The leopold keys are sold by Widebasket on eBay. They are discussed here.
I guess I could sell you a mid-grey Cherry Enter key (with a lasered legend) and the remaining numpad-key from my set, if you want to go this route.

[jacobolus]

Find an old Cherry ISO dyesub set and dye it black. (Seems a bit wasteful, and might be pricey, but I don’t think you have any other options given your criteria.)

As an example, here was an ISO dyesub set that sold on Deskthority in May for 55 euros: http://deskthority.net/f-o-r-s-a-l-e-f58/cherry-dyesub-set-from-g81-t8011.html?hilit=dyesub

[Findecanor]

Dyeing dye-sub keys would be very wasteful. They are desirable to people and worth a bit of money.

There are much cheaper laser-etched keys, but unfortunately you can not dye the legends away completely with fabric dye. Black is also a difficult dye: it is often composed of several dyes that together make black, and some of these component dyes take more than others. In my own attempts with Rit Dye I couldn't get them darker than dark brown.

If someone would produce blank ISO Enter keys in Cherry profile, I would buy it right away.
BTW. Signature Plastics DCS profile is close to Cherry profile but not exact and they have moulds for ISO but I am not sure if they have ever been produced in PBT.

[jacobolus]

SP doesn’t have an ISO enter mold for DSA, so any of the recent DSA dyesub sets (e.g. Matt3o’s granite set) use a DCS ISO enter.

[Findecanor]

I'll have to ask matt30 if his ISO Enter keys really are PBT. They are not an exact match to Cherry or Leopold keys though.
DCS has a grainier surface and the corners are rounded. The caps are quite thin also.

[nandykins]

Thanks for all the feedback.

I've decided to go with Ducky Nordic's blank thick PBT keycaps for now. They're not quite as thin as Cherry's profile, but I think I can get used to them.

[Geroximo]

https://www.massdrop.com/buy/vortex-pbt-keycaps

You have 9 hours left to purchase some blank PBT cherry-profiled Vortex keycaps on massdrop. No ISO Enter key tough

[Ngt]

I used to spend hours looking for ISO set and now I'm using ANSI because there are way too much keycaps set that you cannot even think using when you have ISO. However my wallet cries every night now but that's another problem.