Black PBT keycaps for ALPS?

[ctm]

I recently got a KBP V60 with Matias switches and I really love the feeling of Matias switches! The only downside is it comes with thin ABS keycaps. I find some posts about harvesting PBT keycaps from vintage ALPS boards, but as far as I see they are all white or light grey keycaps, which does not look so great on my black keyboard. Also I think it's kind of wasteful to buy a keyboard just to harvest its keycaps. So is there anywhere I can get a set of black PBT ALPS keycaps? I am fine with both blank and legended ones.

[jacobolus]

Get keycaps from an Apple Extended Keyboard II, and then dye them black.

[ctm]

Get keycaps from an Apple Extended Keyboard II, and then dye them black.

That does not sound like an easy task though

[Flyersfan1]

Get keycaps from an Apple Extended Keyboard II, and then dye them black.

That does not sound like an easy task though

Massdrop is offering blank pbt dsa alps caps bundled with their infinity keyboard kit, but you must unfortunately also purchase a pcb/plate in order to get them.

[brimborion]

http://matias.ca/60/pc/

This is supposed to have PBT caps if enough people commit to it, so Matias would be tooled up for them, at least for some key sizes. But it's hard to tell how many people have committed or when such a thing would ever ship, so I have been hesitant to take part.

[jacobolus]

Get keycaps from an Apple Extended Keyboard II, and then dye them black.

That does not sound like an easy task though

It’s pretty easy. You just need to buy the dye, mix it up in hot water, and leave the keycaps in for a while. There are a bunch of guides on geekhack, if you do a search.

[Findecanor]

It would be difficult to find compatible keycaps for the bottom row. Older PC keyboards with Alps usually have 1.5u modifiers next to the space bar. The AEKII has a 1.5 and 1.25 unit modifiers and an Apple-specific keycap profile.

It’s pretty easy. You just need to buy the dye, mix it up in hot water, and leave the keycaps in for a while. There are a bunch of guides on geekhack, if you do a search.

Most people use RIT dye for other colours than black, but black RIT dye does not always work very well with plastics. My results turned out brown.
Dylon or iDye might work better. You would have to look for, or experiment yourselves.

[ctm]

Interesting. I will look into using dyes.

[ctm]

But another problem is that there don't seem to be any vintage ALPS board with all 1x1.25 modifiers in the bottom row.

[jacobolus]

But another problem is that there don't seem to be any vintage ALPS board with all 1x1.25 modifiers in the bottom row.

That’s because 1.25 modifiers are the response to Windows 95, and by the mid-to-late 90s everyone selling Windows machines was trying to furiously cut costs wherever they could.

You’ll need to either be happy with ABS on the bottom row (e.g. using the stock keycaps or pulling spacebar-like shaped bottom row caps off a black AT101W), or replace them with PBT blanks from signature plastics. (They might have some 1.25u DSA caps in stock from MassDrop’s Infinity keyboards.)