The Aluminum Battle Station

[rm-rf]

Time to start this off...
I purchased a Grass Valley keyboard.
The whole reason I bought it in the first place was because I wanted a project.
What I plan to do is gut it, polish it, and modify the plate inside.
Then get all the keys working the way I want.
And of course make it USB compatable.
maybe even put a USB hub inside.

Here is what i bought.
a Grass Valley VPE Series Controller Keyboard, Model 151.

sorry for the bad photo's

So, time to take it apart right?

Here is the top of the case, painted with texture.. bleh.


And here is one of the PCB's


Time to sand it down.
started with 100 grit, and worked my way down to 600.

whew. my hands are sore. was sanding for over 4 hours.
I was tempted to use some power tools, but I felt it would look better if I just did it by hand.

Now its time for some polish!
here is a little bit to show the contrast.


here is more polish..


and this is what stage I was at before I decided to post.


updates to come...

[rm-rf]

reserved

[rm-rf]

reserved

[0100010]

Nice.  Definitely a battleship.  Like an F107 plus double function rows.

[njbair]

This looks awesome! Are you going to clear anodize it once you're done polishing?

[heedpantsnow]

This is cool

[rm-rf]

This looks awesome! Are you going to clear anodize it once you're done polishing?

yeah, either clear, or black.
I am having second thoughts on the polish already, I forgot how soft aluminum is.
I may just have to repaint it if the anodizing doesn't give the effect and protection I want.

[KaminKevCrew]

This looks awesome! Are you going to clear anodize it once you're done polishing?

yeah, either clear, or black.
I am having second thoughts on the polish already, I forgot how soft aluminum is.
I may just have to repaint it if the anodizing doesn't give the effect and protection I want.

You could always have it hard anodized for even more protection.

I don't know how hard it is to paint an anodized surface, or if it's even recommended, but you could possibly anodize it and then clear coat the anodizing.

[Data]

Epic.

It looks like a movie set piece in the last photo.  Nice work.

[Bucake]

sweet!

[dorkvader]

This looks awesome! Are you going to clear anodize it once you're done polishing?

yeah, either clear, or black.
I am having second thoughts on the polish already, I forgot how soft aluminum is.
I may just have to repaint it if the anodizing doesn't give the effect and protection I want.

anodyzing increases the thickness of natural Al2O3 that builds on aluminium quickly after it's exposed to an oxygen environment, making it quite hard.

I don't know as much about paint, but it should be no different than painting an un-anodyzed aluminium surface, since they both are Al2O3

Great work on a great KB. 120+% all the way!

[ramnes]

Just posting to keep an eye in here.