My little Coz Caps and other stuff

[cozmonort]

Hey guys,

I'm Coz (or Toby) and I bought my first Mechanical Keyboard for myself over Christmas (DS5) then pretty quickly fell in love with Mechs and the whole community.
I loved taking something so simple and everyday and making it top quality, then from that I fell into the world of artisans and keycap sets and realised I loved the possibility of turning a board into a canvas even more.

In my day job I'm a picture framer, I make hand made frames, and do a lot of gilding. We'd been working on a massive frame for Perth Council and had a bunch of silicone sitting around so decided to try my hand at artisan making. I've been surrounded by art my whole life yet never really felt the urge to make any myself, but once I made my first cap and could combine my job, interest in art and my new passion for keyboards, I was hooked.

My first cap, the No Esc Key I was pretty happy with, I liked the concept and, whilst never having sculpted before, was reasonably happy with the sculpt. I came across a few problems pretty quickly, mostly the size, I'd sculpted it with apoxy resin onto an esc key, and well, it was BIG, some of my later casts got caught on my DS5's top plate. Not fun. This I found was mostly because of my moulds slipping when the resin was in them and the walls being slightly thicker on one side, but yeah, my sculpt greatly exacerbated this. But all in all I was pretty happy with my first sculpt, having never sculpted before and never really made anything, but frames, with my hands.



My second cap was a bucket head. This cap came around with me just sitting around fooling about with some apoxy sculpt and seeing where it would take me. I wanted to make a character but my limited sculpting skills meant I wanted to keep it relatively simple. So I found myself making a Ned Kelly cap, I'm Australian, and he's an Aussie Icon, so thought, why not? Just the Helmet was pretty boring (Although I do want to revisit a Ned Kelkey) so I just started adding to it, and the bucket head was born. My first batch were cast without a pressure pot, and whilst I was happy with how they came out I really feel my second, pressure cast, batch are pretty cool, I love it how the chin spike sits between the keys.


Bucket Head pre-pressure


Bucket Head pressurized (sorry for potato quality)

My third, and probably my favorite cap of my first batch, was the volkeyno. I was talking to my mate at work and thought a volcano key would be great, I could play with the casting and keep the sculpt really simple but effective. I felt it would be the perfect key for where I was at that moment. Brainflushed gave me the idea to make it snow capped, and I made a few snow capped volkeynoes and was in love. I'm pretty funny about my sculpts, I don't really like having them on my board as I am super negative on anything I create, but I had a green snow capped sitting on my Ducky for ages, and loved it.



So yeah then with a bunch of blanks I set out to hold my first sale. I read a HEAP of threads both on making keycaps and general casting and set about failing miserably for a while. But, my occasional successes kept me going and I worked towards pooling enough successful caps to put on my first sale. Which I did, on reddit, I know.. but I do rather like the community over there and I felt I was no where near good enough to post here yet, to be honest I still don't think I am there yet, but I'm creeping closer, I hope!

Anyway I'm getting ahead of myself, this is about the making, not the selling, so yeah I went about making my silicone moulds. I used a 24 hr setting silicone, it's M4503/T35 from Barnes for all you artisans out there, if you're curious, I love this silicone. I didn't, and still don't, have a vacuum chamber but the slow drying time gives all the bubbles time to move to the top, I've had bubble free silicone from day one, that's been my one area I haven't failed in. One word of warning though, this silicone does not like High PSI, it pitts pretty easy. Oh yeah and another thing, I originally got the wrong resin for my silicone and it stayed tacky for ages, so yeah if you're looking at doing this I'd suggest talking to some one in the know and getting the right silicone/resin combo. Anyway, I made my moulds as all the guides said, with channels and put them together then poured in, and failed, and failed, and failed. I kind of like problem solving, so went about editing the guides to a way that works for me.

So, this is how I make my caps, a word of warning, this works for me, but I do things strangely and I'd recommend following other guides first. Anyway I make my moulds as others do, with two halves, a top and bottom, but I don't put channels in, and I put guide slot in the sides so that they can fit together in the right position. The guy at my plastic shop thought I was mad with no channels, but it works for me.  Then I pour my first pour, or only, or whatever, into the cap side of the mould, then I pour into the stem and use a toothpick to get rid of any bubbles, give it a minute, so it doesn't run out of the stem then push the two halves together. So I don't actually pour into the whole mould, I do a two part pour, strange I know, but I get a lot less failures this way. One thing I learnt quick though was don't push them together too hard or when the silicone springs back it'll suck in air and you'll get bubbles.


My strange mould:

I use Smooth-On 402 crystal clear resin, and I really like it, I sometimes tint it with opaque white or black to get solid colours, though sometimes with odd results.

Anyway, that's a bit of an essay, since doing these three caps I've made more designs, and refined one, I've also got a pressure pot from the proceeds of my first sale.
I'll be more than happy to share my new designs here as well, just don't want to bore everyone with my first post.

Some pics:






Hope something was of interest and I'd be more than happy to answer any questions anyone has. Heck even if they are questions about picture framing

Also I'm terrible at forums, I am pretty sure this is formatted wrong, sorry!

Cheers guys

Coz

[FLFisherman]

Alright, let's get these Coz Caps up in here!  Glad your reddit sale went so well.

[cozmonort]

Hahah thanks Fisherman! Yeah it was a blast, a heck of a lot of work for one person, but it was real fun, stressful, but fun.

Oh, and one more thing I wanted to mention and forgot to above, I have one mould for each style of cap I make, and I make one a night, each night with different colours. So my caps are all pretty much one of a kind, I occasionally try to revisit a colour scheme, and more than often get a completely different result, but I am kind of cool with that.

[romevi]

I remember seeing these. At first I thought the "No Escape" cap, without reading the name of it, were volume sliders; only after reading the name did I realize it was a person behind bars!

And there's nothing wrong with Reddit; many newer members came here from there, after all.

[UTommieTanka]

Love the look of your caps. I remember seeing your post on reddit and iirc you had a sale also right? If so I think that is the one I entered with no luck unfortunately. Still though, they are absolutely gorgeous 

[Glenmael]

Coz is such an upstanding dude, his work is great and cannot wait to see more

Thanks for the informative write-up sir.

[cozmonort]

Thanks guys!

I think I remember you posting about the mixer with sliders, haha my mate at work thought the same, bloody audiophiles!

Cheers Tommie, I really enjoy making them. There were a few people who missed out last sale, I wish I could of filled all the orders but it's a time consuming little hobby, and my failure rate was pretty high then, still is now tbh. I've been busy making a lot more over the last few months, will be posting on here once the kids are down tonight with an update, everything in the first post was old stuff just to show GH where I started, will be posting some of my current stuff. Feel it's only right to post some stuff here Reddit hasn't seen.

Hahah cheers Glenmael! You're not too shabby a bloke yourself! After working for 10 years doing hand made picture frames I feel if you've got information about something it's better to share it. People can learn from your mistakes instead of their own.
Just as a little aside here's a pic of a frame I just finished today:
 
man I need to buy a camera.

[UTommieTanka]

Holy crap! That frame is amazing, how much would one of them set you back? Looks like a lot of work goes into them.

[cozmonort]

Yeah man it's a pretty incredible project. Don't really want to share the cost, but we worked out it's taken us about 4 months of solid work. So yeah it's pretty ridiculous.

It's worth it though, pretty satisfying to work on something so unique.

[cozmonort]

So here's some more recent stuff.

After my first sale I kind of went nuts sculpting.

I started with some silly characters, I actually designed these before my first sale if I remember correctly, just as a bit of fun, but was pretty happy with them. My first, the Coz Bot was a bit of a tribute to Bro, his Brobots are pretty much my all time fav artisan, and I really dig the simplicity yet the style in them and thought I'd make a Coz Bot, kinda like the BroBot but where his are super stylish and classy, mine are just.. well silly. Second I decided to make a guy with a cigar just to play with the whole 3d aspect of casting, so I could have some nice levels to do double and triple shots in, so I came up with Steve. Both these caps are super simple, but I like them. I'm a simple guy who likes simple caps I guess. Both the masters of these got buggered coming out of the mould, these were my first Plasteline sculpts and yeah it didn't end well for either of them. I ended up taking a cast and sanding/cleaning up the cast so that became my new master. But the colour way doesn't really photograph well :/


Coz Bot


Steve

I decided to make some characters on modifiers, my first sculpts were god awful, I hated them, I found the detail was too small and it wasn't my style at all. But I ended up resculpting them and making two characters I'm pretty happy with.


The Control Freak


and The Alternative

I sculpted both of these with an apoxy 2 part resin, I tried multiple other mediums and found they weren't for me, being a picture framer I'm so used to starting with a basic design then cleaning up with sand paper, I found Super Sculpy didn't sand as well as the apoxy, so I went with the apoxy.
I made a few with Plasteline, it's like a professional sculpting Plasticine but taking the masters out of the mould destroyed them, and that was kind of heart breaking.

Next I decided to make a cap for my wifes Pok3r, so I made the all in cap, I sculpted this with plasteline and made a mould and cast a few, I posted them on reddit, but I wasn't happy with them for a few reasons. So I took a cast and made it my new master (the master got destroyed in the mould) sanded and cleaned it up and made the sides of the cap thicker, I found the original was a bit cheap feeling, a bit light in the hands and a bit tinny on the board.


The All In Cap
It doesn't photograph well, apologies for that, it's another advantage of the apoxy, it's a joy to photograph.

Next, as with the buckethead, I decided to have a play with a bit of apoxy and just screwed around and came up with the One Eye, I really like this character, I actually flipped the cap so it sits on the stem upside down, I like this as the backwards cap makes it a bit more unusual and it's nice having the mouth side lower. Still not sure what people will think of this one though as it does sit a bit odd on the board. I like that, but I totally understand if others don't.


The One Eye

Finally I wanted to make an animal, and came up with the Big Mouth, kind of a hippo/frog/I dunno hybrid. I like this little dude, again he has nice 3d levels to play with when casting and again I like the simplicity.
He's made with super sculpy (green) and finished with apoxy (white). I started with sculpy and baked it, but still wasn't happy with how it sanded, so moved back to apoxy for the eyes and teeth.


Big Mouth

Other than my sculpts I've really got into the blanks. I absolutely love blanks. I've remade my MOBA kits and made them gaming kits, so now it's 8 keys so it can be either qwer,df,b or wasd or whatever, and I've made a modifier blank. I've been really digging doing double pours but pouring at the same time to create some interesting two colour designs. I did a lot of double shots in my first sale, with just the standard one colour over the other, but really find myself loving the two colours kind of mixed together.


My fav blank so far


Some others:





I've also decided to try make a slightly different kind of blank, but more on that later, when I've got something a bit more to show.

Thanks Kruzada I've actually managed to cast some Topre blanks, and after some good feedback I'm in the process of making some Cherry profile blanks too, oh and a backspace.
Next on my list is ALPs blanks.

So yeah that's my crazy burst of sculpting and such, I've decided to stop sculpting for a while and just work on refining what I've got, after some sage advice from a wise man, thanks Zorb, but after having no prior sculpting experience I really enjoyed smashing out some caps, it's all practice and god knows I need it.

Hope some of that was of some interest! Most of those sculpts should be in my next sale, hopefully, still ironing out some wrinkles in some, got a tad over enthusiastic with the wall thickness on a few, learnt a valuable lesson; not only do the caps need to find on the stem but they also need to sit down at the same level as the others. Rookie mistake. Don't just push them on the switch, look at it from the side and check it sits level with the others.

Cheers guys

Coz

Edit: Just FYI none of the blanks are cleaned up, I do that when I've got a batch ready and clean them all up together, I'm aware some of the edges ain't perfect.

[UTommieTanka]

Yeah man it's a pretty incredible project. Don't really want to share the cost, but we worked out it's taken us about 4 months of solid work. So yeah it's pretty ridiculous.

It's worth it though, pretty satisfying to work on something so unique.

Ah yeah man, no worries. Just me being nosy as usual

The rest of the caps look amazing as well. The Cozbot is so cute lol, and I see what you mean about your favorite blank there, I absolutely love them.

Keep up the great work though, you can really see all the passion that goes into making them.

[eat_the_food]

Glad to see you over here Coz. Looks like that pressure pot is working out well for ya

Looking forward to seeing more designs!

[Zorberema]

Happy to see you finally made a GH account; good luck with everything! I'm looking forward to see what more you make, can't wait to see the new caps in person

[cozmonort]

Thanks for the welcome Zorb and ETF.

Zorb, well, one is on the way Still tweaking the others a bit, but I'll def keep you posted mate.

ETF, the pressure pot is amazing, I doubt I'd have any chance getting resin into Steve's cigar without it, pretty glad you steered me towards it and not the vacuum chamber.
As far as designs go, still might be a little way off but will be posting some kind of display system here as soon as I have something to show

Thanks Tommie, that blank is muuuch better in person, the colours don't really come out in the photo. I'm really bummed though it has a small bubble on the back, so yeah I might be forced to keep it and put it on my board 

Totally forgot to add some pics of the wrist rest I made for Glenmael. Pretty simple thing, managed to find a wedge shaped frame, cut the rebate off, cut it down to size then sanded the heck out of it and stained, shellaced and sealed it. Pretty happy with the result. I know the shape isn't the best for all day typing, but it works a charm for when I game at home. It's just made from Pine, so not something I'm comfortable in selling, but if people are interest I'm making another this weekend, so will post progress pictures.

[Glenmael]

Thanks coz I'm still away from the abode and on the mobile, so have to excuse myself for not checking out your frames sooner... Holy s- they are gorgeous. I just recently went through the National Gallery of Victoria to check out Whistlers Mother and mate, your frames could easily be used for any of the great works of art they have on show. Keep up the fantastic work.

[cozmonort]

So after some thinking about a way to display my caps and mostly present them in a way that, I feel I could hand them down to my kids, when/if I eventually decide to stop casting I came up with this little idea of making a frame for my caps, so I could hang them on the wall.



The front view, I mounted some Purple Zealios into a foam core ontop of MDF backing. The foam is easy to cut, so I sunk the switches into that, and the MDF is solid enough to provide support, I drilled a hole into the MDF for the main stem on the back of the switch, I cut off the connectors and the other little stems. A bit of araldite and they were super firm in the backing. I stained the wood black, then painted it black, spray painted the backboard, then Gilded the top with white gold.





The Zealios mounted in the backing



The back, hangers and such.

Pretty happy with how it turned out, I love how I can actually press the caps, and it really transforms them, I feel, into little works of art.

Also I went with the black and silver to kind of emulate the colour palette of my board.

Hope you guys like!