Looking for spherical keycaps

[br4n_d0n]

I'm looking for some super cheap spherical keycaps to buy for testing purposes, but I don't think many companies make them anymore. Anyone know of some places to shop for these?

[romevi]

I'm looking for some super cheap spherical keycaps to buy for testing purposes, but I don't think many companies make them anymore. Anyone know of some places to shop for these?

Testing a full set or singles? Full sets come from Signature Plastics, but I'm sure you can get a single one from here or Reddit.

[br4n_d0n]

A full set would be nice, but I doubt that would happen at the price that Signature Plastics is selling them. I could buy a new keyboard for that price... it's just plastic what's with the huge markup?

[UsualSuspectXXX]

A full set would be nice, but I doubt that would happen at the price that Signature Plastics is selling them. I could buy a new keyboard for that price... it's just plastic what's with the huge markup?

For SA sets especially, very small scale production which means constantly changing out the tooling.

[rowdy]

If you just want a few random SA or DSA keycaps, maybe someone has some from an SP crap bag that they could send your way.

[br4n_d0n]

Dang, does no one else sell spherical keycaps?

[UsualSuspectXXX]

Dang, does no one else sell spherical keycaps?

There's also Devlin, but I don't know much about them yet.

[Niomosy]

Dang, does no one else sell spherical keycaps?

SP is about the only producer out there for them on Cherry MX boards that we know anything about.  There's also the Topre Hi-Profile boards that come with spherical caps.  Beyond that you can always look for some old keyboards on ebay for cap harvesting.  They won't be MX compatible, however.

For mech boards, Cherry or OEM profile are the vast majority of caps out there.

[zslane]

It is a shame that spherical keycaps fell out of fashion so precipitously after 1981. There's just no accounting for taste... 

[UKKeycaps]

Your best bet is getting a few random caps from someone's grab-bag.

If you want SA profile keycaps that seem like they're made by GMK then you'll want Devlin K-Series.

They'll be a Devlin novelty/sampler pack on MechSupply.co.uk soon

[UsualSuspectXXX]

Your best bet is getting a few random caps from someone's grab-bag.

If you want SA profile keycaps that seem like they're made by GMK then you'll want Devlin K-Series.

They'll be a Devlin novelty/sampler pack on MechSupply.co.uk soon

Oh sweet. Can't wait to try out some of the Devlin caps soon!

[Niomosy]

Excellent news that we'll have a shot at trying out a new maker soon.

[xtrafrood]

If you need a set of high profile sphericals you could grab some dark brown 'Filco doubleshots' from keyboardco.com. Still pricey but a little more affordable when compared to the more colorful sets. Apparently they're produced by Signature Plastics using the SA molds. If you only need a few keycaps you can grab random row profile SA blanks from PMK for a relatively cheap price. From what I can see you're stuck with packs of ten for SA blanks though. Or if you want low profile sphericals you can grab ten packs of blank DSA keycaps from PMK. Click/press "Blank Key Packs" on the pimpmykeyboards.com website and you'll see lots of listings for spherical (high/low) keycaps in smaller packs.

But if you need a sample key of each individual key size PMK might not be the cheapest option.

[br4n_d0n]

Thanks for the replies. I'm not sure what I'm going to do, but hopefully it works out in the end.

[zslane]

Just to be clear: SA is high-profile and sculptured by row. DSA is medium-profile and all row 3. SA only comes in double-shot ABS, while DSA can be found in both double-shot ABS and dye-sub PBT.

[xtrafrood]

I forgot about that, if you want to use the caps for casting or any method that involves heat you should go with pbt

[chuckdee]

Aren't the round 6 on Deskthority sphericals?



Apparently the delivery time is a good bit away, but it's an option I figured I'd mention.  You can get individuals easily from the leftovers.

[rowdy]

Just to be clear: SA is high-profile and sculptured by row. DSA is medium-profile and all row 3. SA only comes in double-shot ABS, while DSA can be found in both double-shot ABS and dye-sub PBT.

You can get uniform profile SA sets.

Nuclear Data Green was all R3 for example.

[zslane]

Just to be clear: SA is high-profile and sculptured by row. DSA is medium-profile and all row 3. SA only comes in double-shot ABS, while DSA can be found in both double-shot ABS and dye-sub PBT.

You can get uniform profile SA sets.

Nuclear Data Green was all R3 for example.

Yup. Some SA keycap designers have been known to disregard the other available row profiles and only use row 3. I think there was a time when the other rows were incomplete with regard to available molds. But that's not the case anymore.

[br4n_d0n]

Yeah, but with a very limited number of manufacturers/sellers it's hard to find any that don't cost a ridiculous amount IMO. I might look into having some 3D resin printed or something.

[zslane]

Costs are high because these are very niche products with very low production quantities. Even if there were other manufacturers, they would never benefit from a degree of volume production that would result in meaningful cost reductions. Competition doesn't help lower prices much here. Until keysets are made by the millions, rather than by the thousands, they will always be "ridiculously expensive".

[tacnificent]

If you need a set of high profile sphericals you could grab some dark brown 'Filco doubleshots' from keyboardco.com.

If you need a complete SA profile set vs a handful to try, this is probably your cheapest (maybe only available) bet. It's ~£49 (~$72 w current rate) shipped to the US. As you've seen, that's less than what SP charges at PMK. Even then, none of those listed on PMK are available as a complete set and are just extras here and there from previous group buys.