Decal paper to label keycaps

jeff

18 Feb 2015, 21:54

Hi
I took advantage of the keyboard I made with keycaps from 7bit grab box thread to try water-slide decal paper.

Not as good as doubleshot but can help for custom layout.

Image

I used transparent decal paper for inkjet printer.

After printing the layout and a varnish spray coating
Image
each keycap mark is cutted apart
Image
After a few seconds in water, the thin plastic sheet is applied on the keycap. A warnish coating is then added with a brush.

Image

On this first attempt :
* some bubbles are visible, mainly on darker keycaps. Use of "micro set" and "micro sol" could have been interesting.
* edges of some labels come loose a little;
* with a particular angle of view, edges are visibles;
* a few mistakes (F3) and alignment not perfect;
* this method is only valid to make labels darker than the keycaps.

Next time will try dry tansfer decals.

User avatar
beltet

18 Feb 2015, 23:56

Looks better then expected :D.
Please share the dry one aswell. Have you tested on top of caps? How resistant are these to typing?

jeff

19 Feb 2015, 20:17

Front part is smooth so decals stick well. The top part of those keycaps is granular so it could be even worse than conceivable.

On smooth top keycaps with a good varnish coating I imagine it could last a bit, but parsonally I would not try.

For dry decals, it depends on round 5. If sorting is efficient, I would not launch a new project to wait for it.

User avatar
vvp

23 Feb 2015, 13:41

jeff, if you happen to have some callipers, can you please measure the dimensions of the base of the blue keycaps. If it is from SP, it should be 18.16 x 18.16 mm.

jeff

02 Mar 2015, 20:54

vvp : base looks like a cushion. Middle to middle is 18.17x18.17 mm and edge to edge is 18.35x18.35 mm.

User avatar
vvp

02 Mar 2015, 22:07

Ach, right, That is DSA. That should have been 18.415×18.415 mm based on SP data. Near enough.
18.16x18.16 mm (I mentioned before) is for DCS.
Thanks.

Post Reply

Return to “Workshop”