IBM Model M Black Keycaps

[redkeys]

It seems like Unicomp has stop selling black blank keycaps. Is there any other vendor who makes keycaps for model m's?

[fohat]

They are easy to dye and black is the easiest color. They are PBT so you can boil them for an hour!

[Touch_It]

Hmm, do you mean a full black set? I don't see one on their website. If you haven't already shoot them an email and see what they say. They are very good with helping out. Would be easier and more convenient than dying.

[XMIT]

That is odd. I bought mine here:

http://www.pckeyboard.com/page/Buttons/KSET

Black definitely used to be an option.

As Touch_It suggested, perhaps contact customer support and report back here? Blank keycaps are super easy to make, so either they're out of stock, decided to stop making them, or there is an error on the site. I wonder what is going on?

[7bit]

They did not have any 7 units space bars left and now the black stock seems gone completely!


They have pretty high MOQ, so I started a group buy for black space bars, but almostabsolutely nobody was ever interested ...

[0100010]

We should see if folks would now be interested in a GB for black 7x spacebars (out of stock), white 7x spacebars (never made them) and black blank keysets (now apparently out of stock).

[Touch_It]

I got a 7x black spacebar for Christmas with my custom keyset. Guess I was extremely lucky?

[Muirium]

I was interested in your GB, 7bit. I'll blame it on the bot.

[snoopy]

I'm still interested in black spacebras

[Muirium]

Here we go again!

[snoopy]

why I see no spacebra?

[Muirium]

You'll have to use your imagination… this time. I can only safely look at so many pictures of Barbarella per day!

[snoopy]

That reminds me that I should finally put my signed Barbarella picture in a frame and hang it on the wall.

[redkeys]

Hmm, do you mean a full black set? I don't see one on their website. If you haven't already shoot them an email and see what they say. They are very good with helping out. Would be easier and more convenient than dying.

Phoned them which in turn made me shoot them an email. Got a response from the system that someone would contact me in 48 hours. It's been longer. Will contact them again. Will let you guys know.

[redkeys]

Hmm, do you mean a full black set? I don't see one on their website. If you haven't already shoot them an email and see what they say. They are very good with helping out. Would be easier and more convenient than dying.

No black sets, no single keycaps, no nada. Well almost nothing. I think they will have the large spacebars.

[E TwentyNine]

Hmm, do you mean a full black set? I don't see one on their website. If you haven't already shoot them an email and see what they say. They are very good with helping out. Would be easier and more convenient than dying.

No black sets, no single keycaps, no nada. Well almost nothing. I think they will have the large spacebars.

They still show black as an option on single unit keys: http://www.pckeyboard.com/page/Buttons/KEY

And large black space bars: http://www.pckeyboard.com/page/Buttons/SB

[XMIT]

Just found this on eBay if you're still looking:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-Model-M-Bla ... 1618265978

"Unicomp keycaps. Unicomp does not offer this anymore."

[E TwentyNine]

I have to wonder if there's a simple way to remove pad printed legends without damaging the key (e.g. on a black M13).

[0100010]

Could try isopropyl or acetone.

[Hypersphere]

I wouldn't use acetone. Depending on the plastic, it could damage it.

[Mal-2]

I wouldn't use acetone. Depending on the plastic, it could damage it.

Acetone will damage ABS, taking the gloss off the surface, but won't (as far as I can tell) remove pad printing from it, at least not if it has the clearcoat over it. I've tried. Even where I've scraped away the clearcoat and attempted to remove the minimal remaining printing with acetone, it didn't work. (These are leftover keys from a Logitech Deluxe 250 though, not a Model M.)

Acetone will not damage POM. It also will not remove the pad printing. I fairly regularly use clear nail polish to coat labels stuck onto POM keys, and while it sticks, it doesn't actually bond and scrapes off with a fingernail. In a lot of ways, POM behaves like a lightweight metal. This is one of them.

I can't test with PBT because I don't have any as far as I know.

[0100010]

Acetone doesn't do anything to PBT.

[Hypersphere]

I emailed Unicomp yesterday (6 March 2015). They will sell a blank black keyset as a special order, but they are out of blank black Right Shift keys. You need to specify an alternate color of Right Shift as a second special order.

Regarding dye for keycaps, I've heard that Rit has changed their formula and the new dye is not suitable for plastics -- is this true? Wcass has recommended iDye Poly. If you want to dye IBM PBT keycaps black, does the starting color of the keycap matter? Unicomp has "Pebble", Gray, and "Brilliant White" for keycaps larger than 1.00 unit; for 1.00 unit, they have a rainbow of colors.

There is also Etsy; they have some custom IBM keycaps:

https://www.etsy.com/search?q=ibm%20keycaps

[Touch_It]

How do you not have just that 1 key lol. I don't get it but whatever.

Edit, glad I got my caps late last year.

[Hypersphere]

I received a reply from Etsy. They said that it would be much less expensive to start with IBM or Unicomp keycaps and dye them myself. If they were to supply blank black caps, this is what they would be doing, and I would be paying shipping costs from Japan.

Wcass has recommended iDye Poly black dye. Rit has reportedly changed its formula, and their dyes no longer work well on plastics. However, the Poly version of iDye does work well on plastics. It is available on Amazon and not very expensive.

[hammelgammler]

Maybe a bad question, but is every key you can buy at Unicomp from PBT?

[andrewjoy]

All bucking spring IBM caps ( and thus unicmp caps) are PBT as far as I know. Shame they used ABS on the beamspring but at least its very good quality ABS

[hammelgammler]

All bucking spring IBM caps ( and thus unicmp caps) are PBT as far as I know. Shame they used ABS on the beamspring but at least its very good quality ABS

Thank you.
Does anyone know where to get a blank ISO enter key? Or is it included in the set at the unicomp store?

[snoopy]

You can buy blank iso sets at unicomp (but not in black).

[Madhias]

Just checked at Unicomp that they have now again the black space bars in stock, and blank 1u keys and some other keycap sizes, but unfortunately some are missing, like the left shift. Wanted to get a complete blank black 101 set.