Keycap cherry MX stepped capslock

[Mikey]

Anyone know where i can purchase a capslock stepped key for cherry mx's?

Been searching all over and am unable to find a source.

Thanks ;p

[trax]

In the market section.

[kbdfr]

As trax says, please post in the marketplace section (using "Wanted" as a prefix).
By the way, it would be a good idea to specify colour and language/symlbol of the keycap you need
as there are quite different ones.
And please contribute to posting economy.

Welcome at DT

[damorgue]

Not only colour, but center-stemmed or off-center would be good to know. If you look under the cap, is the stem in the middle or to the left?

[Mikey]

White on black, center stemmed.

[csimi]

Wouldn't it be possible to make an adapter to fit off-center stemmed caps on center stemmed keyboards?
I compared the two and it seemed like there'd be place for an adapter, though it'd have to be small and from a very strong material.
One end would be like a cherry switch, the other like a keycap.
This would be much better than hunting for specific colors of keycaps. I'm sure there'd be interest in it if it would be possible to manufacture.

[kbdfr]

Meanwhile...

[damorgue]

Wouldn't it be possible to make an adapter to fit off-center stemmed caps on center stemmed keyboards?
I compared the two and it seemed like there'd be place for an adapter, though it'd have to be small and from a very strong material.
One end would be like a cherry switch, the other like a keycap.
This would be much better than hunting for specific colors of keycaps. I'm sure there'd be interest in it if it would be possible to manufacture.

Interesting idea, I never thought of that. I'll try and make something to see how it would look.

[damorgue]

Did you mean something like this?




Judging by the looks, it will be weak in the thin part in between the stem and the stem fitting.

[csimi]

Something like that but a lot more complicated since the piece connecting the two parts together would block the switch from going down this way.
This probably increases the price a lot and you'd need some really strong material for it but I think being able to use all kinds of different caps locks (imsto dyesubbed stepped off-center stemmed for example) would be worth quite a few bucks.

[damorgue]

Turns out that one was very weak anyway, even with some ribs to strengthen it.

We would want to avoid it deforming or flexing since that would mush up the feel.

[kbdfr]

Nope, there is absolutely no room for that because the positions of a centered stem and an off-center differ by only ±5mm while the switch has a width of >10mm.
So the original stem must be removed as it will hit the top of the switch.

[damorgue]

It seems that way. I made a new one which allows the stem fitting to go into the switch housing (the previous one did not which was kind of stupid) Anyway, they are too close

[kbdfr]

CapsLock, center vs.jpg (167.26 KiB) Viewed 41631 times

You could could of course leave a bit of the original stem, but that wouldn't be enough to allow such a device to be affixed to it.

[damorgue]

This is about as close as they can get while still allowing the stem fitting to enter the switch housing as well as allow the fitting of the cap to not interfere with the bridge. kbdfr is right, they can't be made close enough.

[kbdfr]

[…] kbfr is right, […[/img]

Who is kbfr?

[damorgue]

Happy?

Well, I guess adapters could be used where the difference is larger, say space bars, but the interest there is too low to do anything about it.

[csimi]

Maybe the connection can be routed at the side? There seems to be more space there.
It'd have to be made from some sort of NASA grade material though.

[damorgue]

Nope, I thought of that, but the stem itself interferes with the switch housing, even without an adapter. As pointed out by kbdfr, the distance it needs to be moved is so small that it really isn't possible without modifying/removing either the stem fitting or the switch housing since those two will clash otherwise.

[kbdfr]

The easy way:



Description here.

[csimi]

The easy way:

Looks painful.

[Ekaros]

Only real solution I see is to make universal one. Whith places to lock the stem in, so no adaptors

[Spharx]

My untested idea: pierce a thin metal bar through the steam top and adjust the desired position of the steam. Before that the metal bar has to be cooled down to shrink tight in order to fit into the cap. After it reaches room temperature again it should widen itself into the walls of the cap.

[kbdfr]

Not sure whether you mean an horizontal bar anlong which the stem could slide
or a vertical bar driven through the stem and into the keycap roof.

Both will hardly be possible without expert tools
because you will have to drill a blind hole (without piercing through!) into the keycap from the inside
(and this will even have to be made at an angle in the case of the horizontal bar).

Besides, cooling will hardly have any perceptible shrinking effect given the diameter of the metal bar.

[Spharx]

I meant a horizontal bar on which the stem could be adjusted in angle and horizontal position.
As I looked up the iron shrinkage rates I came to the conclusion that my idea truly has some flaws.

[ITX-Fan]

Did you mean something like this?




Judging by the looks, it will be weak in the thin part in between the stem and the stem fitting.

I know I'm digging out a very old thread, mind sharing the file for this?

[Muirium]

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Joined:
2011-Jul-14, 20:08
Last active:
2019-Jul-29, 11:15

Doesn’t seem likely.

If you have access to a printer, you should be able to throw a few guesses at it and trial and error your way to where you want to be.