How do people do labels on DIY caps?
Posted: 23 Sep 2022, 01:25
I've recently SLA printed a number of caps with custom recessed labels for my Keychron K4 (I love the keyboard feel with its factory pre-lubed switches, but the layout of certain keys, could be improved). Unfortunately I'm having difficulty making the labels stand out. I initially tried just white resin, flowing sharpie ink into the recessed text, then wiping the surface of the caps with alcohol, but the white resin is not that great. However if I use a darker resin the black text will be less visible.
So I attempted few "tricks" I read about online to paint the caps (with acrylic water based spray paint) without painting the recesed text. I tried putting beeswax in the recessed letters (mineral spirits dissolve beeswax, but are not supposed to touch acrylic pain) - this flaked the paint away and barely touched the wax. I tried vaseline. This made the acrylic paint tent over the recessed text. Then using a sharp needle I could remove the vaseline and paint, but the resulting text looked really choppy and some flakes of paint were removed near it too.
Next I printed my caps again, then for each label I printed a small cube with a negative plug of outset text to insert into the inset text to prevent the paint from reaching it. The text on those plugs is slightly smaller (inset text is bold, outset text is regular weight). I hope to insert (and perhaps lightly glue?) those plugs before spray painting hoping they will mask the letters. I'm trying to achieve a look of fairly dark keys with white labels light can shine through.
I wonder how other people do DIY labels?
So I attempted few "tricks" I read about online to paint the caps (with acrylic water based spray paint) without painting the recesed text. I tried putting beeswax in the recessed letters (mineral spirits dissolve beeswax, but are not supposed to touch acrylic pain) - this flaked the paint away and barely touched the wax. I tried vaseline. This made the acrylic paint tent over the recessed text. Then using a sharp needle I could remove the vaseline and paint, but the resulting text looked really choppy and some flakes of paint were removed near it too.
Next I printed my caps again, then for each label I printed a small cube with a negative plug of outset text to insert into the inset text to prevent the paint from reaching it. The text on those plugs is slightly smaller (inset text is bold, outset text is regular weight). I hope to insert (and perhaps lightly glue?) those plugs before spray painting hoping they will mask the letters. I'm trying to achieve a look of fairly dark keys with white labels light can shine through.
I wonder how other people do DIY labels?