Metal Caps

[Muirium]

As Matteo's making a lot of us interested in home builds lately, I'm considering key caps. I'm starting off from zilch anyway, so how about something a little different? Like not even plastic.


Blank. As caps should be!

This is a set by CaseKing.de. I'm not convinced by the profile, and their selection is too limited for a ground-up build anyway. But they did say this, via Google Translate:

It is important to note that the metal keycaps of King Mod serious turn than the originals made of plastic (depending on the position between 4.82 g and 5.5 g weight per cap). This stylish modded the human-computer interface on the one hand a little loud when typing. Secondly, the actuating force is reduced by the higher weight a little.

So, the extra weight loads the springs a bit, giving the keys a lighter feel. 5g is a fair reduction but nothing crazy. Sounds quite appealing, in fact. They say their keys are plated (makes sense as they're that shiny) and I guess that means a thin layer of nice stuff over a bulk metal body. It's the whole metal feel I'm after rather than the bling of reflective jewel like keys. So plating may not be necessary if there's a good wear resistant bare bulk metal option instead.

What I'd really like is a DSA version. With the correspondingly lower profile that doesn't change by row of the keyboard:



Interchangeable rows and interchangeable columns: since I'm thinking blanks. I could even try to design my compact keyboard around a tightly limited set of different key widths, for optimisation with these.

Are custom metal DSA caps something we can obtain at a sensible price? Am I the only one intrigued by the cold metal finger touch? Or the feel of other materials for that matter. Like…



As long as I don't have to get out the power tools, the kiln, the furnace or the moulds and craft these things myself.



They call him déjà vu.

[matt3o]

I'm totally in love with the idea of a wooden keyboard. not so much about metal. It's all clean and shiny for the first two days but I think plating will wear quickly if not done extremely well.

I actually have a project for a wooden kb and ML switches that I already bought. The overall look should be close to an Apple keyboard but made out of wood. That can be done with laser cut layers of wood and a lot of patience.

Anyway they are all very complex projects (and expensive too).

[Muirium]

I should have known you'd already have something in progress!

Metal laptops made a huge impression on me after the black plastic ones of the 1990s. Just love the feel of it on the wristrests, and all over the case. But not the keys!? Alas, not yet. I think it would be significantly awesome if done right.

It's been done before. In the retro chic of my dreams!


Meanwhile, ML switches are a natural fit for wooden keys. Perhaps wood is the way of the future. It makes a fantastic case at the very least.

[Broadmonkey]

Those metal keys are zinc and is made by MKC (a chinese dude). Feng on GH often has GBs featuring products made by MKC. If I recall correctly there has actually been 2 GBs with these key caps you could even buy a full keyboard worth of caps, even the spacebar (or maybe that was in a different GB).
I have seen some of the zinc keys having their plating peeling off where you press it, so I wouldn't say it's too durable.

The cherry board you posted is in stainless steel and thus hasn't got any plating plating. If you were to produce metal key caps, I think alu would be a better choice as it is easier to mill (accidentally MKC also produce these, but they are too expensive to run as a gb for a full set)
Here is some other MX alu keys

[GMC]

There is no durability problem with the zinc caps. Have them on a pure used regularly for over 18 months and only impact is that I probably ought to clean a couple of em.

Scarface caps, stupidly expensive 2nd hand but are cherry profile rather than OEM as the zinc caaps are.

Other metals include titanium and aluminium spacebars and novelties from mkc...

[Muirium]

Thanks for the info, guys. Aluminium sounds just my kind of thing.

I'm pretty good at wearing the surface off objects in general – which is why I don't like ABS and printed legends – so plating could be more of a problem for me. Though, honestly, metal hasn't been nearly as plastic as plastic to my wear in other everyday items. Depends on the plating's thickness I expect.

Love the look of that Cherry J86-4400 (thanks for the ID). From the top at least. The side, though:

Doubt I'd like to type on it.

[webwit]

More Scarface caps here:
http://webwit.nl/input/keycaps/alu/

[Muirium]

Great gallery, Webwit.

Mmm … so nice. And even DSA?

Like all the best things in life, they even look good from behind.

All four colours on show look great to me. With the black having a narrow lead, I think, in understated yet still sparkling awesome.

I have a feeling this would be a costly Filco to acquire?

More weight. Less keyboard. That's the ticket.

[webwit]

The gunmetal caps didn't hold up too well. That's an anodized layer, and has developed some lighter areas on much used keys. The good news is that I could re-anodize them, although I don't know how hard or expensive such a thing would be.

[Broadmonkey]

Mmm … so nice. And even DSA?

No, The scarface keys are based on Cherrys key caps which are of a cylindrical profile. DSA is ONLY done by SP and they are of a spherical profile.

SP has 3 main key cap profiles.
DCS which is based on Cherry's MX key caps (the ones you would find on g80-3000, g81-1800 etc.)
SA which is based on "retro" cylindrical key caps. These are high in profile.
DSA which is mostly like SA but with a much lower profile (I suspect these are based on Cherry's M8 Key caps)

[Muirium]

Gotcha, Broadmonkey. They've got some nice diagrams for each variety too. I'm just too inexperienced to be able to recognise a cylindrical vs. spherical from behind.

I do know that SA is strictly awesome, though. Reminds me of these Hi-Pro caps on a Topre.

Those colours … is this available in pigskin perchance?

[matt3o]

It would be actually possible to cast them with a special epoxy resin together with aluminum, brass, silver or even gold powder.

[Broadmonkey]

I do know that SA is strictly awesome, though. Reminds me of these Hi-Pro caps on a Topre.

I thought the same thing, they do resemble each other. It's great there is starting to be more focus on different key profiles. Distinguishing key caps becomes easy enough with time, especially after you have rounded the first 50 hours on ebay, looking for hidden gems

It would be actually possible to cast them with a special epoxy resin together with aluminum, brass, silver or even gold powder.

That would be very, very cool.