Dylon dying lasered keycaps to black blanks?

Ostrich

03 Jan 2016, 23:55

Hello pals,

I read a bit about dylon dying on here.
As I have the bad habit of looking at the keys while touch typing from time to time I wanted to get blank ISO keycaps for my Filco but I don't want to pay via credit card at Corus Keyboards. So I thought why not dye spare white pbt lasered caps black.
Has anyone of you attempted this before? I am curious what the outcome would look like... Will it result in true blanks or some weird black on black caps?
Thank you for input on experiences about this :)

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guk
1896 Vintage Reds

04 Jan 2016, 00:11

Black on black, at least that's what idye poly got me as a result. Actually does looks quite good.

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scottc

04 Jan 2016, 00:14

Sounds quite cool guk, do you have any pictures handy?

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guk
1896 Vintage Reds

04 Jan 2016, 00:32

Should give an idea of what it looks like.

Image

Ostrich

04 Jan 2016, 22:26

Thanks, guk!
Looks interesting nonetheless, though...

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shreebles
Finally 60%

05 Jan 2016, 08:38

rrreaaallly good. Maybe it's time to change up my Novatouch and make it more Realforce-like :D

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scottc

05 Jan 2016, 11:21

They look great! :shock: I might have to try that...

andrewjoy

05 Jan 2016, 12:33

They look like black on black dyesubs a bit ! May have to give that a go.

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Ray

05 Jan 2016, 13:45

Unlike dyesub they look bumpy. But still nice.
They are Cherry lasered PBT, eh?

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shreebles
Finally 60%

05 Jan 2016, 13:52

Must be.

ABS doesn't dye really well, nor does it take heat well. But I heard some people had success by adding Acetone to the dye.

But either way, those are thin lasered Cherry keycaps. And those only exist in PBT.
Last edited by shreebles on 05 Jan 2016, 14:05, edited 3 times in total.

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guk
1896 Vintage Reds

05 Jan 2016, 13:55

Cherry PBT.
Last edited by guk on 05 Jan 2016, 14:12, edited 1 time in total.

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shreebles
Finally 60%

05 Jan 2016, 14:04

Whoops. Edited.

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nocturalowl

05 Jan 2016, 14:52

Hi, don't mean to hi jack this thread. But i have newbie question related to dying a keycaps.
What i want to ask is this capslock safe for dying?
Image
My concern is that capslock key have a led pass through plastic part.
Will that plastic melt if i dying it with pbt temperature? Thanks before.

Matt_

05 Jan 2016, 15:04

It's probably polycarbonate, which has a lower melting point than both PBT and ABS, if I'm not mistaken (around 140°C).
Last edited by Matt_ on 05 Jan 2016, 15:31, edited 1 time in total.

andrewjoy

05 Jan 2016, 15:06

is it glued in , if its glued may be abel to remove it and replace later

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nocturalowl

05 Jan 2016, 15:20

Thanks guys for your answer. Will figure it out if it's glued in place when i get the caps ( still on shipping proccess )

There one more thing i really want to ask. If i dye those caps using grey color will the blue dye sub legend turn into grey color too?

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