deskthority

Lately I've been entertaining the idea of giving my Realforce 88u a different coat of something as the original white finish is starting to get shiny in some areas and I'd rather have something that's darker and goes better with my setup. So I've been wondering what the best options for spray paints would be? What I'm looking for something like a gunmetal grey or a dark grey that's pretty hard wearing and isn't likely to scuff over time.
The best all round option I know of would be Cerakote seeing as it's used for gun parts and industrial things, and it's very hard wearing from seeing its applications. Plus I've seen people use it for their own keyboards. However I don't know of any services that would do it for me in the UK, plus it's very expensive.
Other options I've looked at are plastic sprays like Plastikote, Rust-Oleum and Krylon.
I've seen someone use Krylon on a keyboard and they say it's pretty hard wearing, which sounds good. The thing with that however is that I can't find many UK suppliers--there's one on eBay which sells a prismatic effect can that I don't dislike. So I may go for that.

If anyone has any suggestions from personal experiences, I would be pleased to hear!

Shine means you touch it. I'd be very wary indeed of paints.

Yes, anywhere you're starting to see shine is also where paint is going to wear off. since that's where you touch it. Wheel paints are very tough, but even that started to wear off of the front edge of a Realforce RGB I painted a while back. Using a wrist rest prevented it from getting worse, since that lifted my hands off of the front edge of the keyboard, but it still needed to be sanded down and repainted to look good again. I also had good luck with Tamiya model paint and their matching primer. It went on extremely smoothly and looked great, but it would also start to wear if I repeatedly touched it.

Since it's white, you could potentially dye it a different colour as we do with keycaps.
I've had luck with idye poly, though I've never done a full case.

wobbled wrote: 05 Apr 2022, 19:59 Since it's white, you could potentially dye it a different colour as we do with keycaps.
I've had luck with idye poly, though I've never done a full case.

Dye sounds like a good idea. Might just be easier to submerge it, since that way the flip out feet aren't affected which I imagine would be an issue with spraying.

So the dye just works okay on plastic?

I've had great luck with some 2 part catalyzed paint and clear coat that's intended for use on car door handles, wheels, motorcycle gas tanks, etc. It's remarkably durable stuff with excellent chemical resistance but not exactly something you can buy at the hardware store. Try to find an automotive specific paint shop; they'll have the good stuff*.

*Good stuff is probably illegal in California

Thorogrimm wrote: 05 Apr 2022, 20:57

wobbled wrote: 05 Apr 2022, 19:59 Since it's white, you could potentially dye it a different colour as we do with keycaps.
I've had luck with idye poly, though I've never done a full case.

Dye sounds like a good idea. Might just be easier to submerge it, since that way the flip out feet aren't affected which I imagine would be an issue with spraying.

So the dye just works okay on plastic?

Submerging it would definitely be the easiest way, might need a fair bit of dye to do it though.

The dye worked great - I've used it on Model M PBT keycaps to turn a beige right shift to black. Just needed boiled water and obviously the dye

Does it stay in? Ever get black fingers or sleeves?

Dyesub is done in an oven, so water soluble dyes are up to something else.

To de-shine textured plastic: media blasting.

ABS is more difficult to dye than PBT because it has a lower melting temperature.
Black is the most difficult dye colour to get right: it is often a blend of multiple pigments with slightly different properties, and many attempts have yielded a brown colour. iDye Poly might work better than other dyes though, because it is made for polymers.
And... the shiny spots will still be shiny.

If you want a grainy finish: Montana Gold. (Useless if you want a smooth finish, which I have tried to use it for ...)

If you want a textured finish and use a crinkling paint, the thickness of the layer will determine the size of the crinkles: it is not easy to use.

Or do it like I do with my daily driver: give it a touch-up every few years.

Alternate option: use MOAR keyboards. You know you're looking for an excuse!

Oddly, though I shine caps quite hard—even my PBT HHKB caps are worn with a pearly sheen, though it's much subtler of course—what I don't shine is my keyboard cases. My frontline 2014 HHKB here—holds up to the light, twirls around—nope, I don't see shine on its pale white ABS case. I do see some scuffs from all its ins and outs of bags, but nothing like the wear the keys get.

Blame it on my floating typing style I guess. I tend to only touch the keys themselves, especially with such a narrow front lip as the HHKB has. My Kishsaver may well be different, though thankfully quite smartly shaped down front of spacebar where thumbs are known to lurk…