[sdiy] Molding your own keycaps for tactile switches?

[jared]

I don't know why everyone here seems to think the only way to make 
molded parts is injection molding. It's injection molding for gods sake! 
If you really want cheap custom knobs, not a batch of 500k i mean,you 
have a lot of other options. For starters, you could make a relatively 
cheap silicone mold and cast knobs in a resin of your choice.
The downsides to that are the longevity and shelf life of the mold - 
silicone molds develoup cracks after a certain amount of use, so its not 
permanent. One of the upsides is that you can you whatever casting 
material you bloody well want.

For example, a couple months ago i made a massive army of counterfeit 
Space Marines ( Warhammer 40k - little plastic men, for the squares) out 
of BONDO. An army of bondo brand auto body-filler space marines! It was 
fantastic. Honestly you could make the casts out of anything. Hot glue. 
Wood putty. I also did a run of fiberglass resin men and they were a lot 
nicer.

If you are looking for pretty knobs  you'd want to stick to the resin, 
but both the bondo and the resin are available at home depot. The 
silicone mold material usually comes in two parts and you would probably 
have to search the cyberspace for it. Heh. To make the actual mold you 
could either fashion your own design from modeling clay, or use an 
existing knob.

This is a nice book on the subject: 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1558701281/103-4606066-3939849?v=glance 

It's kind of dated but it is also very comprehensive.

erm thats all i can think of this instant. but the idea of custom 
pimped-out translucent knobs sounds pretty neat to me.

I think that constituted a rant. oops


Jeff Farr wrote:

> Has anyone tried this?  I recently stocked up on a variety of tactiles 
> on ebay, assuming that the caps wouldn't be too hard to find... Much 
> to my surprise these seem quite rare, and certainly lacking in 
> variety.  Mostly black circles and squares, ho-hum.   I remember 
> reading about how some people were molding plastics to make their own 
> knobs and such (on another forum, I believe) and the designs I want 
> and pretty simple in terms of shaps, no embedded LED's for the most 
> part.  Has anyone worked with this kinda thing?  What I'd really like 
> is a soft-touch rubber material in several colors...  But I'm clueless 
> where to start.  Elastomers?



-- 
<3 jared

	isn't it nice when things just.. work?