[sdiy] diy illuminated rubber membrane push buttons?

[harrybissell]

Most of the 'rubber' keypads are Urethane which is MUCH
more durable and long lasting than latex.

Latex will rot, and fairly quickly...

H^) harry

Tom Arnold wrote:
> 
> On Sat, Mar 18, 2006 at 12:40:23PM -0800, Danjel van Tijn wrote:
> >    I am looking at ways to make my own rubber/latex membrane pusbuttons.
> >    I am sure this has been done before but I can't find any DIY pages for
> >    it.
> >    My initital idea is to make a mold and use a latex modelling kit form
> >    an craft store.
> >    I could then mount an led on top of a tactile switch and put the
> >    rubber membrane over top.
> >    This would be fairly crude mechanically but could work.
> >    Any better ideas??
> 
> For an 80's ComputerBuiltIntoADesk look, unstead of molding the pushbuttons
> you could just use larger area keycaps on your mechanical buttons ( which
> can usually be found illuminated ) mounted flush with the surface of your
> panel, then stretch vinyl sheet over the whole thing.  Turned off it would
> be a completely blank slate.
> 
> Kinda depends on what you want to do.
> 
> I've done latex molding a couple times ( the hobby store kind ) and it works
> pretty well too but I find that its not a very durable substance.  I think
> the stuff used for more durable latex is heat cured or injection molded.
> 
> You might want to look around for companies that make the keyboard skins for
> PCs.  Usually they have other keyboard skins for various applications and
> maybe you could find something that was trimmable and could be adapted.
> 
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