[Coco] Mechanical keyboard upgrades for the CoCo

[Mark J. Blair]

> On Aug 22, 2015, at 01:14 , Barry Nelson <barry.nelson at amobiledevice.com> wrote:
> 
> Or maybe even reuse the CoCo key caps by 3d printing a little adapter to make them fit the switches?

That's certainly worth investigating. I still want to see what the custom MX keycaps will cost, as purpose-made keycaps that would be the most "deluxe" approach. But if they're too expensive, that's not necessarily the end of the road right there.

There are also 3D printed novelty keycaps out there, particularly for the popular MX keyswitches. For example:

http://www.shapeways.com/product/GE6U8F6CK/radioactive-cherry-mx-keycap?li=search-results-4&optionId=42944640

In my opinion, none of the 3D printing processes provide surface finish quality that I'd want on a deluxe keyboard upgrade. They might be OK for key stem adapters, but not for things I'd be touching.

> I mean, really, we are just taking about the key markings, right? How hard can that be to change? May be sand off or paint over the standard marking and then carefully apply a stencil.

How hard it is will depend on how the markings were applied on the keycaps in question. Here are some of the methods commonly used:

Insert molding, AKA double shot: The keys are molded in two stages. First an inner core with raised marking, which is then over-molded with the body color plastic, leaving the raised marking exposed. These are generally the best quality keys, since there's no risk of the marking wearing off. But you can't sand off the marking. It would be necessary to paint the keycap and apply a marking over the paint. When I popped the BREAK keycap off my CoCo 3 to measure its thickness, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it's a double shot keycap.

Dye sublimation: Legends are printed with a dye that penetrates about 0.001" into the keycap plastic. May be possible to sand it off, but you'll need to remove a fair amount of keycap body material.

Pad printing: Legends are printed with an ink that remains on the surface of the keys. A clear coating might be applied over the keycaps after printing.

Laser/CNC: One of the methods for making keys with light-up legends is to make the keycap bods out of clear or translucent plastic, paint it with opaque paint, and then form the legend by cutting or burning off paint to form the legend.


-- 
Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net>
http://www.nf6x.net/