deskthority

Who even makes doubleshot PBT caps, much less would be willing to make some that also have to act as a slider to push the spring down?

daemonspudguy wrote: 12 Dec 2022, 03:33 Who even makes doubleshot PBT caps, much less would be willing to make some that also have to act as a slider to push the spring down?

Tai Hao makes doubleshot PBT keycaps for MX mount. But nothing for the Model M.

Your best option would be to sign up for the interest form ellipse has for pad printed back Model M and F caps.

If you can live with "almost" black then one option is to dye ordinary caps to a dark gray with the legends still barely legible ....

Doesn’t the dye always eventually come off on your fingers?

Muirium wrote: 12 Dec 2022, 17:35 Doesn’t the dye always eventually come off on your fingers?

Not in my experience. I have 5+ year old dye that has not faded or come off at all, and using both vintage and Unicomp M/F caps.

That is what makes dye so much better than "paint"

Just boil on the stove dye? I’ll admit I’m prejudiced (having ruined clothes with the stuff, which then came out in every wash until I threw them in the trash). But in my mental model dye is only good when it’s poured into molten plastic or baked on at prolonged high temperature from a stencil in an oven.

thefarside wrote: 12 Dec 2022, 07:39 Your best option would be to sign up for the interest form ellipse has for pad printed back Model M and F caps.

I have.

Polecat wrote: 12 Dec 2022, 05:39

daemonspudguy wrote: 12 Dec 2022, 03:33 Who even makes doubleshot PBT caps, much less would be willing to make some that also have to act as a slider to push the spring down?

Tai Hao makes doubleshot PBT keycaps for MX mount. But nothing for the Model M.

How much money would convince Tai-Hao to make the boulders of PBT Model Ms (Models M?) use, that also act as the slider?

Probably about the same amount it cost Ellipse to tool up for his IBM remake caps, once all is said and done. Those undersides are active components in the switch, in a way neither Alps nor MX take part. I think they have to flex a bit in use, as well as pulling and installing the buggers. It's a non-trivial step up from merely another shape of slider-top cap-mount.

Muirium wrote: 12 Dec 2022, 18:25
Just boil on the stove dye?

I’m prejudiced (having ruined

I hear you. My results dyeing IBM key caps have been far better than my results dyeing clothes (although I have dyed wool successfully a few times). This is pretty long in the tooth, but reply #14 is a classic.

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=35 ... #msg664178