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The Keyboard Is Painted

2020-12-19T20:28

It's been a lot more work than I was expecting; so much so that I'm considering french-polishing the next keyboard I make.

The painting pretty much went as I hoped — all except the fluff in the clear coat. It turned out that my lint-free rag wasn't as lint-free as I thought. I was a bit disappointed. I had beautiful, pristine paint and then plain as day black fluff. There was one or two tiny pieces in the first coat, and then some more in the second. I decided to stop putting clear on after that. I hoped that once it had some keys, real dust, scratches and dents and whatever else; the blemishes won't stand out so much.

Last night I sanded the clear back to 1200 grit. I need to buy some 2000 grit, cut and polish to get it to really shine. I haven't quite decided, but I might do that after I've finished the soldering — it depends on whether I can wait to see how it will look.

And then there is that old stabiliser problem. The keys with stabilisers (the shifts, space and enter) just don't feel very good — there is resistance. I will lube them up better and try more filing to loosen them up. If that still doesn't work, I might need to put heaver springs in those switches. Perhaps with use, they'll loosen up on their own. I'm definitely going to have my next plate laser cut. It just isn't worth making your own.

Today I'll fill it with the keycaps I intend to use and make sure everything feels right before I start on the soldering.

I'll leave you with some photos of how it is looking now.

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