Carbon Fiber wrap keyboard

[Dark_Nemesis]

So I had just about enough of the fingerprint glossyness of my blackwidow, so I figured vinyl wrapping "how hard could it be"    

 

Standard glossy (dirty) blackwidow:

 

 

Removed keaycaps and (seriously) clean:

 

Measured and cut a piece of vinyl to fit over the keyboard, with some to spare, started from one end pulling off the back paper protecting the adhesive. Lined it up and started removing trapped air with the rubber squeegee, pulling the back paper as I went along.

 

Same process over the entire keyboard, when I was done I got out the heat gun gently warming and pushing down in all the grooves that would be cut later, razer logo, edges around keycaps and so on.

 

 

Continued to heat and pull the vinyl around the back of the keyboard, looks messy, but it was my first time so what do you expect, we're gonna cut it off anyway 

 

 

Cutting off the excess vinyl on the back,heating and applying some preassure on the edges after I cut them so the adhesive sticks peoperly

 

Back to the front, cutting out holes where the keycaps go, leaving a couple of millimeters to fold down later so it sticks properly and looks better when it's done 

 

 

Heating the vinyl at the edges and folding down the ecess material so it sticks to the walls, holding it there for a few seconds so it has time to cool and stick.

 

All done, took a while but with a little patience it turned out all right for being a first encounter with vinyl  :lol:

 

 

Most boring part, putting back all the keycaps, and putting the rubber o-rings on some of the keaycaps that I didn't bother with when I bought the o-rings (haven't botered with keys I rarely use). All done here:

 

 

All in all, if you have the patience this is a pretty fun, and not at all difficult project, I used cheap chineese vinyl, so you'd probably get even better results with proper 3M di noc, but i figured I'd learn with the cheap stuff, have other prjects coming up in the future where I will be useing some higher end stuff. Just a word of warning if you use a heat gun to keep your hand beside the vinyl when heating, so you don't ruin the vinyl with too much heat. If your not used to useing a heatgun, use a hairdryer instead, it's suppose to work too, or so I've heard 

 

Disclaimer:

 

I'm a noob to this, so this is just what worked for me. Just wanted to make this to show everybody thinking about doing a vinyl mod that it's quite easy  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Brazsty]

nice mod man !

[techswede]

That looks really good^^ Great job 

[Rorgash]

Cool looks , but the plastic feeling would ruin it for me

[TheEpicCanadian]

Looks good! 

[Musikman]

I wonder if you could do that same with key caps........................... Anyway, nice job! I dig it.

[Dark_Nemesis]

nice mod man !

thx! 

[Dark_Nemesis]

That looks really good^^ Great job 

Thx man! 

[Dark_Nemesis]

Cool looks , but the plastic feeling would ruin it for me

fair point, but the keyboard felt palsticky even before the vinyl (imo) so I don't really notice much difference. feels a bit like the "soft touch" surfaces of mice, but with texture, if that makes any sense  :lol:

[Dark_Nemesis]

Looks good! 

thx! 

[Dark_Nemesis]

I wonder if you could do that same with key caps........................... Anyway, nice job! I dig it.

You know I was thinking the same thing, will gice it a shot, but I think higher quality vinyl would be preferable, since this cheap stuff doesn't stretch all that well, and a considerable amount of streatching is required to get it to fit on a keycap properly... will post when I get around to try it! 

[Musikman]

You know I was thinking the same thing, will gice it a shot, but I think higher quality vinyl would be preferable, since this cheap stuff doesn't stretch all that well, and a considerable amount of streatching is required to get it to fit on a keycap properly... will post when I get around to try it! 

Awesome. Can't wait

[Paulandpedro]

Looks nice. I worked with the material on my build and found it can be tricky in some places. For a "noob" great job looks sweet.

[Dark_Nemesis]

Looks nice. I worked with the material on my build and found it can be tricky in some places. For a "noob" great job looks sweet.

thx!   Anything in particular you found to be tricky? Intereted to know since I will be doing more of this stuff in the future 

[Paulandpedro]

thx!   Anything in particular you found to be tricky? Intereted to know since I will be doing more of this stuff in the future 

Rounded corners with not much space to wrap around. 

 

 

That piece comes off so it needs to covered on two sides.

[juretrn]

Nice! Did you use a proper heatgun? Because I just used a hair dryer when applying the wrap to my Logitech G5.

[TehStranger]

HOLY CRAP. Nice job bro!!!

[Dark_Nemesis]

Rounded corners with not much space to wrap around. 

 

post-31674-0-10066100-1392602542_thumb.jpg

 

That piece comes off so it needs to covered on two sides.

Ah, I see! Yeah I can imagine that being difficult. Btw sis you use "proper" 3M or just some cheapo-vinyl like me? Thinking that could be a place that if it gets snagged on something the vinyl could start to peel off, Noticed that the vinyl I used didn't seem to have the best adhesive in the world =) Btw, beast looking case! Had to go check out your thread =D Looks good enough to be factory made =)

[Dark_Nemesis]

Nice! Did you use a proper heatgun? Because I just used a hair dryer when applying the wrap to my Logitech G5.

Yup, used a heatgun, very carefully I might add, noticed the vinyl started to get "wavy" if I held the heatgun a split second to long over the place I was heating. Would consider trying a hairdryer next project to check out how it works =)

[Dark_Nemesis]

HOLY CRAP. Nice job bro!!!

Thx man!!    Will have more vinyl projects coming up. After using it once, I noticed that it's soo much more easy to work with than paint (if you want a good finish), the chineese stuff is really cheap and world wide free shipping, deffinitely recommend giving it a try 

[Paulandpedro]

Ah, I see! Yeah I can imagine that being difficult. Btw sis you use "proper" 3M or just some cheapo-vinyl like me? Thinking that could be a place that if it gets snagged on something the vinyl could start to peel off, Noticed that the vinyl I used didn't seem to have the best adhesive in the world =) Btw, beast looking case! Had to go check out your thread =D Looks good enough to be factory made =)

I sued the cheap stuff. Yea noticed the same about the adhesiveness. Thanks.

[JoeyDM]

SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET

[StormtrooperStu]

I love seeing the words "how hard can it be".

 

Good job.

[gylmir]

nice work you did there

[Dark_Nemesis]

SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET

Thx man!