Custom engraved spacebar/keycaps

[thetmabird]

WIth some laser equipment I really use to repair phones I wanted to try to engrave som custom stuff, made a custom spacebar for my brother, and actually really liked the result. 

 

If it was double-shot the RGB would also shine through but this was just what I had laying oruound.

 

Was thinkinking maybe this is something people might want to buy? Considering making a service doing it, y'all think theres a market?

[PcBeExpensive]

15 minutes ago, thetmabird said:

WIth some laser equipment I really use to repair phones I wanted to try to engrave som custom stuff, made a custom spacebar for my brother, and actually really liked the result. 

 

If it was double-shot the RGB would also shine through but this was just what I had laying oruound.

 

Was thinkinking maybe this is something people might want to buy? Considering making a service doing it, y'all think theres a market?

custom keycaps that are actually custom? Yes I feel people would love that. I would love that.

[thetmabird]

Just now, PcBeExpensive said:

custom keycaps that are actually custom? Yes I feel people would love that. I would love that.

Very very easy to make and if i buy caps in bulk it'd be dirt dirt cheap to make as well

[UnknownWalls]

24 minutes ago, thetmabird said:

WIth some laser equipment I really use to repair phones I wanted to try to engrave som custom stuff, made a custom spacebar for my brother, and actually really liked the result. 

 

If it was double-shot the RGB would also shine through but this was just what I had laying oruound.

 

Was thinkinking maybe this is something people might want to buy? Considering making a service doing it, y'all think theres a market?

Bro if I could afford it ( I could but I’d rather upgrade my pc.) definitely. Being a student at a Jewish high school, and using a pc, key caps that have two languages on it would be sick

[thetmabird]

18 minutes ago, UnknownWallsTwitch said:

Bro if I could afford it ( I could but I’d rather upgrade my pc.) definitely. Being a student at a Jewish high school, and using a pc, key caps that have two languages on it would be sick

With the keycap in the pic I could sell it for 10 bucks with shipping and have really good margin still

[johnno23]

Yup definately a market but I think doing it as a business you may have missed the boat. Companies for this already exist. But hey if you can deliver for better costs and deliver fast then you might be onto something.  Most companies have custom but that custom is premade custom templates and having them make something to a custom requirement etc is a whole new level. Plus of course you need all the cad info from what ever keyboard they are using as spacebars from one keyboard to another are different in the mounting etc.

My post is not meant to sound negative to the idea as it is a great idea but its not something I personally would do for strangers unless they ripped off their spacebar and could send that to you. I suppose you could pick the 5 most popular keyboards on the market buy one of each so you have exact dimensions for the keys etc to work ??

 

[thetmabird]

9 minutes ago, johnno23 said:

Yup definately a market but I think doing it as a business you may have missed the boat. Companies for this already exist. But hey if you can deliver for better costs and deliver fast then you might be onto something.  Most companies have custom but that custom is premade custom templates and having them make something to a custom requirement etc is a whole new level. Plus of course you need all the cad info from what ever keyboard they are using as spacebars from one keyboard to another are different in the mounting etc.

My post is not meant to sound negative to the idea as it is a great idea but its not something I personally would do for strangers unless they ripped off their spacebar and could send that to you. I suppose you could pick the 5 most popular keyboards on the market buy one of each so you have exact dimensions for the keys etc to work ??

 

Aren't the cheery type spacebar caps all a standardised length?

 

Takes minutes and is like no effort to make so I could sell pretty cheap. I also found the sites with custom templates and such but I obviously can't do colors or anything like that. I mean my laser literally only removes the paint-layer. 

 

sidenoite: tried to be funny with one

[johnno23]

Should be but not everyone uses Cherry ??? plus you did not mention any specific keyboard type in your post.

if you do custom for a specific keyboard type etc then that opens the door to those users but i was assuming you meant custom for anyone and everyone...

but as i said it is a great idea but not as an option to just make for everyone and any keyboard type without the info regarding dimensions etc.

[thetmabird]

4 minutes ago, johnno23 said:

Should be but not everyone uses Cherry ??? plus you did not mention any specific keyboard type in your post.

if you do custom for a specific keyboard type etc then that opens the door to those users but i was assuming you meant custom for anyone and everyone...

but as i said it is a great idea but not as an option to just make for everyone and any keyboard type without the info regarding dimensions etc.

https://kbdfans.com/collections/clearance/products/epbt-cherry-profile-abs-pink-keycaps These are the main ones.

 

I would say 90%+ of people that would spend 20 bucks for a custom keycap is a keyboard enthusiast and using a Cherry keyboard. Or cherry style more exactly. It's basically the industry standard for mechanical boards.

 

The 6.25YU seems to be the most standard, ie the K70 uses it, my Ducky One 2 mini and my other boards do as well

 

Only other types are shitty mech-feel and Romer-G afaik

 

So I think just buying differrent color and types of cherry caps would have me pretty much covered

[johnno23]

if you just make sure the buyer is using the type of key you can work on then you are solid...good luck and hopefully you do well. there is definately a market for such things.

hardest part is maybe connecting the buyer to the seller which would be yourself. but what starts as a hobby could overtime become a business so dont let any comments i make hold you back...i was just concerned that you were thinking to do custom for anyone and every type of keyboard.

[thetmabird]

2 minutes ago, johnno23 said:

if you just make sure the buyer is using the type of key you can work on then you are solid...good luck and hopefully you do well. there is definately a market for such things.

hardest part is maybe connecting the buyer to the seller which would be yourself. but what starts as a hobby could overtime become a business so dont let any comments i make hold you back...i was just concerned that you were thinking to do custom for anyone and every type of keyboard.

Was thinking marketing by finding out what pro-players that do streaming and finding their keyboard on https://prosettings.net/ or such and just send out a bunch of them and hope for a tweet or shoutout, probably better than like google ads I think

[UnknownWalls]

1 minute ago, thetmabird said:

Was thinking marketing by finding out what pro-players that do streaming and finding their keyboard on https://prosettings.net/ or such and just send out a bunch of them and hope for a tweet or shoutout, probably better than like google ads I think

Could also have them send you their keyboard and have them measure dimensions for u.

[johnno23]

sounds like a good plan......your costs for such a venture would be low and the returns could be huge if it works out.

[PcBeExpensive]

1 hour ago, thetmabird said:

Very very easy to make and if i buy caps in bulk it'd be dirt dirt cheap to make as well

I would go for it, if you can sell for cheap it would be great. You could just ask people for dimensions of the keys they want custom. You could also figure out how to paint the key. If you do start something post something here, I would definetely buy.

[PcBeExpensive]

1 hour ago, thetmabird said:

Very very easy to make and if i buy caps in bulk it'd be dirt dirt cheap to make as well

you could also ask them to send the key they want customed.

[thetmabird]

15 minutes ago, johnno23 said:

sounds like a good plan......your costs for such a venture would be low and the returns could be huge if it works out.

haha yeah got the idea to try and make something cosmetic with my laser engraver, I actually only use it to repair back-glasses on phones and it was like 2k USD haha

 

Not very popular but I find it cool to engrave my phones, did this one recently for a friend

[thetmabird]

6 minutes ago, PcBeExpensive said:

I would go for it, if you can sell for cheap it would be great. You could just ask people for dimensions of the keys they want custom. You could also figure out how to paint the key. If you do start something post something here, I would definetely buy.

If you can find the correct type and color spacebar u want on ebAy or Alieexpress I would be happy to make one for you as long as you cover shipping

[TylerD321]

You might could buy key cap sets for certain models of keyboards for decently cheap. Would be a great way to practice while getting dimensions for other keys. I could see that being useful.

[thetmabird]

1 minute ago, TylerD321 said:

You might could buy key cap sets for certain models of keyboards for decently cheap. Would be a great way to practice while getting dimensions for other keys. I could see that being useful.

It's just that literally all keys except the spacebar are impossible to customize because of the exisiting letters

[TylerD321]

5 minutes ago, thetmabird said:

It's just that literally all keys except the spacebar are impossible to customize because of the exisiting letters

I dunno, most models just have black keys with a clear/white letter to allow rgb to pass through. I could imagine some people would think it would be cool to put like world of Warcraft spells as their icons for like a novelty. This would allow it to be obvious what key it is without removing the customization. I think your biggest market would be usernames or character names on the space key and then game related stuff for the other keys.

 

This would probably increase the cost a bit but would be arguably cooler.

[PcBeExpensive]

16 minutes ago, thetmabird said:

haha yeah got the idea to try and make something cosmetic with my laser engraver, I actually only use it to repair back-glasses on phones and it was like 2k USD haha

 

Not very popular but I find it cool to engrave my phones, did this one recently for a friend

thats nice

[PcBeExpensive]

9 minutes ago, thetmabird said:

If you can find the correct type and color spacebar u want on ebAy or Alieexpress I would be happy to make one for you as long as you cover shipping

hmm, I might take you up on that offer. maybe.

[thetmabird]

1 minute ago, TylerD321 said:

I dunno, some models just have black keys with a clear/white letter to allow rgb to pass through. I could imagine some people would think it would be cool to put like world of Warcraft spells as their icons for like a novelty. This would allow it to be obvious what key it is without removing the customization. I think your biggest market would be usernames or character names on the space key and then game related stuff for the other keys.

I think the original markings on those keys would be unwanted in that case tbh, if you have a custom cap you probably already know what that key does

[PcBeExpensive]

Just now, thetmabird said:

I think the original markings on those keys would be unwanted in that case tbh, if you have a custom cap you probably already know what that key does

yep, if you got a custom keycap you would know what that key is

[TylerD321]

1 minute ago, thetmabird said:

I think the original markings on those keys would be unwanted in that case tbh, if you have a custom cap you probably already know what that key does

I was thinking more along the lines of consistency across the keyboard for RGB. Wouldn’t matter at all for non rgb keyboards.