Wooden Key Caps

[toastythomas]

Look, I've tried. I've searched and searched to no avail. Maybe I'm asking for too much or maybe I have let my imagination get the best of me. I'm here to ask: Are there any mechanical replacements keycaps that are wooden? I don't want gold or silver like Linus, I want wood! My setup theme is forming to be wood so wooden key caps wood be amazing.

 

DONT HAVE TO BE WOOD. PLASTIC LOOKING LIKE WOOD WORKS BETTER.

[Spork829]

I swear I saw some on Massdrop not too long ago. Just a min

[Spork829]

Here!

[DocSwag]

6 minutes ago, Spork829 said:

Here!

They're not currently available though

You can get them here but it looks like they're 9 bucks for 2. Which is quite expensive.

 

http://techkeys.us/collections/artisan/products/alltronsit-wood-keys

[manikyath]

like actual wood?

 

i think my entire heritage of kitchen manufacturers would like to tell you that's a bad idea for several reasons:

- maintenance: bare wood isnt gonna last, and i doubt you'll plan on sanding down, varnishing, and reapplying the lettering to your keycaps every 6 months to a year

- tolerances: wood is a product of nature, it contracts and expands A LOT.

- structural strength: wood is very strong, in one direction, and when you take a big block.

- probably a few other things i forgot.

 

what you could rather do (and what i hope the keycap set @Spork829 listed did), is to have *actual* keycaps, with a vineer or laminate on top, for those who dont know what laminate is, it's the stuff ikea puts on their kitchens, but instead of one layer, they take approximately 1000 layers, and fuse them together with pressure and heat, and as a result get a material of which just the top layer is approximately twice as durable as said ikea materials.

[manikyath]

2 minutes ago, DocSwag said:

They're not currently available though

You can get them here but it looks like they're 9 bucks for 2. Which is quite expensive.

 

http://techkeys.us/collections/artisan/products/alltronsit-wood-keys

those.. look like a failure waiting to happen as well..

[DocSwag]

1 minute ago, manikyath said:

those.. look like a failure waiting to happen as well..

These are the same ones as on massdrop. It's this one redditor that's making them and selling them. And they definitely aren't perfect.

[toastythomas]

2 minutes ago, manikyath said:

like actual wood?

 

i think my entire heritage of kitchen manufacturers would like to tell you that's a bad idea for several reasons:

- maintenance: bare wood isnt gonna last, and i doubt you'll plan on sanding down, varnishing, and reapplying the lettering to your keycaps every 6 months to a year

- tolerances: wood is a product of nature, it contracts and expands A LOT.

- structural strength: wood is very strong, in one direction, and when you take a big block.

- probably a few other things i forgot.

 

what you could rather do (and what i hope the keycap set @Spork829 listed did), is to have *actual* keycaps, with a vineer or laminate on top, for those who dont know what laminate is, it's the stuff ikea puts on their kitchens, but instead of one layer, they take approximately 1000 layers, and fuse them together with pressure and heat, and as a result get a material of which just the top layer is approximately twice as durable as said ikea materials.

i meant plastic looking like wood. I didnt even know there was real wood caps out there

[manikyath]

1 minute ago, toastythomas said:

i meant plastic looking like wood. I didnt even know there was real wood caps out there

they're not a common thing for a reason

i'm sure you can find keycaps with a wood grain printed on them in some way, different techniques offcourse leading to different durability.

2 minutes ago, DocSwag said:

These are the same ones as on massdrop. It's this one redditor that's making them and selling them. And they definitely aren't perfect.

so.. i have very little first hand woodworking experience, but there's two things i can tell you:

- the stems on cerry mx are a friction fit, so with wood about 34% of the time they'll be snug, about 33% of the time they'll be impossible to get on or off, and about 33% of the time they'll fall right off.

- that stem looks so brittle, i can almost guarantee you just a few "near miss stroke, right on the edge of the key" hits will make it snap.

 

that also looks like untreated wood, which is a hygiene disaster as it absorbs the oils, sweat, and bacteria on your hand, as well as a durability issue because said liquids essentially deform the wood structure over time, making it even more prone to cracking than it already is.

[toastythomas]

12 minutes ago, manikyath said:

i'm sure you can find keycaps with a wood grain printed on them in some way, different techniques offcourse leading to different durability.

yea but where. 

[manikyath]

6 minutes ago, toastythomas said:

yea but where. 

i've been looking, and they seemingly only make decent ones for apple keyboards (go figure..), but i did find one interesting resource: someone mentioning 3D printing keycaps with woodfill fillament. it would kinda look like wood, but IMO the "fake grain" that appears from 3D printing looks less than pleasing.

 

the other ideas i can think of is getting vineer and glueing that onto actual keycaps, or find a place that does custom "hydrographics" (or DIYing your own, not that i'd consider that a good idea seeing the chemicals involved), if you're skilled you could probably vinyl wrap your keycaps as well (in a similar fashion as is done to cars), and if all else fails, i guess tan keycaps could at least imitate the idea: