Beamspring Factory process - How to

[Tahoma]

All very cool, thanks!

Perhaps someday my projects will go beyond being a cap and shell washer.

And like me, another fountain pen fan? Looks like a white Lamy on the keyboard.

[SneakyRobb]

Hi,

Okay so a few updates. Obviously been discussing on the forum with Richard Hunter (Dick) Harris about the beamspring and model f keyswitches. Which has been amazing. Very happy that Dick has now been able to interact directly with the community.

For the beamsprings themselves it apparently is super easy to acid etch them. I have watched some youtube tutorials...not sure why I didn't do this earlier. I will try to acid etch them soon. I will start on mild steel to practise. The original springs have a very high tensile strength so even things like shim stock wont meet that requirement. I must find a modern supplier of such a material.

For keycaps I have am designing a doubleshot method to use. Dick mentioned that beamspring caps used an outer mold first method before the legend. I have been trying to design a small rig to use this.

I think this is the IBM patent to do this.

https://patents.google.com/patent/US446 ... US4460534A
https://worldwide.espacenet.com/patent/ ... CA1189666A

Basically what I plan is to have a resin/aluminium keycap shell model that has a swapable interior legend piece. This will have like X, U, and Q etc at the bottom. This will make a void in terms of the legend. Then a secondary mold will be inserted and the legend will simply fill in. This will avoid the need to individually mold the legends/center pieces or otherwise cnc/create them. I hope that uploading the files and method will allow for a lot more DIY double shots.

My keycap model now is much simpler. I used the square-circle (squircle) shape as suggested by PlacaFromHell, and then rails based on front and back images of the keycaps. This has resulted in a massive time savings. The models are much easier to make.
Finally I will be using the keystems themselves in order to create the profile of the keycaps. Switches like cherry or alps use the keycaps themselves to angle the keycaps for a circular style side pattern. Switches like model F use the entire assembly with a curve to get that profile. I will use the beamspring keystem with a different angle to achive that kind of profile. This will allow me to use the same keycap mold to make doubleshots for all molds. So I avoid the assembly curve of model f, but also the numerous keycap mold of most caps.

My current plan is to basically upload all of the files and methods to the community. That's it. I do not have any plans after that for beamsprings. Just share as much as I can.

[PlacaFromHell]

That's an impressive work. Have you decided which keycap material you're going to use? Would you CNC a "master" keycap, then cast a mold, or directly do the mold? Please keep us updated, making molds is something that requires a big pair of balls and any obtainable information would aid any future attempt to do the same.

[darkcruix]

That's an impressive work. Have you decided which keycap material you're going to use? Would you CNC a "master" keycap, then cast a mold, or directly do the mold? Please keep us updated, making molds is something that requires a big pair of balls and any obtainable information would aid any future attempt to do the same.

Having a modern layout beamspring WITH keycaps you can place in any row would just too good to be true.

[Bjerrk]

That's an impressive work. Have you decided which keycap material you're going to use? Would you CNC a "master" keycap, then cast a mold, or directly do the mold? Please keep us updated, making molds is something that requires a big pair of balls and any obtainable information would aid any future attempt to do the same.

Having a modern layout beamspring WITH keycaps you can place in any row would just too good to be true.

Now I know what I'll be dreaming about tonight

[vyquad]

(Necropost but relevant.) So i have a broken beamspring module and im going to be bringing it to my sister who is a chemist and can xray the real beamspring metal to find out what alloy it is

[-Space-NATO-]

(Necropost but relevant.) So i have a broken beamspring module and im going to be bringing it to my sister who is a chemist and can xray the real beamspring metal to find out what alloy it is

Please update when you got the results!

[vyquad]

Theres a bit of a hiccup getting the metal to her as its a divorce situation where i cant give our actual return address and if i give that to her, she will come and harass my mom as we are under the same roof. Luckily tho, she is getting a PO box