Wooden keycaps

[alexandrufloca]

Hello everybody, are wooden keycaps a thing?

I will start a new business early 2022 and will have the machining capacity for wooden keycaps if there is demand for them.

[Muirium]

There’s a lot of details to get right in caps. I’d advise getting a highly sought after vintage set and trying to emulate that but in wood instead.

Also: you’ll have loads of competition if you just do the obvious thing and go Cherry MX mount. I suggest considering Topre and maybe even IBM, if you find wood can clip on right.

[alexandrufloca]

There’s a lot of details to get right in caps. I’d advise getting a highly sought after vintage set and trying to emulate that but in wood instead.

Also: you’ll have loads of competition if you just do the obvious thing and go Cherry MX mount. I suggest considering Topre and maybe even IBM, if you find wood can clip on right.

I think it is not realistic to make keycaps for the model m in wood. The wall thickness is just to small,even if i could machine that, it won't stand the test of time

[Muirium]

Indeed. But what about mounts like Topre and Alps?

NMB is a nice switch without modern caps support. Those caps snap on as well, though, but not the same way as IBM. Here’s a starting point including a working model:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=26689

[Tha_Pig]

I have seen a few on Etsy, but usually as one novelty key, not a whole keyset.

It would not be a thing for me, but that's just my personal taste. There could be many people who would buy them.

[Findecanor]

I think the keycap stem would still need to be plastic still, and the wall thickness would be an issue also for Alps and MX.
I believe the mass-produced keyboards that do exist with wooden keycaps either have very narrow switch parts (rubber dome plunger) or the wood is fully on top of a flat plastic keycap.

There isn't just machining. You would also need jigs for holding keycap sets in place and some printing method. And then probably sanding and lacquering.
Plus quality control for when knots in the keys cause parts to splinter off.

[Muirium]

^^ I expect that all of this is quite true. Worth some experimentation though.

My brother’s gotten into 3D printing and carving lately. When I next visit him I’ll bring some keyboard assemblies in need of cases and see what he can do for caps. I’ve long thought 3D printing meant inherently crumbly, rough, weak white stuff but apparently it’s moved on already. We shall see.

[Tha_Pig]

I checked Etsy again and there are a few people selling wooden keycaps, including whole sets.
By the few that have pictures showing the reverse of the keycap, it looks like a plastic stem is simply glued to the wood, probably with some kind of epoxy.

[inozenz]

i have never seen a high quality wooden keycap set, that looks good. the issue are the wood grains. you would need to make a whole set out of a single wood sheet. and it seems noone is really caring about this littel detail which makes all the difference. other then that just using a cnc mashine might not be enough, so there might be a lot of labor work to do to get a really nice flat surface and nice finish. Also it would be crucial to not use high quality hard wood, which is not cheap.

here an example from etsy https://i.etsystatic.com/20592325/r/il/ ... 0_izoy.jpg
you might think, uhh nice dark brown hard wood. but thats nothing i would purchase just becasue the singel keys dont harmonize together.

[hellothere]

bleh - Copy.png (2.21 MiB) Viewed 9077 times

From the ugliest keyboard thread.

[hellothere]

Kidding aside, I rather like the Etsy set that inozenz links to. It's not for me, tho. I'd need legends.

[Muirium]

ȶɦօֆɛ ʟɛɢɛռɖֆ ǟʀɛ քɛʀʄɛƈȶʟʏ ʟɛɢɨɮʟɛ.

[alexandrufloca]

Thank you all for the answers. I will try to manufacture a complete set of keycaps end of January and will post pictures here

[inozenz]

Thank you all for the answers. I will try to manufacture a complete set of keycaps end of January and will post pictures here

That's a good idea, I'll be as honest as possible without hurting your feelings

[depletedvespene]

Kidding aside, I rather like the Etsy set that inozenz links to. It's not for me, tho. I'd need legends.

I wouldn't really need legends, but I would definitely need home row indicator keys (F and J). I suppose extra deep dishes would be easier to pull of than nubs.


And ISO support, of course.

[zod000]

(mass)drop sold an MX set that was surprisingly decent that I picked up a while back and not too expensive. The actual switch mount part was plastic and glued on to the bottom, so I can see them being adapted to other switches with some effort.