Hey everyone, I'm working on a personal project to create some custom keycaps for my vintage board and could use some guidance from those who've been down this path before. I've been researching different manufacturing methods and keep running into conflicting information about the best approach for small-batch production.
The project involves making around 50-100 keycaps with a specific profile that's not commercially available anymore. I've got the 3D models sorted and have been looking into various production methods, but I'm getting stuck on the practical side of things. Traditional machining seems prohibitively expensive for this quantity, while 3D printing doesn't give me the surface finish and durability I'm after for daily use.
I've been reading about injection molding as a potential middle ground - apparently it's possible to use 3D printed molds for smaller runs, which could work for my needs. The process seems more complex than I initially thought though, and I'm not sure about material compatibility or whether the mold longevity would be sufficient for my batch size. I found some technical information about plastic injection molding services https://www.abismould.com/info/what-are ... 53019.html that explains the process in detail, but I'm still unclear about the practical considerations for a hobbyist project like mine.
Has anyone here attempted something similar? I'm particularly interested in hearing about material choices for both the molds and final keycaps, cycle times, and whether the investment in tooling makes sense for this scale. Also wondering if there are any gotchas with keycap-specific requirements like switch compatibility tolerances or surface finish expectations that I should be aware of before committing to this approach. Any insights would be much appreciated - thanks in advance for sharing your experiences.
Need advice on custom keycap manufacturing approach
-
engr
- Location: USA
Check out lispnick’s thread about recreating the Lisp keyboard. He has done extensive research and experimentation with different manufacturing methods. I think for the quantities you are looking for, injection molding will be too expensive (tens of thousands of dollars) but resin casting that he does may make sense.
-
vvp
- Main keyboard: Katy/K84CS
- Main mouse: symetric 5-buttons + wheel
- Favorite switch: Cherry MX
- DT Pro Member: -
Resin casting needs a mold. That is often 3D printed. In such a case, one can just 3D print the keycap itself. FDM/FFF 3D printed keycaps do not look that well but mSLA 3D printers are cheap and provide a good result.
Here is a sample mSLA 3d printed keycap. Resolution 50 µm. No antialiasing, i.e. you can see layers in the prints. If you mind the quantization to 50 µm then just use antialiasing.
Here is a sample mSLA 3d printed keycap. Resolution 50 µm. No antialiasing, i.e. you can see layers in the prints. If you mind the quantization to 50 µm then just use antialiasing.
- top.jpg (69.18 KiB) Viewed 112 times
- bot.jpg (87.05 KiB) Viewed 112 times