"Caution!" A Keyboard mod. DONE!

Log Discussion

Here it is, my good old keyboard. Nothing wrong with it really, except that it is black and boring. Time for an upgrade.


Before i mod, i usually do practice on something. Here is the design i aimed to get. This is an old CD case.


Lessons learned: make sure none of the paint sneaks under the masking tape



Taking it appart was pretty simple, just had to unscrew 8 screws on the back.


Popping out the key was as easy as pie.


I sanded the keyboard with 240, 320, 400 grit sandpaper to prep the surface clean and smooth. I taped up the top "shiny" area, because it looks well enough as it is.


I plugged up the key holes with masking tape to ensure smooth operating after the mod. Noone will be able to see any paintjob under the keys andways. Then I applied the first coat of plastic primer. First a thin coat, then sanded, then another 2 coats and sanded again with 600 grit.


Next I put on masking tape to get the design for the paint job. I didnt really measure anything out here. I just started with the first one, and put one next to the other as parallel as possible.


After i was done with the keyboard, i "mounted" the hand rest to the bottom and transfered the parallel lines on it.


Then I removed every other piece of tape ...


And got to painting it black. This coat looks really wet and thick and ugly in this picture, but that is only because of the flash. Its actually quite nice.


As soon this coat is dry i will apply another. then ill cover up the black and spray over with yellow paint.

I got a question though. I plan on applying a clear coat, so do I need to sand down the color coats after they are done? And if so, with what grit sand paper? 600?

 

Yay done. This update has taken a while, because spray paint takes 2 days to cure before you can sand it, so after each coat I had to wait and then sand again before I could put on a new coat. None of this was very spectacular, hence I didn’t bother posting any news on this mod. It turned out quite nice but not as well as I had hoped. Lets see now:


So we left off with the first black coat. Next I took of the masking tape that protects the future yellow area:


Then I taped over the black:



And put on a yellow coat! Actually it was like 3 thin coats so it took a while.



After removing the the tape you could see there were quite a few areas where the paint snuck under the masking tape, so I repeated the WHOLE PROCEDURE with 2 layers of tape. What happened was that the wetness of the paint made the tape curl up, using two layers of tape helped because they were heavier and less likely to lift from the surface. You can see some weird uneven areas on the black part of the paint. I figured this was because I put the masking tape on the black paint while it was still sort of wet. Oh well just one more reason to paint over everything again.


I repeated the steps and put on a clear coat:



And here you see the finished product. God I thought I made sure the lines on the keyboard and the handrest would match up!! Well who cares I still think its sweet, its just not as good as it could have been. You can also see that some paint accumulated in the grove of the sliding button on the left. This was sort of inevidable. Note for the future: Put one one even black coat, and then just put yellow stripes on top of that! Duh. This is what I like about modding, you learn something everytime. I havent even touched spraypaint prior to this,



Discussion

 

"Caution!" A Keyboard mod.

I would appreciate any comments, positive or negative. Thanks for looking.

Log:
http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=111175

 

that looks sweet man, very well done paint job, and as for the lines not matching up...it lets me see where the keyoard ands and the rest begins

 

it looks good but this idea ist very old

 

wow i love that PC! i dont even think i will be able to manage to make the keyboard mod though! That looks ahrd enougth for me?

 

old, btdt.

 

Whats that meen mate?

 

been there done that.
Wheres the originality iow

 

Ok! U have done it before! Thats pretty cool

 

Ah well, some say this is old but I still think you deserve some kudos, turned out pretty nice.

Perhaps you should have masked and sprayed the keyboard and handrest together?

 

Yeah! Its a great mod! So what if its been done before. Well done mate! You should be prowd of yourself!
Good job.

 

nothing special..

rusty keyboard posted by ice-tea looks 200x better

 

you woul dhave got a better finish by spraying the entire thing black... and then painting the yellow stripes over the top.... pretty nice work though

 

Nah mate! Course it dont. I meen I may be a n00b but you, you must be blind too

 

Thanks for the replies. I know this isnt totally mind blowing next generation creative. This is my second mod, and my first paintjob of anything ever. I am still learning the techniques. Sooner or later i hope i'll be good enough to impress you.

Oh and i did try to mask the handrest and keyboard together, but it didn't work. The masking tape left really big gaps between the two because the handrest sits on the keyboard.

 

Well you have impressed me if that counts?

Thats great, I wish I could do it?

 

Well, I thought it turned out pretty good, Keep moddin', mate

 

You've got to start somewhere! I haven't even dared to do a paint job yet - only chrome / other metals!
you (possibly) could have touched up the edges or the lines with an ordinary paint brush? I suppose it would have had a different texture to the sprayed paint.

 

It's a very good paint job fer sure

But blimey... my eyes go wonky just looking at the pictures of it! I can only imagine what it must be like with it sitting in front of you all the time you're at your computer