Introduction - The Plan
Taking your keyboard apart
The Decals
Conclusion
Introduction
How many of you have thought about modding your keyboard? My guess is that you came across the same problem that most people do: “How do I paint the keys and still read them?” For those of you with raised letters, you may have tried to paint your keys already. Some of you may even trust your memory of the keyboard, but most likely, you have just avoided painting the keys, painting only the keyboard case. Then there are those who have just given up the idea, after all, you can’t type with out a keyboard, and paint doesn’t dry completely in a few hours. Like many, I wanted to mod my keyboard. I had BIG plans for mine, and you will get to see them when I finish the second article of the “Xtreme Keyboard” series. I will only hint to you that it involves adding 3 other items into the keyboard, and that you should practice up on your soldering skills if you want to follow along. For this article, I will show you how I solved the problem of painting your keys. Let’s take a look at the keyboard. I use a PS/2 keyboard in my office, so this was a great opportunity to purchase a USB keyboard, because I can’t type on wet paint. I found one (new in box) for only $8 on E-bay. Here it is fresh out of that box:

Nothing special, just a 101 key US standard USB keyboard, but what’s this? Something that I hadn’t planned on, a built in PS/2 port on the side:

I will keep that in mind, but we will not be using that just yet. Let’s see what the plan is…

For now, we are not worried about the case of the keyboard, which can be painted anytime. For now, we have to figure out how to paint those keys. My plan WAS to use transparency film to print on and stick to the keys. This turned out to be a really bad idea. I could not get the film to stick to the keys, and I couldn’t get it to conform to the recessed shape of the keys either. I was out of ideas when I came across a wonder product! The product is called “Super-Cal” and it is sold in hobby stores, or online at www.paper-paper.com. Their web site could use some help, but this product is great!

For any of you who have ever built model cars before, you will know what water-slip-decals are. Well, these are printable water-slip-decals! What could be better?

The kit comes with one can of last step spray, instructions, 2 sheets of white water-slip paper, and 3 sheets of clear water-slip paper.

First thing we will want to do is to make up some key letters and words. I used PhotoShop to make this image for printing on a clear sheet of Super-Cal:

(note, this image is reduced 50% to fit in the article, for the full sized image, please click on the image above) To use this stuff, you simply print your image on the special paper (testing on a regular piece of paper first), then spray with the “Last-Step” spray. This seals the ink in between a layer of paper like stuff, and the paint. The instructions explain how to use this stuff.

Let’s go prepare those keys…

Taking your keyboard apart

You may or may not want to take your keyboard apart for this, but I didn’t want to accidentally paint the cord, and I wanted to individually sand my keys. I also wanted to make sure that none of the electronics inside were damaged, as I didn’t order a spill-proof keyboard.

I started by unscrewing all of the screws in the back of the board:

Once inside, I carefully removed the electronics, and contact sheet.

Then I removed all of the rubber buttons, and the key supports (over 100 of them):

I then sanded all of them down, because the letters were raised. I made sure to leave enough paint on them to still be able to see where each key went. Next I put all of the keys and their supports back on.

Now it was time to paint the keys. I left them in the keyboard (top half only) so I didn’t have to paint them each individually. This makes it much easier to paint, but harder to get the sides painted. The trick is lots and lots of light coats. I did about 9 coats of paint. I chose to go with pure white. I like white, not that cream color ("colour" in the UK) that we have all grown to hate.

Let’s go put those decals on…

The Decals

Now for the fun part, this took several hours! I have let my paint dry for 24 hours, and I have let the Last-Step dry for 24 hours. Now it’s time to get a small dish, and fill it with water. I have removed the Knoj logo in the image below, because I have already used it to test this stuff out and to practice… Just ignore it for now.

Cut out a key making sure not to cut across the ink, as that would expose it to the water and make it run. Place it in the water for about 30 seconds, and then slip the paper backing off.

Then slide the decal onto the appropriate key. I would suggest having a picture of the keyboard so you know where each key was before.

Let each one dry for about 2 hours before you spray a final clear coat of paint on them. Again, make sure you do several light coats. This is especially critical now, because of two things, one, you have done a lot of work and now would be a bad time to mess it up, and two, because heavy paint will eat away the top layer of Last-Step, and the ink will bleed.

Once you are done, you will have a mess of small pieces of paper (vacuum them up) and a nice looking keyboard.

On to the conclusion of this article…

Conclusion

Well, I have shown you an easy (but time consuming) way to improve the looks of your keyboard. You may rush out and try to find this stuff, or you may hold off because of it’s outrageous price of $23 (USD).

Here is the final keyboard:

You make the choice, but if you modify your keyboard, I think this is a must for any Xtreme mod! Just be sure to take some time in deciding your font!