EPTMy keyboard mod is done. If you're not into the mechanics and making-of pics, feel free skip right to the end of this post.
I finished my last blog saying my wife was delighted with the Dremel tool (and she is). Here some pics of her cutting down the keyboard base. In the end, only very flat top and bottom halves remained with the circuitry sandwiched in between.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Fw9Ft.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/1mHr7.jpg)
She also completely created the leather faceplate.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/vvntJ.jpg)
Due to previous complaints that I took a web pic of the router and it didn't look used enough for some people, here's a shot of the bench in my father's secret basement workshop laboratory. I returned for some detail work I had previously only considered and wasn't decided yet because of time constraints.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/wY6Xc.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/LqT0g.jpg)
On the wrist rest, you can see the result. A nice little recess for an engraved name plate.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/JcUiV.jpg)
Speaking of engraved name plate... having them made is fairly expensive, so I decided to make it myself. You, too, can have lots of fun with engraved stuff in N easy steps:
- Design your engraving in some graphics program (as always, I recommend the free Inkscape)
- Buy a narrow sheet of brass metal
- Cut it down to the length of your name design
- Print your design on a transparency and tape it on top of the bar
- Scratch your design through the transparency with a sharp knife or tool, this will leave only tiny marks on the metal
- Use a dremel with a very narrow-tipped grinder or a hand tool to scratch the metal surface. At first, I tried to actually carve into the metal, as I would in stone - bad idea. On metal, relief effects appear to work fine just based on the differing reflection of light if the surface is scratched.
The inscription reads: (dad's name), doctor for disorders of the mood (better known today as a psychiatrist)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/4Lpwr.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/VtIA7.jpg)
Glueing on the lettering
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/of57a.jpg)
Final one: the good old "Hinfort!"-button ("begone", the escape key)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/3Jp62.jpg)
At this point, I'm quickly skipping over some of the setbacks we experienced literally two days before the announced gift handover: First, 90% of the keys stuck when you pressed them (fix some keys, disassemble completely, cut out more wood and leather, reassemble), then there was the issue of the keyboard not producing any output on the USB-port (we had forgotten some innocent-looking rubber piece that presses the contacts to the circuit), the the space bar became stuck, blah. In the end, we spent most of friday (my wife, that is) and saturday in a mad dash in order to not have to tell my dad that the gift was a do-it-yourself-kit for a really cool keyboard. We didn't take any photos here, because a) there was nothing really new to see, and b) we didn't have any time.
Done, finally! The end result weighs in somewhere in the 2-3 kg range (4-6 pounds) due to the heavy wood and the excessive use of brass.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/1oDIq.jpg)
... and he even liked it! Who would have thought that.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/TmRMl.jpg)
edit: bonus image!
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/BJIrm.jpg)
All in all, I started working on this off and on in early april, then came the decision to make it a birthday gift (and with that came a deadline) which prompted me to recruit my wife and sisters as helpers. It's hard to estimate the total effort, but I'd guess somewhere in the 50-100 hours range.
Not quite decided yet on the next project, but some options are the stone immortal, further customizing my AlphaGrip or something completely different. The stone immortal actually is quite likely but suffers from some time uncertainty, since I will soon(?) move my tools into my dad's new workshop (the basement in my new home is too damp for the tools, and there's no electrical outlet). The uncertainty stems from the fact that the new workshop is going to be in a dedicated shed, that only suffers from not having been built yet. However, he has recruited me for cementing the foundations next weekend, and he seems to have a fairly good idea of where he wants to take it (already talked to the neighborhood carpenter about the required wooden beams and stuff). With any luck, it might be done in a month or two. And I might finally get to turn some stones into dust again :-))
One of my reasons for posting this, as always: you don't need to be some sort of genius to do things like this, just plenty of patience and a vision. After that it's just plowing away and dealing with any difficulties that come up, possibly including a complete restart if necessary. Pretty much any of you can probably build this, or something with a similar coolness factor.
