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Hey all.
My 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.
 
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That is just unbelievably cool O_O
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Really cool and good job. I wish I had access to a bunch of tools to be able to do projects like this.
Do you think it'd be possible to make a video of the final working piece?
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just....must.....have....this.....gnaaaaaaaaw
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Really like the Hinfort! key 
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Absolutely beautiful!! Great job, man!!
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I'd buy one. Well done. It's a little crooked but it adds to the charm.
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aw man would love to have one of those, none of my friends would ever have to use my comp again
sick skills
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Why did you choose to leave the cord in the original color?
It looks like the keys are slightly irregularly pointing, is it so? Does that affect typing?
Looks really good
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so much class and an amazing job.. it looks great !
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That's incredible. I'd gladly pay for something like that. You've got one lucky dad.
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That is the most baller keyboard I have seen in a while, made all the more awesome by the fact that you made it yourself.
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That's amazing. Your father is lucky
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Where did you buy all the awesome that went into this??
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really cool! good job man! =)
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I bet a flintstone fan would love one of these made of stone. Great project well done
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Looks pretty bad ass. Even sicker its custom made
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United States24773 Posts
This thread has motivated me to finally do something cool with my Dremel also.
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hahahaha "doctor for disorders of the mood" German is so funny sometimes
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Very nice, and great gift.
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wow the finished product looks amazing! Your dad must be really pleased.
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Wild. This is so amazing. I'm super jealous that you have the talent to do this. It came out sooo good. That faceplate is like the cherry on top too haha. Congrats
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Well done, and good patience shown by you and your wife.
I wonder how easy it is to type on that keyboard... some keys seem skewed? -- And it sure is heavy. Better not call Machine IdrA when he happens to be holding on to this piece. 
Great birthday present!
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On June 24 2012 21:24 Grend wrote:
It looks like the keys are slightly irregularly pointing, is it so? On June 25 2012 01:45 Proseat wrote:
some keys seem skewed? I was wondering if the keys aren't supposed to look... *glasses*... disordered.
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That looks so fucking badass
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Holy
fuck
This is sick sdi ck sick
please make me one T_T
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This is so cool. The keys really make it ^^
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Very very nice
Congrats on the amazing finish!
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Coolest detail is the escape Button. "Hinfort" is old fashioned for: go away.
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Lol that looks awesome. Just... the keys. Also, I got a new project for the TL team, make a SC:BW/SC2 Keyboard for Nazgul on his birthday or something 
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best part about this keyboard is that you can probably whack people with it without damaging it
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i like it, at the start I wasn't sure how the round keys would turn out but imo it turned out really unique looking and something that definitely is a talking piece
NIce gift, glad he liked it
edit- good closing sentence too, thanks :D
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This is sweet. You must have one happy father.
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Concerning the "crooked teeth" look of the keys: this obviously wasn't intended. The brass tubing didn't all come out at the intented length (+/- 1 mm), and so did the wooden interiors. My wife painstakingly sorted the brass parts so that they looked very uniform and nice, only to find out about the wooden parts later. Oh yeah, and the plastic key stilt surfaces were tilted as well (check yours). Glueing a piece of tube onto a tilted surface makes it stick out fairly badly in some cases.
Ah well, it kind of fits the theme. You can type on the keyboard, but certainly not as quickly or comfortably as on a normal one. Still, my father announced he's taking it to work on monday, and he is intent on actually using it (he doesn't type _that_ much).
P.S.: Psychiatrists are called psychiatrists in germany - doctor for mood disorders is just a very old-fashioned synonym my wife found somewhere, and we found that it fit the style better (as does "Hinfort!").
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Nice! This is a mechanical keyboard, right? It'd make the whole feel of the keyboard even more authentic with blues. :D
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That is absolutely beautiful.
Great work, would love to see other themed mods. That is just so cool =)
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Wonderful to see the keyboard finished. Finally! :D
I really admire the fact that you and your wife were both able to contribute to the final overall masterpiece. It seems you've found a really great one, for her to be interested in helping with it.
The statement at the end is too true. Anyone can make something great, they just have to be willing to take the time and effort required to make a detailed plan first, and then the time and effort required to make that plan manifest. Very inspirational post, thank you!
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Wow
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Awesome keyboard sir, only slightly jelly
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WOW
That's fucking awesome.
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That's awesome, I'd love to make one
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Awesome! I'm glad to see that it's finished.
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Please post a video of the keyboard in action! :D
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Papua New Guinea1059 Posts
Looks nice, but the grid is all fucked up and I bet it's not really usefull as a keyboard.
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a lot of the keys look crooked, is that just the camera angle?
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Mads props to you, Sir. Very well done ! I don't care about bumping this thread, ban me if you want but this thread deserves more love ! A shame I didn't see it before !
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EPT
