This is another stuff I’ve done longtime ago, but now I decided to release as HowTo. I had one old keyboard hanging around, I was thinking how would be to have one black keyboard (even that now its quite easy to just go and buy one.) I didn’t took pictures of all segments, but I’ll try explain them:
Material and Equipment:
- Frost Spray (The color you want)
- Plier
- Tape
So, this is the keyboard:
This first step, is to get rid of all the keys, you can let them, if you’d like to have the keys painted too, go ahead, its your keyboard anyway! But I’ll describe the way I did.
First of all, you should take off all the keys, I advise using a Plier, keys don’t come out so easily. But be careful to don’t damage the keys.
Here are some pics of it:
What you could do, is leave your keys in a bowl with water and detergent, it will clean a bit them.
After taking all the keys off, its time to choose what you want to paint and what you won’t.
For that you can simply use a tape to cover what you don’t want to be painted.
Now it’s time to rock!!!
Take your keyboard in someplace with paper and DO IT! You should spray with a distance of something like 15cm and fast, don’t leave the spray at the same point for long. In the first time, it probably won’t cover all the keyboard. So you should wait about 15min, and do it again. Keep doing it until its full covered and with good color.
Some pics of this process:
Now you should wait 24h until its fully dried.
After dried, its time to put the keys back. One advice, before start this project, you should take a picture of your keyboard, so you’ll know where to put the keys again.
And then its ready.
Hope you’ve liked this HowTo.
If you liked this, have any correction or advice, please leave a comment!
I just got a question, how do I put the letters on the keyboard if I paint the keys?
I just remembered, do you have good painting skills?
Let’s paint keyboards like skate boards
Sup ya’ll, nice blogs, very detailed tutorials (especially loved the winamp control :P, making one now). anyway IMO it’s easier to paint the keyboard if you totally dismantle it , that way you wont have to worry about masking off areas such as the keyholes? (sry my english isn’t exactly exemplary). i got tired of my old & boring keyboard, so i ripped it apart, painted the frame black last night, and gonna paint the keys with Red & Black (some sort of pattern i guess), also the 3 tiny green LED-s are really boring so i swapped them with 5500mcd red LED-s :P, it lights up the room pretty good at nights, im thinking about integrating the music-coordinated blinking leds between the number keys row and the F-number keys row, if you have any tips on how to do it, any help/advice would be greatly helpful.
Keep up the good work
Oh and i 4got to ask if the blinking LED project is possible with a cold cathode lamp, and if so would everything be as simple as with LED-s or would there be sth more to do. Even pointing in the right direction is warmly welcome
Fox1, I belive it will work the same way!
And please, let me know how your project ended!
Great tutorial!
imho taking it apart is easier than masking, also if you use a primer paint first the adhesion of the Color paint is much better. If you wash the parts or give a good wipe with alcohal it helps. To keep it from scratching you can clear coat it with matte or gloss clear coat to give it a tough finish.
Would a keyboard require sanding? I remember my first craptastic attempt at it when I was 12 after seeing ‘hackers’ (I even did the camo style) I wasnt bothered by taking out the keys which didnt really help but it turned out that the keys were sticky as the paint had built up etc…
IMO I’d sand the coat down with high-density plastic sanding paper, it should give it a better look and feel, not to mention last longer… then again the camo keyboard was my first, and last attempt at computer modding
After you paint the keys, go to a craft store and find rub on letters (they’re like decals). Pick a size and a font you like. It takes a while to do every key, but the results are worth it. Clear coat it when you’re done to keep them from coming off.
N.B.: Krylon Fusion paint works well with plastic.