Steampunk Keyboard Mod Reworked by myself

[Herbert1405241469 0]

I found this site a couple weeks ago:

 

And decided to take one of my friend's ancient keyboards and modify it in a similar fashion, but add some custom twists in the process to make it more unique.

 

The Steampunk site used a brass construction to make the base and whatnot for the keyboard, but since I don't have access to that sort of material or tools, I'll be working up a mod using wood pieces.

 

I'm still gathering materials, and on the whole, the darned project is going to cost nearly $100 to do, but hopefully it'll turn out alright.

 

To start out, I had to figure out a way to remove the centers of each key:

 

like so... But I tried the Steampunk method, and I actually ruined some keys because I didn't have the proper tools, and so I found out a clever way to work around it. Instead of taking a heated piece of steel and a drill press, I took a regular electric drill, and a Zebra pen (which has a stainless steel body, which was pretty darned tough) and used the body of the pen as a makeshift drill bit!

 

 

 

 

 

I used the hollow body of the pen to drill around the peg inside the key, so all I had left was the core. This technique was rather a pain in the ^$#, but it worked just as well. Big recommendation.... REMEMBER WHERE EACH KEY CAME FROM! Keyboards are set up specially with curves on top for ergonomics, if you put the keys back on wrong in the wrong spot, they will be uneven!

 

My pen:

 

I had to sand down the keys to get them relatively fixed, since I didn't do this and had nearly no idea where the keys went on the keyboard since the letters were cut out for most of them.

 

The process was long and tedious.

 

I am currently looking for appropriate buttons to use for the keys themselves. Rather than using actual Typewriter keys, I've decided, for consistency's sake, to just use all regular clothing buttons, though at $3.50 a pack of 4, it's going to cost me a ton to do so.

 

I've printed out the letters for the buttons, and it'll have an oldschool font:

 

 

 

I'll post more when I get further along in the process!

[vizskywalker 0]

Sounds intriguing. forgive me for being ignorant, but since you never mention the site or its url, I'm curious as to what the final project will be. I'm not entirely clear on what "steampunk" is, I guess.~Viz

[HellFire121 0]

Same here i'll wait till the pictures are put up, but the final result should be interesting and a nice mod to show the personality of some guys. Should be a nice unique addition to any setup (Though i prefer my gaming keyboards ).Good luck and have fun making it -HellFire

[Markymark2 0]

Wow!1 goodluck with this!! I am a big fan of Steampunk tech, I posted on here last year sometime about a SteamPunk laptop I am just crazy about!
http://ironwork.jp/monkey_farm/computer/pc2.html

A few years ago I made a 1960s old mono audio mixer with all needle level meters and cool old buttons and dials on it into a fully programmable midi translated control device and mixer, this thing used to run a whole rack of equipment it was great...untill one night after a gig it got dropped down a set of stairs and smashed to bits ;((( i could only save parts of the midi boards, the facia of the mixer was battered beyond repair;((
If I had the time I would love to get involved in modding again and make some really nice SteamPunk flavoured stuff;)
We got a new HD LCD screen a few weeks ago...im sick of looking at its shiney new facia already I would love to Punk it up!

[Herbert1405241469 0]

Sorry about that, here's the link:

 

http://steampunkworkshop.com/keyboard.shtml/