- In today's episode of
(keyboard caps spreads on table)
Linus Tech tips home isolation edition,
we are going to take these plain old
boring keyboard key caps and infuse dye
into them surface of them
to make our very own full-color custom key caps.
All you need to do this is a converted Ink jet printer,
a homemade heat press, some sublimation paper,
in my hand, left.
And a little bit of patience.
This is going to be my first time doing it
so let's hope that Collins instructions are
extremely clear.
SimpliSafe is the effective and affordable
home security service designed to keep your home safe.
Head to simplisafe dot com forward slash L-T-T
and stay tuned for more info coming later on in this video.
(techno music playing)
Dye sublimation is the process of printing a dye
onto a transfer medium, then with the application
of both heat and pressure, infusing the dye
into the surface of a receptive material.
This process is commonly used to print onto mugs,
clothing, phone cases and much much more,
and with a little bit of work,
you can take an everyday Inkjet printer
and some dye sublimation transfer paper.
(hand taps on table)
Oh looks like I already have that one.
How convenient.
Note that if you choose to convert a second hand printer
guys there are some extra steps involved.
We went new and we chose the Epson WF-7210
because it's relatively cheap
and there were ample choices for dye-sub conversion kits
on Amazon.
Time to set it up I guess,
I have no instructions for this so huu good luck.
The most important thing though
is to not run the stock cartridges at any point
because then it's a used printer
and now you have to do those extra steps.
This looks and feels extremely cheap.
Refill ink hole is this,
this is so stupid,
these don't even have screw on top,
there's just like rams on there.
That's not amazing, wait oh shoot that's not the
oh that the air hole.
Oh shut.
I have one job, I have one job.
Put the thing into the correct hole.
See You knew I wasn't gonna be able to handle that.
Alright there one down.
(upbeat music playing)
I think look at the size
because normally the black ones are bigger
but I don't think it actually lets you fill it all the way.
Okay, well we've got us a printer
ladies and gentlemen.
Probably like that I guess.
would I screw up something as simple as loading paper
in a printer?
- [Lady] Yes.
Well would I screw up something as big as marrying someone
who doesn't know how to put paper in a printer?
No.
Now that that's over with, we can get to printing.
So I've actually got a sheet of designs
from our very own one and only macro King Taran Van Hemert.
Apparently this is just one of the uh many
that Taran has requested.
So it's gonna to be a lot of trial-and-error here.
I guess it doesn't really matter which design we start with.
Why does he need a band key?
- [Lady] Why does he need a gun key?
Two gun keys.
- I don't know.
So while that's printing guys you can take a break
and visit L-C-T store dot com.
Ohh whose the hater now?
Alright lets have a look at our sides here.
So these are supposed to be 11 milometer by 11 milometer,
which should fit pretty nicely on to our keys.
We didn't go right to the edge, Um left a bit of a border,
but that was on purpose.
Now that's done, I will finally go through the press
that call them in.
So the construction is pretty simple,
we've got two pieces of wood, small hinge,
a heater element right here and then in a power supply
for the afore mentioned heater element.
Uh we also use some high temp J-B Weld
to hold the heater in place,
and basically all that's involved is you take this puppy,
put it uh this way and then apply pressure.
When you've got both heat and pressure,
the ink should soak into the key cap permanently.
Collins instructions are doing pretty well until now
I'm supposed to remove this silicone from this plastic strip
but they seem to have bonded fairly permanently.
Not gonna work.
Nope this is not coming off.
Fine I guess you're getting the ax today,
this was the only other silicone thing
that I could find in this building unfortunately.
Now we just need a piece of this that is about the same size
as our key cap print out.
The silicone goes on there,
apply pressure for 50 to 60 seconds.
Geese that is a long time.
Okay, here we go.
alright let's have a look.
We got nothing let's try that again,
absolutely nothing.
I have an uneasy suspicion that this ink,
is not dye sublimation ink at all.
Because I would have expected it to transfer at least
a little bit so far.
As you guys can probably tell from the improvements
to the lighting, skill with the camera and beard,
some time has passed and I am ready to pick up again
with DIY custom key caps this time with the correct ink.
You want Minecraft header or you want the Minecraft block?
- [Little Girl] Head.
- So we need to take our creeper
and we're gonna put it on top of there
- That's up side down.
- Yes so that's the whole point.
The ink on the top is going to get soaked
into this plastic right here,
so it needs to be upside down.
Can you count to 60?
- One, two, three
(time lapse sound)
60.
- Whooo that is pretty cool.
Alright.
So there's our Minecraft creeper,
I don't know if it needs to cool down to be durable
but seems fine right off the bat.
The idea is that the ink
actually soaks right into the plastic
so it shouldn't be easy to remove.
- Daddy can you stope please
- Stop what?
- Stope rubbing it.
- Why, I'm trying I'm trying to test
it to see if its gonna come off, It's not coming off.
Impressively the color is actually better
after you sublimate it.
So you can see our white key cap
is a much more vibrant green
than our white piece of paper here.
Okay let's do the little cute face.
- Wow that's really good cutting.
One, two, 59, 60.
- okay do you think it worked?
- Yes.
- [Boy] Oh that's adorable.
- Just like the creeper, the dye is sublimated
into the key cap material so that it does not scratch off,
that is super cool.
I've only done half a dozen of them so far
but I've already learned quite a few things.
Number one is that more pressure seems to me that
you can get away with less time.
Number two is that dye sublimation
definitely doesn't work on dark key caps at all,
not only did the images not transfer particularly well
but we actually found that they melted more easily
from the heating element,
and then the other one is that
if you don't get a full transfer,
you can actually kind of peel it back a little bit,
put it back on, and then give it another go.
That was how we fix the L-T-T logo one.
If I were to design the heat press again,
one thing I would probably change
is to elevate the hinge a little bit,
cause right now what I'm finding is
compared to just doing 40 seconds
which is what I've settled on now with more pressure.
I kind of have to do 20 seconds one side,
20 seconds the other side
in order to get an even application.
Now that I've got the hang of it though,
they are coming out incredibly well
as long as it's a pretty simple design
on a light-colored cap.
I wanna take another crack at this bat one
when you can clearly see I didn't put enough pressure on it.
Let's check this Minecraft block shall we.
Hey hey.
How does that look?
- [Little Girl] Giggles
- Pretty good hey?
- Hmm
- Do you guys wanna take another crack at the Batman key?
- Yup please.
- Well we can do that together,
but I think I'm done talking to the audience,
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If you guys enjoyed this video,
maybe check out our recent video where we showed off
the only all metal keyboard as far as we are aware.
That's right all metal body all metal key caps even.
we're going to have that links down below.