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Sony goes steampunk
Topic Started: Feb 7 2012, 09:48 PM (123 Views)
lgm
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Demogorgon
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A new employee for Sony has a self-described geeky desk setup. She figured her laptop needed to match and pitched a steampunk laptop for an internet show Sony puts on. Sony sanctioned her to do an official Sony Vaio F steampunk laptop. It's making the rounds of shows and cons. The guy who built it talks about it on the show:

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Benevolance
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Ancient Wyrm
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I missed this one. That is very cool.

I've got a wireless keyboard that I've hacked and it's ready to go for the arcade cabinet...as soon as I can find the keys!

I have had no luck finding typewriter keys in Vancouver. I wanted to make some myself, but I haven't figured out a good way to do that, either. I had thought of using a hole saw to cut wooden disks, but the smallest hole saw diameter I can find is larger than the spacing for my keyboard.

Hmm...I wonder if using a wooden dowel might work...slice it into disks, use a forstner bit to depress the center a little and create a bit of a rim around the key, then print and glue a letter down and finish it up nicely. I think I'll have more luck finding a dowel with a small enough diameter to make this work.

Any other thoughts on how to recreate typewriter keys?
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lgm
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Demogorgon
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Dowel rods come in lots of sizes. You should have no problem finding one of the right size at the local store. Otherwise a scroll saw or jigsaw would do the trick with plywood. The scroll saw would be much better for manipulating stock to make cuts with such a tight arc but jigsaws are far cheaper in comparison. Hole saws are for making holes larger than drill bits so I doubt they make one small enough.
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Benevolance
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Ancient Wyrm
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With a scroll saw or a jig saw, what are the odds I can consistently get a round circle the same size? We're talking typewriter keys that are about, oh, 1 cm diameter? About 3/8" I'd guess?

3/8" dowel seems like a reasonable diameter to expect. I think I'll try that route.
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lgm
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Demogorgon
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It comes down to skill but a scroll saw is so very nice to use because you are moving the stock. It lends to being far more precise. Jigsaws take practice and I'm not sure you could do such a tight arc unless the wood is quite thin and you practice at it.

It would make a good excuse to buy a scroll saw! You can do much more detailed work and with much smaller pieces. Instead of printing out designs, you could cut them out of thin plywood which gives the option of staining.
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Benevolance
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Ancient Wyrm
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I actually have a scroll saw. Jenn's mom bought it for...well, for her, but she justified the purchase by saying that I could have it when she was done with it. She's as bad as my wife for acquiring tools she doesn't necessarily need. But I shouldn't complain.

So the scroll saw I would have to manipulate the wood around the blade, correct?
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lgm
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Demogorgon
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Yup. It will let you do very exacting scroll cuts. It makes jigsaws and band saws look clunky and I've done some nice things with those.
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Andrul
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Ancient Wyrm
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I'm no woodcraft expert but I think the sliced dowels would give you more uniformity. I also recall seeing Bob Vila do something with wax or crayon, light and dark stains, and clear varnish to create custom lettering. I think he used the lighter stain, used the wax to draw the letters and then applying the darker stain. He then somehow peeled off the wax then varnished. Please keep in mind I saw this better than 30 years ago so what I remember isn't exact. For keys you might want to use acrylic instead of varnish for durability.
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lgm
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Demogorgon
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You're right about uniformity. My only concern would be a saw blade making a mess of such slim slices. Again the scroll saw would be good because they tend to have very fine blades but you need to make sure you have a fence or guide that would cut it at an even thickness.
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Benevolance
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Ancient Wyrm
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A fence is doable. I'm not sure the setup for the scroll saw, but I've got a removable fence for my router that just clips onto the side of a table. That might work.

Of course, a 3/8" dowel isn't particularly thick. I could saw then by hand with my dozuki saw. It'd take a lot longer than a machine, but it wouldn't need any setup.
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lgm
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Demogorgon
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Have a small miter box for your hand saw? That should do the trick in keeping your saw from giving uneven pieces.
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Benevolance
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Ancient Wyrm
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Because I've enslaved a wounded alien lifeform that crashed on earth and I nurtured it to enough health that I can use it to fabricate anything I desire and it cannot escape I am me and I live in this house, I was able to wander into my office upstairs and discover several 3/8" dowels I had purchased at some indeterminate time for an indeterminate project. I was going to recycle my wireless keyboard but now I may keep it.
Crap. This might not work. Since it's a stylish keyboard, the base flares out on the keys. And it does so to allow space for the keys to depress properly around the frackin' huge key supports. The dowel is large enough for the top, but even if I hollow out a bit on the underside with the forstner bit, it's a square trying to fit inside a circle and it won't quite do it. The keys are also those fancy ergo keys, with the slightly concave key top. AND they are slightly angled front to back, like stadium seating.

I think I might be able to make it work still. I'll have to detach the plastic key from the plastic pillar. Then I can cut the wooden keys quite thin (like, perhaps between 1/16" and 1/8") I can glue the wooden keys atop the plastic pillar and use the glue to fill the concave bit/gap between the wood key and the plastic pillar.

But after sawing the one by hand, I think that setting up a fence on the scroll saw to cut the pieces to the 1/16" thickness is a good way to go. Even with the mitre box, it wasn't quite a perfect cut. And I'm picky. With the scroll saw, I can cut more pieces than i need and discard any deviants that don't meet my standards.
Edited by Benevolance, Feb 26 2012, 12:02 AM.
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Andrul
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Ancient Wyrm
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Checkout a local hobby store that deals with radio controlled airplanes and such. I don't know what the cost is these days but I remember my dad having a recip saw he could set on the table. It was the perfect size for what you're looking to do and you could swap out blades for different materials. I wish I had it today since it would be great for small projects.
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