Emboldened by my success with the minor rebuild of my nanonote
keyboard, I have got a crazy idea. Why not try to make one from scratch?
I am in a unique position because unlike normal mechanical keyboards,
which could never be machined by hand, the Nanonote keyboard is actually
rather simple. After searching for pre-existing key materials, I settled
on modeling clay as a test material. I rolled the stuff out with a
rolling pin, then used a plain kitchen knife to cut the right sized
squares. I measured 8mm long by 7mm tall for each key and about 1mm
thick. The first 2 batches were too thick, but in time I will probably
get that down to a more thin sheet. Since I could not find a spare
credit card for the backing, I sunk to using cardboard. To adhere the
keys to the back and to each other, I used my old standby fabric paint
(not as smelly as silicone). After that dries, I still need to add
nipples on the back for the keys to have reasonable action. We'll see
how it goes. Here are the pics of so far. BTW, I know I'm crazy.
http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/File:Rolledclaykeys.jpg
http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/File:Imposedkeys.jpg
http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/File:Sizedkeys.jpg
http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/File:Angledbuild2.jpg
http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/File:Cardboardbacking.jpg
http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/File:Keyplacement.jpg
http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/File:Keyboardbackside.jpg
http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/File:Glueapplied.jpg
You may be interested, or this may oddly anger you. It seems a little
unimportant and frivolous even to me right now, but let me know that you
think...
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