Steampunk Laptop #3

For some reason there is a booming market for typewriter keys on ebay.  There's also a number of folks who are selling old typewriters pleading with bidders not to buy them just to cut the keys off.  I picked upa set of already cut keys a few years ago with the plan to modify a stock apple wired keyboard.  It turns out that a modern keyboard has a TON more keys than an old typewriter.  So without enough keys and also kind of frustrated with all the work involved in cutting down and refinishing the plastic keys to mount typewriter keys, it all sat in a box for a while.

Once i decided to do the laptop things made a lot more sense.  Once i realized that it wasnt necesary to cut up the laptop's keyboard things really picked up.  The keys themselves are pretty simple.  They were cut off the typewriter pretty roughly, probably with bolt cutters, so they all have a stump of the original arm left.  Rather than grind each one down I decided to shim it up with a stainless washer.  It makes the keyboard look and feel a bit better with the keys slightly higher of the original keys.  It will also make it easier if at some point i need to rip the keys off if this computer dies.

I had to make a number of custom keys, since typewritere dont have things like "function" and "Volume" keys.  But prying the crome bezel off the keys is actually pretty simple, and then it was just a matter of matching the type on the other keys (News Gothic MT).