Vintage LGI

Mr. J · 05 Apr 2018, 19:24

I bought a vintage 286 manufactured by LGI... This thing is running without any problems! It comes with nice dye sublimed caps and vintage Blacks. These are my first vintage Blacks and guess what I think about them now...

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green-squid · 05 Apr 2018, 19:26

Great computer, but I hope you didn't buy this keyboard for just the switches and the caps! At least put in some other cherry switches you don't care about back in there!

hansichen · 05 Apr 2018, 19:33

Are you sure that the caps are dye sublimed pbt? This shape of caps always reminds me of pad printed abs. If these caps are pbt it's a swett find, this board has a pretty nice legend and font which looks pretty.

Blaise170 · 05 Apr 2018, 20:04

If you zoom in the edges are a bit blurry, indicative of dye sub.

Mr. J · 05 Apr 2018, 20:21

I'm sure that these caps are dye sublimed pbt...

And no, I did not bought the system for harvesting switches and caps...

First I wanted to build a Unix-Console with a Raspberry Pi but then I've seen that the system was "fully loaded" with games and apps...

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digital_matthew · 05 Apr 2018, 20:45

The ink on the 2 is raised, while it is flat on that asterisk sublegend. I'm not sure what these are.

Mr. J · 05 Apr 2018, 20:52

I tried to focus on a legend - I think they are flat. I can't sense the letter even with my nails...

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Noobmaen · 05 Apr 2018, 20:58

If you have some acetone handy you can try applying a small amount to the inside of a keycap, if it is ABS it will dissolve. I would be surprised if these are actually dyesub PBT

Myoth · 05 Apr 2018, 21:01

look at this :

you can clearly see the difference, yours is clearly pad printed ...

Anakey · 05 Apr 2018, 21:15

all you would need to do is to zoom up even on that 2 keycap. the texture of the cap does not change when it gets to the 2 therefore how can it be printed?

Mr. J · 05 Apr 2018, 22:24

It is like playing Sherlock Holmes for me...

Lucky me I can provide some comparison shots. I'm 100% sure that these are at least PBT and not ABS.

Dye sub PBT -- ? PBT -- Double Shot ABS -- Pad printed

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The questionable caps had "BTC" inside, maybe this helps a bit?

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Myoth · 05 Apr 2018, 22:34

how can you be sure it's PBT ?

I've said it now multiple times but as far as I can see this is clearly pad printed ABS ...

and even then, you can clearly see what it is in this pic :

Mr. J wrote:
IMG_20180405_201741_614.jpg

you can't get a much better clue than this ..

hansichen · 05 Apr 2018, 22:34

The black POM cap is lasered and not pad printed. Cherrys lasered POM caps are shit.

Mr. J · 05 Apr 2018, 22:38

hansichen wrote: The black POM cap is lasered and not pad printed. Cherrys lasered POM caps are shit.

My fault - of course they are lasered & they are shit

Ok, sounds like pad printed for me...

Myoth · 05 Apr 2018, 22:40

hansichen wrote: The black POM cap is lasered and not pad printed. Cherrys lasered POM caps are shit.

I'm still not sure why you still say this but they're not bad IMO, okay the lasering might not be to everyone's liking but they're certainly not shit ... they're cheap and thick. what else do you need ?

Findecanor · 05 Apr 2018, 22:47

Oh, I thought those looked like BTC caps.
You can test for ABS with acetone. Wet the tip of a q-tip with acetone and rub it on an area on the inside of a keycap. If it smears, it is ABS.

digital_matthew · 05 Apr 2018, 22:49

Anakey wrote: all you would need to do is to zoom up even on that 2 keycap. the texture of the cap does not change when it gets to the 2 therefore how can it be printed?

When I paint on top of another layer of paint, the brush strokes from the first layer come through.

Blaise170 · 06 Apr 2018, 15:50

Yeah after the second image with the 2, I'm thinking it's some kind of printing as well, though it may not be pad print.

Mr. J · 06 Apr 2018, 18:43

It is a very good quality, the printing is crisp sharp. Meanwhile I found the manufacturer BTC in the wiki but without any information how they manufacture their caps...

kbdfr · 07 Apr 2018, 09:26

Mr. J wrote: It is a very good quality, the printing is crisp sharp. […]

Crisp sharp edges literally exclude dye subs because dye sublimation, as explained in the wiki,

is different to printing in that printing forms a layer of paint on top of the plastic, whereas dye sublimation causes the dye to sink into the plastic.

Compare:

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ideus · 10 Apr 2018, 00:18

The caps are pad printed, but they are nice any way.

Daniel Beardsmore · 10 Apr 2018, 00:56

Mr. J wrote: The questionable caps had "BTC" inside, maybe this helps a bit?

I am not sure I have ever seen branding on (well, inside) a keycap before!

I was looking at the keycaps and noticing that the typeface is a lot like Key Tronics, which seemed an odd company to make a keyboard with Cherry switches. However, being BTC makes sense, as BTC used the same typeface as Key Tronic for a while (albeit normally as double-shot).