Keycap Crafting — Tool List
Many people got into the keycap making business during the pandemic. For me it’s been a great way to flex my artistic, business, and engineering process muscles while making a little bit of money on the side. If you’re unfamiliar with my work, you can find it here on Etsy. I’m also on Instagram. Since folks have asked, I put together a list of the tools I use to build my caps.
Disclaimer: Some of the following are affiliate links.
3D Printing
Finally buying myself a 3D printer was a game changer for rapid prototyping. It’s so much better than
ANYCUBIC Photon Mono X 6K Resin 3D Printer
Not super expensive. Perfect for keycaps. I can fit ~25 caps in a single print. For now, I just use the software the system comes with for plating. Sometimes I use Slic3r to update models if Ineed something that has a few more CAD-like tools — just basic stuff like extrusions/cropping. Note that I am by no means a 3D printing expert.
ANYCUBIC Wash & Cure Station
Fill with alcohol to wash off your prints. It has a little magnetic fan at the bottom that agitates the water. Then after drying you can switch it to cure mode to rotate your print under UV light.
ANYCUBIC 3D Printing UV Sensitive Resin
Works well for creating my encapsulated mountains. I plan to try different resins in the future. So far I haven’t found one that is strong enough for stems.
Sculpting and Molding
Not everything for me is 3D printed. I still mold my stems, and sometimes I do a fully molded (not encapsulated) cap.
Zappy Cappys ZButt Molding Systems
Zappy’s molding systems are wonderful. You can get them customized and everything just works. Highly highly recommend.
NSP Hard Clay
Great for sculpting keycaps by hand. Toss it in the freezer for a bit before you use the MoldStar on it.
Sculpting Tools
Not an expert in this aspect of cap making, but these worked well for me.
SmoothOn MoldStar 20T
Quick setting silicone for use with clay molds. Doesn’t set when in contact with ANYCUBIC 3D Printing UV Sensitive Resin. For that you’ll need the OOMOO 25.
SmoothOn OOMOO 25
This stuff is supposed to work well with the 3D resins because it’s a Tin-Cure silicone. I haven’t tried it yet, but I will try to update this when I make another mold from a 3D printed model.
Air Compressor
Use this with your pressure pot.
Pressure Pot
This is the tool that takes you to the big leagues. If you cure your molds in a pressure put all the little bubbles are compressed into oblivion which leaves you with super clear encapsulations. For mine, I removed all the paint mixing pieces and put a bolt of the same size through that hole with a couple air tight washers. It’s been working well for years.
Painting
I use mostly latex paint for any detail work I paint onto the mountains. You can find that at Michaels or any other art store. I do have a couple of recommendations though for pedestals and priming.
Nail Polish
I use nail polish for all of my pedestals now because it takes far fewer coats to cover the plastic. It’s a bit more expensive but for time-saved, I think it’s totally worth it.
Stynylrez Primer Paint
This stuff is great. Can be sprayed on or painted on. Even though it’s really runny it coats quite well. Highly recommend.
Odds and Ends
Exacto Knife
Great for Cutting resin, clay, silicone, vegetables, whatever.
Awl
These things are the best for scratching or breaking off little pieces of plastic in tiny grooves. I use mine all the time.
Marketing
Photo Light Box
These make it a bit easier to take nice pictures of your caps. This isn’t the exact one that I have but it’s close.
Rotating Display Stand
If you want a less static picture.
Phone Camera Enhancer
Before I got a new phone with a much nicer camera, I had a lot of luck with this little clip on tool. Probably not the quality of doing the full DSLR thing, but made pretty serviceable marketing pictures at a much lower price.
Linktree
If you want multiple links in your Instagram Profile
Meta Business Suite
I hate social media. So it’s way nicer to just schedule a ton of photos at one time than to have to constantly keep up with it using the regular app.
Etsy
I really love Etsy. I started out on Shopify which is wonderful if you want to consistently put time into your store (it has a monthly price). For me it was better to simply pay a portion of my sales to Etsy and not feel bad about taking a few months away from marketing whenever I want to be lazy. Plus there’s a large number of folks on there looking for cool stuff to buy.
Safety
Working with compressed air and chemicals…what could go wrong?
Eye Protection
I’m pretty basic here.
Respirator
For when I’m working with nasty plastics or sanding a bunch.
Reusable Gloves (Kitchen Gloves)
I wipe these kitchen gloves off and re-use them.
Rubber Gloves
If I’m working with something that hardens I’ll just use these one time gloves.
Let me know if you have any questions!
