This group purchase was for the equipment to do metal (silver, gold, bronze, etc.) casting. That said, we did also buy a 3 gallon stainless steel vacuum pot with this that can be used for resin (epoxy, urethane, silicone, etc.) degassing. I also got out old big vacuum pump cleaned up and got all the fittings sorted out so that it can be hooked up to the vacuum pot easily.
Bottom line though, YES! you absolutely could make key caps with this equipment! You would use the vacuum pot and silicone to make a master mold, and then you could either cast your plastic/rubber resin in that mold, or you could inject wax into that mold, invest the wax, burn it out, and cast it in metal! A mechanical keyboard with all cast metal keycaps would be incredibly badass.
Hit me up if you want me to teach you how to use everything!
I have received the last shipment of our casting equipment! We now have a torch for melting our metal and are ready to cast! I plan on doing an investment burnout starting Sunday morning, the burnout cycle takes about 8 hours, so I will be doing the actual melt and castinging Sunday evening. If anyone would like to have an item cast at the same time, please get your wax carved by Saturday evening! We have 2 more flasks that items can be invested in, so please, grab some wax, carve or CNC something you want to cast, and let’s do it! we have a small stock of bronze (1 lb.) that anyone is welcome to use to cast a test piece or to learn, or Dave Schwinn and I both have Silver on hand that we are willing to share for the price we paid for it (about $30/oz). let me know if you need help getting a wax item ready to cast!
