Introduction: Quick and Dirty Das Keyboard (Blank Keyboard)

By thydzik.com
About: Engineer

A Das Keyboard is the name of the most popular keyboard with no inscriptions on the keys (blank keyboard). The Das Keyboard retails for $89.95. This instructable will guide you though making one yourself with any old keyboard you have lying around. The process takes roughly 20 minutes to complete depending on how nice you want the end product to look.

The method chosen to use to remove the labels was with a Dremel and a grinding disc attachment. It may be possible to paint over the keys giving a smoother look, but this is messier and the keyboard will be out of action while drying..

There are two steps in this instructable:
1. sanding/grinding the lettering from the keys.
2. fine sanding/polishing the keyboard to make it more presentable

Step 1: Grinding the Lettering From the Keys.

A ball grinding head was chosen, ideally a larger ball than seen in the pictures should be used as a smaller head leaves more of an indent in the keys.

With the Dremel, grind all the desired lettering. In this step we are not concerned about the looks, but only that all the lettering is removed. However, don't grind more than needed as noticeable indents will be created.

Step 2: Finishing the Keyboard

Give the keyboard a quick clean with compressed air to remove all the debris. An obvious pattern will emerge on the keys, which is rough patches on the keys where the letters existed. This can be left as is giving a more 'ghetto' look and requiring no further work. However, it was chosen to further clean the keys up.

To give the keys a more even look, simply grind lightly over the entire key. This will produce an even rough look to the keyboard. A soft sanding block was then used to further clean the keys.

If desired the keys could be further polished with finer grade sandpaper and then a soft polishing wheel. But I didn’t bother.

Step 3: Final Close-up of the Keyboard.

Final picture shows a close-up of the keys. Yes, it is fairly unattractive looking, but that's a small price to pay for having such a cool looking keyboard.