Infilling Polycarbonate Keyboard Engraving?

Hey everyone! I have a PC board coming back to me dyed that I wanted to infill the engraving of, similar to this that I did with my Jer Mini.

This was pretty easy to go about doing since the cerakote made wiping off the acrylic paint much easier, allowing me to just kinda slop it on and wipe the edges with an iso soaked qtip. With polycarbonate I imagine it would actually seep in and dye/stain using acrylic paint, unless I’m totally wrong!

Hoping someone has some idea on what could be used to get this done, and any advice. I’d really appreciate it!

I’m just as intrigued as your keycap.

Screenshot 2022-02-08 6.13.11 PM

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Lol yea the dogethinks are pretty cute caps

Hmm, personally I don’t know if acrylic paint would just “seep in” to the polycarbonate. I guess that’s the main question.

Then normal steps for painting polycarb are degrease, sand, prime, and paint. Of course if you’re looking to fill in some text like that Jer mini for example, it’s not really easy to sand or prime those letters, but if the surface is rough enough I think the acrylic would stick just fine?

Many hobbiests for RC vehicles use acrylic or enamel paints when they’re working with polycarbonate

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Hey thanks appreciate the response! It’s always comforting to hear that other hobbies do something similar, that’s basically the reassurance I was hoping to find lol. For reference this is what I would be doing, the Locus letterings.

I guess I’m mostly worried that I won’t be able to simply slop on the acrylic paint and wipe it up as I was able to before, unless PC is okay with an iso cleanup? The engraving is big and deep enough to where I should be able to get a brush in there and be precise, so I might just try it out anyways.

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I have heard against using isopropyl with polycarbonate, but I haven’t done research into it, :thinking:

But I don’t know if it changes based off the finish. Because most of the time when people are dealing with polycarbonate, it’s smooth sheets or a smooth surface (like headlights or a motorcycle windscreen).

Typically keyboard polycarb finishes are all matte, so perhaps sanding and priming might not be required if the paints are able to adhere to the surface enough.

Yeah this is a tough one

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