Anyone have success “re-coloring” their plastic plates with paint, tape, wraps, or glued on paper? Specifically I’m looking to make a white PP plate black, but I know that plastic in particular is resistant to adherence whether that be paint or glue. Any experience with PC or POM would be just as valid.
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I don’t have any personal experience, but for a plastic plate like POM or PC, you can also look into dyeing it.
I have seen some nice results of dyed plastic plates or even people dyeing the milky tops on their switches to get a color theme.
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I believe it is RIT dye that people were using to dye switch housings. Not 100% sure but I’d assume it would work with most plastic plates also. I would do some research on the type of dye & how well the material you are planning on dyeing will accept it before trying though. I did a quick search & found some conflicting info about dyeing certain types of plastics of with RIT. There are other products more specialized for plastics from what I saw, but I didn’t delve to far as I was really just looking for the name of the dye people were using for dyeing switch tops.
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I’ve had decent luck in the past using fine sandpaper, primer and then spray-painting on plastic. Not 100% sure what type of plastic it was though. Just a quick google shows that there are a few products that advertise being primers for polypropylene so you might have some luck there.
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Manually sanding down a plastic plate sounds not fun though with trying to get all in the switch cutouts while simultaneously not shaving down too much to affect the plate lol.
You’re thinking of way too much sanding. You’re really just trying to rough the surface for better adhesion. No reason to sand inside the switch cutouts either, even after. If you are a light touch with the spray can you should be able to keep all of the paint and primer on the surface of the plate w/o it dripping into the switch cutouts. I’ve done this plenty of times with metal Realforce Plates.
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I didn’t think about dying. I do have concerns with deforming the plates through heat, chemical, or mechanical means. A couple plates that I want to treat are not easily replaced. I appreciate the feedback so far.
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I’d go for dying first, but if you find that won’t work, a layer of adhesive signage vinyl might do the trick - something like Avery 900 Supercast.
You’d have to carefully cut the switch holes back out after application which is a pain (speaking from experience), but it should last a really long time in a keyboard. I’d recommend something premium like that 900-series because it’s softer, more consistent, and more durable in terms of aging than something like Oracal 600 or Siser’s hobby vinyls. If you decide to try this let me know, I’ve got some tips for application.
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Plastics are not all the same. In particular, be careful with polypropylene. It’s a plastic that is very non-reactive and resistant to most solvents (which is why it’s used for food and pharmaceuticals a lot), so it’s going to be very difficult to dye.
If you can get a polycarbonate plate, it will likely take the dye much better. I have no idea how well POM might take dye, but I will note that almost every time I’ve seen it, it’s been either white or black.
Paint will probably work better than dye.
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Yeah, after reading up on it a bit, PP is near impossible to dye with water soluble dyes since it’s very hydrophobic. And it doesn’t take paint well either, lol. Really, the only way to color it is by additives when it’s being made. I’ll probably just get some black POM plates cut or something. HypeKeyboards has black PP for their plates (and they are CNC’d which is really nice), but I’m not keen to pay any potential additional tarrifs for Canadian goods.
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Yeah Hype is easily my favorite vendor for aftermarket plates, big shame the tariffs will make ordering from them more expensive. Green Door Geeks are a US based business that cuts plates & have served me well in the past. Although they offer much less materials than hype (most notably no PP 
). I will say their POM plates are top notch though!
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Greendoor is my usual go-to so I’ll be hitting them up.
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Definitely worth searching around a bit for, as many places will laser cut whatever you ship them (assuming it’s not toxic/flammable). E.g., I used Pololu to cut aluminum plates for my weird 2U left shift ISO 60% build. Looks like they do up to 0.125" PP? Pololu - 5. Materials
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