Alternative to Typewriter Keys

Jake von Slatt — Mon, 02/02/2009 - 12:38

Marcus writes:

There are only so many broken typewriters in the world – so it’s going to be difficult to get my hands on a decent set of keys. You can’t get them on ebay here in Europe, importing them from the US would’ve been hilariously expensive – so I had to think of something else.

What I’ve found is a certain kind of fastener (like brass fasteners for envelopes, only with a fancy little gemstone instead of the brass knob). You open it, discard the stone and what you get is a perfect ‘key frame’. Just print your labels, cut glasses out of polycarbonate sheet, cardboard backplates and you’re done.

He's put together a nice write up that you can find here. Great work Marcus!

Update: Jacqui dropped me a link to some interesting looking typewriter key tokens at Oriental Trading. - Thanks Jacqui!

I suggest calling around to your local schools, be they elementary or high, or what not. I know that at my highschool we recently (within the last couple years) disposed of maybe 30-50 keyboards, some of which the exact model of the one you show in your how-to video. I don't know of the technological status of schools in England, but I would not be suprized if you could find a few broken keyboards if you got ahold of computer teacher, especialy if their as geeky as mine were, and you explain what you would use them for :)

Another idea

Z-man12 — Tue, 02/03/2009 - 21:23

I have done something similar by going to the scrap-booking isle of the craft store and finding the rings that you place letter stickers in. You can get raised clear plastic bubbles with lettering already on them. I did that for the normal a-z keys and then created custom keys for every thing else. It came out rather well. I just need to finish the rest of the computer case.