We're making another weird keyboard (Patreon)

Hey y'all! So we've started another keyboard project using another unconventional material… concrete!
 This project has been on our list for a couple years but we kept putting it off because we just didn't think concrete would be strong enough for something involving such thin walls. Key caps have a lot of thin plastic parts, and there's force needed to attach the keys to the keyboard. So we worried that the thin walls of the key caps, plus the force needed to be applied to the stem, would cause the concrete to snap.

But Evan thought of possible solutions for both of these so we finally started moving forward with the project! 

For the issue with the stems, he actually 3D printed some stem inserts to embed in our key cap molds. Therefore, the part actually coming into contact with the keyboard is plastic-embedded-in-concrete, instead of just concrete. 

Evan found some potential solutions for strengthening concrete itself too! We already have concrete that has some vinyl added to it for strength, but on top of that we have PVA glue, fiberglass, and sand to mix into the concrete for added strength. 

 We also tried putting these in the pressure pot, something we've never done with concrete in the past. So lots of experiments all at once!

-Katelyn