Das Keyboard Mod

Hey guys, for the longest time I've been wanting to mod my Das Professional and I finally came around to doing it. This is my first carbon fiber mod... please let me know what you think!






For the vinyl wrap, I ordered the Black Metro 3D off of Amazon. It was a bit challenging rounding off the edges and with this being my first attempt at carbon fiber wrapping, there are some imperfections but very subtle. I ordered a new set of blank keys from WASD; the escape/WASD keys are light blue because I wanted to add a bit of contrast because I have blue LED's inside my computer. I thought the blue would look ugly with the rest of the keyboard but I think it turned out nice I guess the only downside to this is I can't see the LED indications at the top right of the keyboard, but I don't really mind it. Also, let it be known that the Das is a pain in the a** to disassemble.

Any suggestions for future mods would be appreciated!

Thanks for all the positive feedback everyone!






So basically, the first thing I did was remove all the keys while I patiently waited for my blank key set to come in from WASD. There are a total of five screws that need to be removed from the back of the keyboard (one of which voids your warranty---sexy keyboard is sexy so who cares). Next comes the tricky part... removing the face of the keyboard. Thankfully, I was able to come across two blogs on the internet with a few picture instructions dealing with removing the face, the links are below:

http://monda.hu/blog/2009/05/11/das-keyboard-disassembly-and-analysis/

http://www.geoffbreach.com/hacks/das-keyboard-hack/

The second URL gives the best description. Be really careful when you remove the face because the hooks are very fragile. It definitely takes some time and patience. Unfortunately, one of the hooks on my keyboard broke but it's not a big deal. After the face came off I cleaned the glossy surface really well before applying the vinyl to it. As you can see with one of the pictures, I placed the entire sheet of vinyl over the face and started shaping from there. For the corners, I used a hairdryer to apply some heat to add some extra flexibility. Also, be careful with your X-Acto knife because it can easily shave off a bit of the plastic! Luckily I noticed before I continued cutting

It wasn't in my mind to take pictures while I was shaping the wrap because I was too much into the zone. I hope this is a decent explanation as to how I did what I did.

Please pardon the picture quality--they're cell phone pictures.
Edited by kevininsimi - 10/28/12 at 10:01am

Yes, carbon fiber is much better than the glossy surface