26 – Making a Keyboard Protector (6:33)

The Lightblade Learning Lab with Russ Sadler

The Lightblade Learning Lab is a series of videos that Russ did for Thinklaser Limited based on using the Lightblade 4060 Laser Cutting and Laser Engraving Machine. Thinklasers Lightblade 4060 has a 400 x 600mm bed size and was supplied with a 60W EFR laser tube. In this session, Russ creates a laser cutting project in order to protect the keyboard of his Ruida control panel.

Contents

  • Cutting Russ’s design out of 3mm material using air assist
  • Stripping off the plastic film
  • Tapping a hole for M5x6mm screws
  • Test fitting the protector
  • Using polyester(?) film (0.2-0.25 thick) as the flexible component (taken from a display box)
  • DXF File available here
  • Applying the film with Teser 4965 industrial double-sided tape
  • Peeling off the protective film from the keyboard
  • Replacing the finished protector
Laser cutting project - assembling the parts
Laser Cutting Project – Assembling the Parts

My thanks go out to Tom at Thinklaser for giving permission to embed these videos on this site. If you are looking for a new laser machine from a quality supplier, then I would suggest you check out their website: www.thinklaser.com.

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Video Resource Files for Laser Cutting Project – Keyboard Protector

Keyboard Protector DXF File

There are no resource files associated with this video.

External Resource Links for Laser Cutting Project – Keyboard Protector

www.thinklaser.com

www.rdworkslab.com

What can a laser cutter cut?

Laser cutting project - keyboard protector
Laser Cutting Project – Keyboard Protector

There are no more external resource links associated with this video.

Transcript for Laser Cutting Project – Keyboard Protector

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00:15

Welcome to another Lightblade Learning Lab

00:18

today for a change it’s not going to be very technical it’s not going to be very

00:23

difficult and it’s not going to be very long. If you remember the last time we’ve

00:28

had a session I pointed out that this keyboard here is getting a little bit

00:31

tacky and I needed to protect it as I had done on my other machine over

00:38

there and so what I’ve done I’ve been away and I’ve designed a keyboard

00:44

protection scheme for this particular machine now it’s different than the

00:48

style that I used on my China blue machine but the essence of it is exactly

00:51

the same. We’ve got a little flexible plastic film here which is going to

00:56

cover and protect the keys now we’ll go straight in and we’ll start cutting the

01:03

design that I’ve already prepared and then we’ll go through the manufacture of

01:07

it and you can see how we fit it. We’re cutting this keyboard out of three

01:12

millimeter thick material and I’ve got my air assist turned on and I’m

01:19

going to turn it roughly half off because I don’t want too much air for cutting

01:25

acrylic. just some

01:57

Well there’s the two pieces that we need just rip the plastic film off

Transcript for Laser Cutting Project – Keyboard Protector (Cont…)

02:08

okay so the first thing that I’ve got to do with this is to put a M5 tapped hole

02:14

through there very easily and I can do that with a tap wrench or as you can see I’m

02:18

using a drill chuck. Now I happen to… I’m using that size you can use any size you

02:24

like but I happen to use that size because I’ve got some I’ve got some very

02:28

short M5 screws they’re six millimeter long and we’re going to put that piece

02:34

there like that and then we’re going to put this piece here like this

02:43

I hold the two pieces together

02:52

with the screw like that so now we’ve got an invisible cover sitting on the top there

02:58

at the moment there’s nothing in there but what I’m going to do I’ve got I

03:03

think it’s probably polyester film and it’s about 0.2 ~ 0.5mm

03:07

thick and it’s the sort of thing that you get on a presentation box

03:14

this came off a box of Christmas cards and I was sensible enough at Christmas

03:19

to think ah I might have a use for that and I kept it so that would be my

03:24

protective film that’s going to sit underneath this keyboard frame that I’ve

03:28

produced here and the frame can’t go anywhere because it’s locked around

03:32

these two buttons that we’ve got here so the positions of the buttons on your

03:39

machine might be different but hey it’s the idea that you need and I shall put

03:43

this DXF file onto the Thinklaser of website so that you can use it as a

03:49

basis for starting, starting your own keyboard protection. Right now I’ve kept

03:54

this the correct way around when I’ve taken it off because what we’re going to

03:58

do now is to apply to the back of it some double-sided industrial-strength

Transcript for Laser Cutting Project – Keyboard Protector (Cont…)

04:04

tape now this is Taser four nine six five which is a very high bond strength

04:10

industrial tape I’m gonna stick it round the outside of the frame there okay no

04:18

it’s a matter of trimming it off neatly all the way around

04:29

well there’s that double-sided tape on there

04:33

so now we’ve got to peel that off right so there’s a double sided tape peeled

04:40

off but I haven’t cut the hole in it at this moment in time that’s going to be a

04:43

little bit tricky so I’ll leave that till after I’ve attached this so we

04:48

might as well just pop this on flat like this

05:04

attach it on nice and strongly get rid of all the air bubbles

05:22

so as you can see it’s not difficult to do this it trims out very easily with a

05:29

knife okay so I’ve just created that hole out

05:31

with a drill and we’re all ready to go so the first thing I’m going to do is to

05:38

make the keyboard like new by peeling off the protective films and there it

05:48

is back to absolutely pristine condition

05:54

we shall now pop this on oops wrong way

06:01

we’ll pop that on

06:08

we’ll put the screw in and if and when it gets a bit mucky

06:15

well next Christmas you can get another piece of film and make a new one well

06:24

this is definitely the star of the show today but I thought I’d try and get in

06:28

on the act as well just so that I could say cheerio and I’ll see you next time

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