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Keycap durability test

A project log for Mathpad — The Math Keypad

Type equations at the speed of thought

magne-lauritzenMagne Lauritzen • 01/17/2023 at 13:39•2 Comments

I investigated the durability of the UV-printed keycaps of the Mathboard. The results were surprising.

I wanted to know if UV printing is a feasible method for creating the custom keycaps for the Mathboard. The process works well, but I did not know if the prints are durable. It would be a shame if the keycaps lose their decals from normal use.

I placed four Mathboard keycaps on my regular keyboard. I spaced them out evenly so that they would get roughly the same amount of use:

After only one week of normal use, the colored keycaps had nearly completely lost their decals. The white keycaps were in perfect condition.

I think this an interesting result. If anyone knows why UV prints applied to the keycaps made from colored plastic seems to adhere worse, let me know. For now, it tells me that UV printing is not feasible for the colored keycaps, but that it appears to work very well on the white keycaps. Even after months of daily use, they are looking like just came out of the printer.
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Mark wrote 10/16/2025 at 17:56 • point

Question... did you put a UV clear coat over the top of these, or did you just leave the colored ink/resin exposed as-is?  I hear adding a clear coat really helps.

Also, what about the texture of the keys? Is there any difference between the white and the colors?

Finally, what printer/ink/resin combo did you use?  Asking because I was considering buying the eufyMake E1 and custom keycaps were going to be one of my use-cases.

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Magne Lauritzen wrote 10/17/2025 at 08:27 • point

I did not put a UV clear coat over the top of these keycaps, the ink of the symbols are exposed. If reports starts coming in from Mathpad customers that the keycap decals are coming off, I'll definitely keep this suggestion in mind.

There is no discernible texture difference between the coloured and white keycaps. The coloured keycaps are not smoother, which would have been a simple explanation to why their decals come off so easily. 

I do not know what ink and printer was used to make these decals. If you DM me I can give you the contact info of the guy who did it for me. Otherwise, get in touch with Loic who runs 3dkeycap.com. He's making the Mathpad keycaps now, and he knows a lot about UV printing. 

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