What is the best way to create tactile bumps on your keyboard?

Question

I have a laptop keyboard that has some of the functional keys on the right side kind of mixed in with the rest of the keys, so I have to look down to set my hand. For instance, I want to be able to just slide my right hand to the right and feel for the bump that signifies the down arrow so I can navigate around.

What is the best way to put a nub or something on there, kind of the way the F and J keys have it?

Answer 1

Clear nail polish works well, and is dirt cheap (especially if you have a lady-friend to supply it). The downside is that it'll wear off fairly often and you need to reapply every month or two, but that's also a feature because it means the mod is reversible.

Answer 2

Maybe some form of epoxy? You'd have to be careful how you applied it, though.

Answer 3

In the dark ages before scanners, when cashiers had to actually enter prices into cash registers when they rang up groceries <gasp>, sometimes they'd glue small o-rings on the 5 key so they had tactile feedback of their hand position and could operate the register faster.

^{_{Seriously, I kid you not. (about the hand entry)}}

Answer 4

Use Araldite Rapid (15 minute drying time). Clean the surface of the key with a strong degreaser (use gloves) then scrape the area lightly with a craft knife or anything sharp and pointy. Touch a small amount of mixed epoxy resin to the area immediately after you have mixed it, this will help adhesion. Put a tiny blob on a pin, wait until it loses it's ability to run then pop it onto the centre of the key, use a wet or oily fingertip to flatten out any pointy bit. The best epoxy for this is actually "metal loaded" but it takes practice to get the consistency right. If you get it wrong you can wipe it clean as long as you do it straight away. It's very much a matter of "practice makes perfect" so do a few blobs somewhere safe first to get the hang of it.

Take care not to erase the letter with the degreasing agent

And, yes, I do have to do some odd things in my place of work.

Answer 5

I have taken a keyboard membrane (clear keyboard protector), and cut the the keys out of the membrane that I need a response from, then put the little membrane cut outs over the keys (like little key condoms). I could feel the difference right away, it was removable, I could see through it, it didn't damage my keyboard in any way, and it worked. I highly recommend this.

Answer 6

Use those plastic bling stickers for cell phones. A little super glue and they should stay nicely.

Answer 7

You could always make a little scratch on the down key to tell the down key apart from others. Not quite a nub--but it should work. And it's pretty permanent.

Answer 8

Not sure if this will work, but it may be worth a try (on an old keyboard first). Take a soldering iron with a very fine tip and get a small bead of tin solder on it. Barely touch the key with the tip and it should leave a very small bump of tin that is imbedded in the key but also raised. You could then cover this with clear nail polish or epoxy if you're worried about touching tin, plus the oil from your skin could cause it to oxidize.

Answer 9

I've attached a tiny piece of sand with super glue. Experiment first off your keyboard to find the right size of sand. I found that REALLY small is big enough. Sand (being made of stone) will wear longer than the rest of your keyboard. Sand is "everywhere" on the ground or when you sweep your floors, but if you want you can get some from various masonry suppliers or hardware stores... just offer to sweep a little bit of their floor. :-)