I have been working on revamping my collar & cod studs, the ones I've been using are modern keyboard keys which I always thought was a nice little homage to where they originally came from, but they obviously don't look correct. I've kinda been holding out to do this because I wanted metal ones, but I don't think anyone makes them anymore. Anyway, I thought I would share how I made them because I think they're gonna work out great!
I first needed to figure out how to do the threading, I originally thought of thread inserts but the ones I found would need some modifying. I then found these...
[ATTACH]240691[/ATTACH] Tee nuts that are just perfect! They are the threading I needed and they fit perfectly in 2 layers of sintra being 1/4" tall (the keys are 9mm tall or 3 layers of sintra giving me a layer on top to cover the thread.)
[ATTACH]240690[/ATTACH] I cut a bunch of 18mm squares all of which came from my scrap bucket. The first layer got a hole the diameter of the tee nut, the second got a hole the size of the outer diameter of the threading, and then were glued together with super glue. I put a generous amount of E6000 around the inside of the large hole and pushed in the tee nut. After waiting for them to dry I went back over with some super glue to help keep the tee nuts in place, and sanded down the sides to get the angles.
[ATTACH]240692[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]240693[/ATTACH] Here are the couple I have completed so far, much closer to the old school keyboard keys!
