Tips for "refinishing" a D pad?
I managed to put a scratch into the d-pad on my steam deck and the replacement process looks more involved than I care for (gotta go through everything in the back to get to it). It's fairly shallow, about 1mm x 5mm, but right on the down button so it can be pretty tactilely distracting.
So I was thinking I may be able to 'refinish' it in some manner to get back a smooth, consistent feeling, but wasn't sure what I'd be able to use to achieve it. Any tips? I'm not too big on how most silicone button caps feel, but maybe I'll try one if it can adhere on the top and not try to fully cover it? Most seem to be going for some aesthetic though, which is also tactilely distracting.
Worst case scenario, maybe I use it as an excuse to replace the ABXY buttons too, they feel a bit loose and their friction when they slide against the edge instead of straight down is also a bad tactile sensation, so replacement button recommendations are also appreciated :)
SOLVED! I tried the suggestion from @mat first, which involved using acetone if it was ABS, and it was. I used several q tips, a cotton pad, and nail polish remover. Steps:
- Clean area
- With q tip lightly dampened with nail polish remover, swipe away from the middle of the d-pad, along the scratch, towards the edge.
- Dry off/wipe down with cotton pad
- Repeat until smooth!
It feels smooth to the touch and it even looks a bit better!
You could try plastic polish, which, big surprise, is designed to get scratches and abrasion out of plastic materials. From experience I can say that its effectiveness depends on the depth of the scratch. Sanding beforehand helps with that, but that could be harder for you because you're working in situ.
EDIT: Or try toothpaste! It's really just a mild abrasive. Works best on shallow scratches, not big gouges.
Uhm akchully...
Polishes of all types are not designed to remove scratches. They are to add more scratches. They just allow you to scratch the piece microscopically so it looks shiny.
I hate to do the "um actually", I just like sharing fun facts.
Toothpaste used to always be recommended to fix scratched CDs but I actually tried it once on a CD that skipped on a few tracks and I just ended up with a CD that was 100% scratched and completely unplayable.
Hahah, yeah rubbing mild abrasives on things can work out well for polishing stuff... or it can completely ruin it if it's too rough. I remember doing the CD thing too. Totally made the disc useless.
I hadn't even considered that was a thing, thank you!! I think I could manage sanding in place, it's pretty shallow so sounds like toothpaste would work too.
If you have the spare cash to buy some, plastic polish is much, much better than toothpaste. Toothpaste is possibly too abrasive for plastic and might turn a nice shiny surface into a matt finish one.. On that note, whatever you try, try it very gently to start with. More gently than you expect - you can always polish harder later but if you trash the finish it's way more work to go back.
It helps if you can find out what the pad is made from. For example if it's ABS, which is quite possible for a d-pad surface, you can "polish" it with acetone (actually melting the surface a little then letting it re-solidify), but other plastics might not like that. Acetone is easiest to acquire as nail polish remover.
It did seem to be ABS so I tried acetone and it worked! It now feels smooth to the touch (and looks a tad better). Thank you kindly! It's that sort of chemistry I was hoping someone could drop!
Woop! Glad to hear you got it sorted, and pleased I could help.
Honestly, I think any repair to the existing piece that would legitimately look and feel anything close to the original texture would probably involve removing the D-Pad anyway to clamp it down, then using some combination of a filler material and a lot of very precise sanding and buffing. Doing so without taking it apart would be difficult since the D-Pad moves around inside its housing by design.
Taking apart the steam deck is a bit of a pain, but as long as you're not replacing the screen, it's not a total nightmare (ask me how I know).
I haven’t looked into what it actually takes to replace the d-pad surface on the Steam Deck, but I can’t imagine it’s that difficult. The actual buttons don’t need to be removed, just the plastic cap sitting on top.
I would assume it’s something like 5 screws to get to the d-pad, then a quick drop in replacement for the top surface.
You have to take off the back plate, analog stick module (which is itself VERY easy to swap out), shoulder buttons, and the logic board that controls the left half of the controls. This also involves dealing with about 5 ribbon cables that wrap around the board and connect to the backside. More like 10-15 screws total, but still not too bad for such a compact device.
I did a full shell swap on mine, and it was honestly a bit more difficult than I had expected.
I have no idea whether this would work or just damage it further, but maybe clear nail polish would do the trick?
That's a good contender, thank you! I don't think I need to worry about damage as long as I don't leak it into the machine, maybe I tape around the edges and cover the gap just in case. I wasn't sure how smooth I could make it, but at the least I can test and practice on my own nails!
If it's the texture of the groove bothering you, you could always try a putty like sugru to fill the gap. I think a putty of any kind will be more forgiving to apply than something thin like a paint or polish if you don't want to get stuff in the cracks around the dpad.