Hi guys! For some reason GeekHack stopped sending me email notifications for this thread so I didn't see the past several posts until now. Sorry about the slow reply as a result.
I'll answer several of the questions answered above below, but firstly, I wanted to provide an update. The packaging (which is was the last component holding other stuff up) is finished now and at the office of my colleagues in Shenzhen (not the factory, but the inspection/fulfillment folks). The aluminum cases are being inspected at the factory today and then are going over to the fulfillment guys for final kitting with the parts (screws, bumpons, etc.) and boxing. Then the cases should start shipping. I'm *hoping* that this might mean people get their ship notifications as early as this week, but everything always takes longer than people promise so I'll pessimistically assume next week is more likely.
Hi norbauer, just curious how much extra time you think the powder coating for the Retro Refrigerator / Enigma Black / Space Station White colors adds to the process? I think you'd mentioned it somewhere previously in the thread but I'm forgetting.
The powder coating shop says "2 weeks," but based on my last experience (as mentioned in the GB page), this led me to estimate "about a month." The shop does amazing work, but breakneck speed is not their specialty. =\
Will I need to remove keycaps before transferring my board into the new case when it arrives? I just received a new keycap set and am anxious to get them mounted, but will wait if I need to remove them for installation.
You should be able to swap a plate with keys installed just as easily as without, so go for it.
Are the boards being shipped directly from the manufacturer?
They go from the manufacturer to my inspection/fulfillment guys. For international orders, they ship Express directly to customers. For US customers, they come Express to California first as a batch and then are immediately turned around and shipped via FedExGround. The exception is the powder coated cases. I pick those up in California, drive them over to the powder place, and then will ship them to customers directly once the powder is done.
Round 3 please!
+1
I promised myself I wouldn't, but then a million people emailed me to ask, so now I'm thinking about it.
Let me see how this whole third-party fulfillment thing goes and I'll make a determination in a couple of weeks. If it really goes as smoothly as it's supposed to, doing follow-up orders like this isn't nearly as burdensome as r1 was for me in terms of time and work, so I'm open to it if it helps keep folks from feeling like they missed out.
Do the silver cases get an anodizing pass? Or are they "bare aluminum"? Can they be powder-coated after delivery?
I'm not actually asking about these cases in particular; this is more of a general question. Basically I'm wondering if "uncolored" aluminum aftermarket cases can typically be powder-coated after the fact, or do they have some sort of sealing agent covering them that defeats the powder coating process?
The silver cases are indeed anodized. It makes the surface scratch-resistant (or more scratch-resistant than bare aluminum anyway).
Yes, you can absolutely powder coat anodized cases but you have to remove the oxide layer first, typically with bead blasting. I actually did this to salvage a couple of cases last round where the anodized got messed up.