[IC] Aluminum/Stainless Steel Plates for Pokers

[sth]

maybe you should request that this be moved to Group Buys for the IC. you'd get a lot of interest that way - im sure more than enough to get the stainless plates to $10.

[jdcarpe]

Personally, for about the same price, I would rather have the stainless than aluminum. But I'll go with whichever gets the orders.

[The_Beast]

maybe you should request that this be moved to Group Buys for the IC. you'd get a lot of interest that way - im sure more than enough to get the stainless plates to $10.

Everyone should still be able to see this thread even if it isn't in the IC/GB section. Would I have to run the GB in the GB section or in my vendor forum? (I don't think it would make a difference but I'll do whatever)

Personally, for about the same price, I would rather have the stainless than aluminum. But I'll go with whichever gets the orders.

Honestly I think everyone would rather have stainless than aluminum considering it's only ~ $1 more at the 20 plate price bracket.


I asked before but:
What do you guys think is a fair markup for these (% or $ per plate idk)? What would be the best way to ship these? Any other concerns before I start the GB? I'd like to start and have this done so I can ship around thanksgiving since I'll be home and will be able to pick up the plates (the laser shop is close to where I live) and get packing materials ready.

[sth]

well i just think more people probably check GB more than they check your vendor subforum, not including those of us die-hard enough to camp the spy all day. no offense

if feng still does his buys in GB then you should be able to do the same thing more or less.

[DarkShot]

Personally, for about the same price, I would rather have the stainless than aluminum. But I'll go with whichever gets the orders.

I would too and I think a good handful of people would.

Also just to reiterate, they were just gonna be plain, untreated/coloured plates and nothing more? Doesn't bother me either way.

[The_Beast]

well i just think more people probably check GB more than they check your vendor subforum, not including those of us die-hard enough to camp the spy all day.

if feng still does his buys in GB then you should be able to do the same thing more or less.

Then I'll put it in the GB section ^____^

Personally, for about the same price, I would rather have the stainless than aluminum. But I'll go with whichever gets the orders.

I would too and I think a good handful of people would.

Also just to reiterate, they were just gonna be plain, untreated/coloured plates and nothing more? Doesn't bother me either way.

Yup, I'm not even sure what kind of stainless it is or what # polish it has. I'll ask when I send my guy another email

[DarkShot]

Awesome.

Here's hoping things go smoothly.

Gonna vote on who wants Cherry or Costar stabs?

[The_Beast]

Awesome.

Here's hoping things go smoothly.

Gonna vote on who wants Cherry or Costar stabs?

I think everyone decided that since pokers ship with cherry, we're going to go with cherry

[DarkShot]

Allrighty. Figured I'd double check.

[The_Beast]

Stainless will be "2b Finish and T304". 300 series stainless is the most common so we shouldn't have any major concerns about that.

Example of a 2b finish

[The_Beast]

I PM'ed alixinhzai about his tested plate design, once he gets back to me about whether or not it worked, I'll start the GB. I'm thinking a flat rate of $40 mostly to cover gas but also for time to run order, print postage, all that jazz (If I don't get that many orders I'll lower this to just gas money). I'm going to be shipping in a padded flat rate priority envelope for $5.10 plus whatever it needs to ship so it doesn't bend (I'm thinking a mdf or hardboard backer) and I don't know how much international would be since USPS doesn't like do quote prices online for international orders. I want the plates to be done before thanksgiving so I can pick them up while I'm home and ship shortly thereafter.


I'm thinking since the stainless isn't that much more than aluminum and won't require anodizing/powder coating/painting that that's the only option I'm going to run with. If you really want aluminum I can do that too but don't expect a lower price since I'm guessing everyone is going to go with stainless.


Any question or concerns with anything?

[TheProfosist]

Yea i paid $50 each for 2 phantom plates.

[The_Beast]

Phantom plates are bigger but not $40 bigger

[Halverson]

I think shipping to Canada at least would be fairly cheap.

[TheProfosist]

Agreed, i also didnt get friend price...

[sth]

ouch, i definitely can't do two if they're going to be marked up to twice the production cost. maybe one.
i don't get where the extra $10 or so per plate comes in for gas, or why you cant just have the plates shipped to you (heavy, I understand, but should be cheaper than gas if the markup needs to be that high?). Also, if it makes it cheaper for them to ship them to you, I would definitely not say no to an aluminum plate.

I'm not saying you dont have the right to charge what you think is fair, but doubling the cost seems drastic at first and I'm just curious about where that money is going.

[The_Beast]

^^^^ No, $40 total for the whole thing. NOT per plate. Think of it like a legend fee where it's baked into the everyone cost. If we got 20 plates it would be $2 per plate, 40 plates would be $1 per plate......

I think shipping to Canada at least would be fairly cheap.

My guess would be $10 since my rest ship for $14. But those are bigger and weight more. But again this is just a guess.

Agreed, i also didnt get friend price...

True that, you also didn't order in a decent quantity

[TheProfosist]

True that, you also didn't order in a decent quantity

Correct i was told that if i would order more prices would go steadily down.

[alixinhzai]

fit perfect Stainless Steel plate

[sth]

OH




DUH

yeah that makes more sense Thanks for clarifying.

[The_Beast]

^^ sound fair in terms of price? like I said if we only get 5 orders, that isn't much to deal with so I'd just do just gas, no time. But I'm thinking we'll get at least 20 orders


BTW alixinhzai got back to me. He has a design for both cherry or costar stabs. I'm going to run with cherry this time since it require no additional $$$ to buy more stabs. If we want to do a costar one later, I would have no problem running that one also. OR if we want to do costar this time, cherry later...... I could even run both this time but then I don't think we'll get a nice price break like if we just ordered one style.

[DarkShot]

Wonderful.

These shouldn't cost an arm and a leg assuming there's enough interest.

When you open the GB thread tomorrow, definitely count me in.

[sth]

yeah that sounds way fair, like I said I thought the price was going up a lot more across the board

[The_Beast]

Wonderful.

These shouldn't cost an arm and a leg assuming there's enough interest.

When you open the GB thread tomorrow, definitely count me in.

Should be up sometime tomorrow or the next day once I get the dwg, get some rule set up..... BTW how do you setup a google form to take orders? I've only done the PM order system because I was only dealing with a couple orders for wrist rest. I think a google form would save me some time on this one.

yeah that sounds way fair, like I said I thought the price was going up a lot more across the board

KK cool ^___^

[alixinhzai]

it's plate universal stab u can insert  cherry or costa stab what u like.

it's on milimeter T_T if u want to use inchs T_T convert it by scale decrease 25.4 times

 plate poker universal.rar (58.23 kB - downloaded 194 times.)

[The_Beast]

it's plate universal stab u can insert  cherry or costa stab what u like.

it's on milimeter T_T if u want to use inchs T_T convert it by scale decrease 25.4 times

(Attachment Link)

Shouldn't matter. The guy takes the dwg and just tells the laser to run it, I don't think units matter as long as it's 1:1. But I'll ask just to make sure.

[alixinhzai]

Can u creat a alu anodized one? I don't like steel's surface after laser cut, it have many traces of  burnt :|

[The_Beast]

Can u creat a alu anodized one? I don't like steel's surface after laser cut, it have many traces of  burnt :|

I can get aluminum plates but I'm not sure where I can get them anodized cheaply



edit: I sent a request for a quote to the place with the $500 setup fee. Hopefully that setup fee only applies to the 25' aluminum bars the company I work for sends them and not these plates. I should hear back from them tomorrow.

[alixinhzai]

oh, thank u w8 & w8

[The_Beast]

oh, thank u w8 & w8

Thanks a ton alixinhzai, you saved me some time giving me the final plate design instead of me having to mod other plate designs. Plus it's been tested which is icing on the cake

Congrats on the wedding too ^_____^

[WhiteFireDragon]

Is it too late to maybe throw in some more ideas? Can we please try to make it fit PURE also? Production of pokers are starting to die out and being replaced with PURE, so I would think only old poker owners will be able to take advantage of this. There is only one change that needs to be made for it to fit pure (the right shift). The computer file could be easily modified if it's just this one change.

If there is enough interest in anodizing aluminum, I might be able to do it in my garage. All the steps (without cutting corners) in the anodizing processes is pretty labor intensive, but I'd be willing to step up to the plate to do it for these types of custom projects. Btw, pun was intended there haha.

[alixinhzai]

thank The_Beast

@whitefire, I can help but I don't have any PURE   can make plate for both poker and pure

[The_Beast]

hmm i wonder if there's a way to make one that is compatible with both poker and pure? maybe leave the right shift non-platemounted (just leave a hole there)? that's not really a great compromise though...

Hmmm.... I think we could make a compromise for the pure but I'm not sure it would be worth it. I would have no problem running another GB for a pure plate if someone provided a dwg.

Thanks for offering the anodizing service. I sent out a quote and we'll see what they say. However, I'm thinking stainless will be more popular since it shouldn't require any additional finishing unless you want to polish it yourself. I also did notice that my laser guy offers powder coating, so that may be an option

[Halverson]

I'll be happy with whatever it gets decided on. But if it could be coloured green or purple now....that would be just spectacular.

[WhiteFireDragon]

Just curious, why do you guys want anodizing? Anodizing has 2 purposes: color and prevents surface oxidation. Getting a custom color is a good reason to go with anodized aluminum, but then again, it's just a plate that goes under the cap, and hardly any of the color will show. If you want anodizing to enhance and "harden" the surface, then just go with stainless steel instead.

I want the plate for the feel of the switches. I could care less about color or strength differences between steel vs aluminum.

PS- this thread should be moved to the GB section. I didn't even know it existed until today.

[modulor]

I'm definitely interested in one stainless steel Poker plate...if I understand ali correctly, the example design will accept cherry and costar stabilizers?  It would be awesome to have the option to try costar on a Poker for those that wanted to

[The_Beast]

Just curious, why do you guys want anodizing? Anodizing has 2 purposes: color and prevents surface oxidation. Getting a custom color is a good reason to go with anodized aluminum, but then again, it's just a plate that goes under the cap, and hardly any of the color will show. If you want anodizing to enhance and "harden" the surface, then just go with stainless steel instead.

I want the plate for the feel of the switches. I could care less about color or strength differences between steel vs aluminum.

PS- this thread should be moved to the GB section. I didn't even know it existed until today.

I think most people would want anodizing for color not hardening. However I think it would be hard for everyone to settle on a single color.

I'll be running this GB in the GB section. I always use new post so I see every new post, but I think some people just camp the GB section for new post and miss ones that are posted in a vendor sub-forum.

We have 2 options, run this and have an order submitted on November 1st. This is preferred but it's cutting things close if we do choose anodizing. Or we can wait a bit more and have this done around x-mas.

[alixinhzai]

I can w8

[alaricljs]

Be aware that powder coating will screw with your tolerances since it's usually a pretty thick coat of stuff.

[Cindori]

 alixinhzai, you dont happen to have any Race? :X

[The_Beast]

Be aware that powder coating will screw with your tolerances since it's usually a pretty thick coat of stuff.

Yup, I was thinking he could powder coat before cutting, but I doubt he would do that so I don't think I'm even going to ask


BTW I got a reply back on my anodizing place. They needed a color code to run the quote so I asked if they could do light bronze, black and a nice copper color:

[Anynoupy]

Oh, I didn't see that thread before.
Definitely in for one, I'm not picky, so whatever will be decided is fine with/to me

[The_Beast]

Oh, I didn't see that thread before.
Definitely in for one, I'm not picky, so whatever will be decided is fine with/to me

I had the boss (kawa move it)

I didn't get a reply from the anodizing place yet, I'll send them another email. However I just don't see the point of getting the cheaper aluminum and then having it anodized which I'm sure would raise the price to above what the stainless would be. I think the 2B finish looks fine, but it's also a nice starting point if you wanted to polish it or give it a brush stainless look.


Once I get stuff ironed out and final, I'm hoping to start the GB on Friday, and have the order submitted by November 1st.

[danielucf]

I'd be in for a pure if you have one made. If my current pure in my super thick oneproduct case was plate mounted it would weigh even more and I think it already weighs more than my FC700R TKL which is a pretty solid keyboard in it's own right.

[The_Beast]

I'd be in for a pure if you have one made. If my current pure in my super thick oneproduct case was plate mounted it would weigh even more and I think it already weighs more than my FC700R TKL which is a pretty solid keyboard in it's own right.

I don't have a pure, but if someone were to provide me with a dwg or dimensions, I would have NO problem running another GB for that plate.

[wiredPANDA]

Just ordered my Poker this week from MechanicalKeyboards.com. Count me in for one.

[balanar]

I would be probably be in for one as well.

[The_Beast]

Just ordered my Poker this week from MechanicalKeyboards.com. Count me in for one.

I would be probably be in for one as well.

Sweet, I'd like at least 20 orders, but more never hurts the price ^____^

[sth]

i wonder if it might just be easier to cut away the right shift area and increase the size of the cutout by 1-2mm around the edges? the idea being that the right shift would not be platemounted, and would leave ample room for pure shift+fn. it's not the most elegant solution but honestly 2 keys max out of 63-64 that are not platemounted probably won't make a huge difference.

[The_Beast]

i wonder if it might just be easier to cut away the right shift area and increase the size of the cutout by 1-2mm around the edges? the idea being that the right shift would not be platemounted, and would leave ample room for pure shift+fn. it's not the most elegant solution but honestly 2 keys max out of 63-64 that are not platemounted probably won't make a huge difference.

I think I'm just going to put my foot down and go with a poker only plate. Like I've said before I don't have a pure but if someone were to provide a dwg or some dimensions, I would gladly run a pure, a race, a tkl, a fullsize........ plate GB anytime someone wants one.


Steel isn't easy to cut but maybe someone with a pure could mod the plate to something like you described sth