> ORDER FORM < 11/24/12 deadline, $35 shipped (round1 finished)
Final plate design
old plate
What this is aboutThis is a metal plate that goes on top of the PCB of TKL sized keyboards to make the overall keyboard feel more solid. Since most TKL keyboards already have a plate, why would you need this one? Because it was designed so that you can take the switches apart without having to desolder the whole switch first. Stock plates do not have the little notches at the sides of of the switch to allow them to open up. Many mods (lubrication, stabilizing stickers, swapping springs, stems, or complete switches) require that you desolder every switch to pull them out, do the mod, then resolder all of them back. This is rather tedious and require desoldering/soldering equiment every time you want to change something. This plate allows you to skip that step. This plate also allows to you choose between Costar stabilizers or Cherry stabilizers. The idea was inspired by the custom
Phantom project.
Material will be 1/16" aluminum that I'll try to anodize myself.
CompatibilityThis is a ANSI layout with 1.25x size bottom-modifiers, in a
ten
key
less form factor. Filco and CoolerMaster quickfire TKL are pretty popular keyboards, so I measured this plate to fit those. There are other cutout holes to fit other TKL keyboards as well, but I'm still in the process of confirming those keyboards. It will also be compatible with phantom PCB. This might work for full size Filco and Rosewills, but I'll have to confirm that later. Here are all the models I'm trying to make this compatible with:
- Filco TKL
- CM Quickfire Rapid
- Leopold FC200R
- Ducky Year of the Dragon
- HPE 87
- Key Cool 87
- PLU 87
- KBT oni
- Noppoo Choc Mid
- Phantom custom
- Filco/Rosewill 104 (maybe)
RequirementsThe initial first time installation will require you to desolder all the switches, change out the stock plate, install this new plate, then solder all the switches back to the PCB. Tutorial on how to do that
HERE so you can do it yourself. This also means you must buy some soldering equipment to do the job. I'm also willing to install these plates for you before shipping them out, but you need to first contact me for that. Here are the bare minimum that you'll need:
OrderingThis is NOT and interest check. I originally wanted this plate for myself, so the order will go through regardless of how many orders there will be. This also means that I'm not going to wait around for the normal group buy order times.
deadline: Orders accepted through 11/24/12, payment deadline is through 12/01/12. You can start paying now, up until the payment deadline. Anodizing and shipping will be done in the order of payment received, so the sooner you pay, the more priority you get.
plate cost: $35 for the 1st plate, $30 for additional plates. This is out-the-door costs, so it
INCLUDES shipping. Nearly half the cost of this plate is from the 2 or 3 way shipping.
Other technical details: The placement of the keys' position were based on mathmatically calculations based on key sizes. These are exact values, and I used a digital caliper to compare these values with an actual Filco PCB. The cut out holes are a tad more accurate than phantom's plate, but when actually making these plates, the tolerances of the machines will make the differences negligible. The hole placements for screws were physically measured with a digital caliper, so they should be accurate but not exact unless I have schematics to all the keyboards.
