Author Topic: Kitbashing. Yes or no?  (Read 7006 times)

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Offline CaesarAZealad

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Kitbashing. Yes or no?
« on: Mon, 04 July 2022, 15:57:49 »
I was considering kitbashing a few sets together to get a set with Maroon/burgundy alphas and silver mods, but I have no clue if it'd be cheaper than just getting a panatone color ring and seeing if I can get a one off set made. Doing the math it's coming close to the wire (Color ring/book $100-150 + However much the set costs = $200+ dollars as compared to $70-100 + $70-100 = $140+ dollars for a couple cheap PBT sets.)
Not only is it hard to find sets that could work together, but I somewhat feel that investing the money in a set that's truly what I would want is the way to go, but it can be a lot more than what I expected going into it.
Any thoughts?
One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen, Nineteen, Twenty... Yeah that seems about right.
"Ask your mother how good I can use more than two fingers." - Caesar, 2023

Offline TomahawkLabs

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Re: Kitbashing. Yes or no?
« Reply #1 on: Tue, 05 July 2022, 19:16:36 »
Have you found a company or person to do a one off run? I remember back in my early days of keyboarding there was minimum orders for every group buy. I suspect if you found someone to do a one off run (assuming sub-dyed and not doubleshot) without any special tool changing, etc will still charge and arm and leg for setup time since the profit of manufacturing is making lots of a part in a small time.

You're much better off Frankensteining the set you like 9/10 vs getting the 10/10 set of your dreams. My best suggestion is finding a set you love and just get it. I have had the same set of keycaps since 2017 or so and I haven't seen a similar set sold in almost a year if not longer.
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Offline CaesarAZealad

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Re: Kitbashing. Yes or no?
« Reply #2 on: Tue, 05 July 2022, 19:23:20 »
Have you found a company or person to do a one off run? I remember back in my early days of keyboarding there was minimum orders for every group buy. I suspect if you found someone to do a one off run (assuming sub-dyed and not doubleshot) without any special tool changing, etc will still charge and arm and leg for setup time since the profit of manufacturing is making lots of a part in a small time.

You're much better off Frankensteining the set you like 9/10 vs getting the 10/10 set of your dreams. My best suggestion is finding a set you love and just get it. I have had the same set of keycaps since 2017 or so and I haven't seen a similar set sold in almost a year if not longer.
The set that is closest to what I want costs more than all my keyboards combined, and I have 1 board with Zealios and 2 boards with clickiez :(
One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen, Nineteen, Twenty... Yeah that seems about right.
"Ask your mother how good I can use more than two fingers." - Caesar, 2023

Offline ThreadyKeycaps

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Re: Kitbashing. Yes or no?
« Reply #3 on: Wed, 06 July 2022, 11:19:05 »
I think this is a fun idea but definitely a very expensive one. Also things you have to look out for are - 1. the keycap sets you want may match in colour from your screen - but the colour may differ irl. 2. usually the legends colour on the alpha keys somehow match with the base colour of the novelty keys or the add on keys. If the sets are purchased separately, you may lose out on this element of colour matching which may not look as cohesive together. 3. The fonts on all the sets hopefully match as well.

Asking someone to print the keycaps is not cheap either. Firstly, you need to design the keycaps yourself - that includes colour matching, drawing novelties, etc. Secondly, you will need to learn how to use 3D design softwares as the manufacturer would want to see the keyboard rendered (you may have to pay someone else to do this - which adds on to the cost). Thirdly, I am an artisan keycap maker but I am myself trying to go into printing keycaps but sublimation is not easy. What you see on screen really isn't what you get. What if the colours come out all weird? Fourthly, you will need to look for a reliable manufacturer, negotiate with them and try to have some sort of trade assurance. IDK, seems like too much of a hassle.

Maybe getting 1 of the nicest set you can find (although not perfect) would be better. Maybe if your set of keycaps are just Maroon/burgundy, then get a silver artisan. That would roughly give you what you want but not a 100%.

Offline CaesarAZealad

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Re: Kitbashing. Yes or no?
« Reply #4 on: Thu, 07 July 2022, 15:00:13 »
I think this is a fun idea but definitely a very expensive one. Also things you have to look out for are - 1. the keycap sets you want may match in colour from your screen - but the colour may differ irl. 2. usually the legends colour on the alpha keys somehow match with the base colour of the novelty keys or the add on keys. If the sets are purchased separately, you may lose out on this element of colour matching which may not look as cohesive together. 3. The fonts on all the sets hopefully match as well.

Asking someone to print the keycaps is not cheap either. Firstly, you need to design the keycaps yourself - that includes colour matching, drawing novelties, etc. Secondly, you will need to learn how to use 3D design softwares as the manufacturer would want to see the keyboard rendered (you may have to pay someone else to do this - which adds on to the cost). Thirdly, I am an artisan keycap maker but I am myself trying to go into printing keycaps but sublimation is not easy. What you see on screen really isn't what you get. What if the colours come out all weird? Fourthly, you will need to look for a reliable manufacturer, negotiate with them and try to have some sort of trade assurance. IDK, seems like too much of a hassle.

Maybe getting 1 of the nicest set you can find (although not perfect) would be better. Maybe if your set of keycaps are just Maroon/burgundy, then get a silver artisan. That would roughly give you what you want but not a 100%.
It's a far off dream for now, but I still need to give it some thought. Who knows, maybe I can talk to some other community members at the CK meetup in August about it.
One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen, Nineteen, Twenty... Yeah that seems about right.
"Ask your mother how good I can use more than two fingers." - Caesar, 2023