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geekhack Community => Keyboard Keycaps => Topic started by: Almost on Sat, 01 February 2020, 05:47:32
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2 year hiatus from lurking, I haven't kept up. soz
GMK now does full custom legends, does that mean they no longer use OG Cherry molds? I remember when they did a first custom cap (the monkey!) but now they have full hiragana alphas and novelties.
Maybe getting mixed up between OG Cherry "tooling" and OG Cherry "moulds". I don't really know what "tooling" is compared to a mould.
Also now that I think about it, weren't Cherry's bottom row mods pad printed or lasered? I need some enlightenment, what's 'OG' about GMK?
no hate on gmk their caps are the most crisp
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They still do Cherry profile keycaps. What's "OG" about GMK is that they still use Cherry profile.
But yes, they also do custom colors and legends, but the MOQ is higher and there is a cost associated with them (depends on whether they decide to charge this cost or take it upon themselves).
GMK does doubleshot ABS keycaps in Cherry profile -- sometimes when you have multiple colors (such as in the case of Originative Cyrillic or TA Royal Alpha), the additional color is pad-printed.
As for your question about Cherry keycaps, they can come either pad-printed, lasered, doubleshot, or dye-sublimated. It just depends on the board they come from.
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They still do Cherry profile keycaps. What's "OG" about GMK is that they still use Cherry profile.
(...)
OOHHHHH
See I though GMK was using some ancient moulds they bought from Cherry, and that was the reason for high costs and no custom legends/colours.
Where the hell did I read that?? Made my self look like an ass my bad.
I did think it rather fishy that >10y old moulds where still all gucci, whereas BSP's were all janky and ran just a few times before retirement.
Thank you v much for all the info, google searching wasn't doing me any justice.
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They still do Cherry profile keycaps. What's "OG" about GMK is that they still use Cherry profile.
(...)
OOHHHHH
See I though GMK was using some ancient moulds they bought from Cherry, and that was the reason for high costs and no custom legends/colours.
Where the hell did I read that?? Made my self look like an ass my bad.
I did think it rather fishy that >10y old moulds where still all gucci, whereas BSP's were all janky and ran just a few times before retirement.
Thank you v much for all the info, google searching wasn't doing me any justice.
You're not wrong. It's true that GMK at some point purchased the equipment necessary from Cherry Corp. to produce the doubleshot keycaps in Cherry profile.
But that was long ago and I'd assume that they maintain this equipment in working condition and also create new tools to make it functional for their business purposes.
Sure, this is somewhat speculative but there really isn't a place you would find this information since it's all behind the business's doors.
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They still do Cherry profile keycaps. What's "OG" about GMK is that they still use Cherry profile.
(...)
OOHHHHH
See I though GMK was using some ancient moulds they bought from Cherry,
(...)
You're not wrong. It's true that GMK at some point purchased the equipment necessary from Cherry Corp. to produce the doubleshot keycaps in Cherry profile.
But that was long ago and I'd assume that they maintain this equipment in working condition and also create new tools to make it functional for their business purposes.
Sure, this is somewhat speculative but there really isn't a place you would find this information since it's all behind the business's doors.
Ah! Then I might have read as such and assumed the rest. I remember the hype being huge on Dolch, probably got caught up with the stars to justify a big spend haha
I've been lurking recently and seen a GMK rep appear posting pictures inside their factory, so perhapse we'll learn more about their inner workings sometime. inb4 linus tour
Thanks again,
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There are a variety of different materials to make injection molds out of, ranging from various types of aluminum (cheap and easy to make molds out of, but wears out faster and may only good for a couple hundred to a couple thousand shots) to hardened tool steel (difficult and expensive to make molds out of, but the molds once made are good for millions of injections before wearing out). Obviously aluminum molds are mostly used for relatively small runs, while expensive hardened tool steel molds are done for items with large expected production runs.
It's quite possible the one-off custom legends for group buys are done with cheap aluminum molds that wear out quickly, while the common alphas are done with hardened steel molds, which may still be the original Cherry ones. Only GMK knows though.
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There are a variety of different materials to make injection molds out of, ranging from various types of aluminum (cheap and easy to make molds out of, but wears out faster and may only good for a couple hundred to a couple thousand shots) to hardened tool steel (difficult and expensive to make molds out of, but the molds once made are good for millions of injections before wearing out). Obviously aluminum molds are mostly used for relatively small runs, while expensive hardened tool steel molds are done for items with large expected production runs.
It's quite possible the one-off custom legends for group buys are done with cheap aluminum molds that wear out quickly, while the common alphas are done with hardened steel molds, which may still be the original Cherry ones. Only GMK knows though.
Understood, that makes sense. So it's possible that Cherry moulds are still useable, maybe maybe
I now have a feeling that if they were still using the original Cherry moulds it would be part of their marketing strat... then again perhapse the business audience side of marketing doesn't want to advertise that to potential large customers. Folks like bloomberg (random guess) would not want them using old ass cronky moulds
Anyone with hight charisma stat go ask GMK what they're doing with the Cherry moulds :thumb:
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It's true that GMK at some point purchased the equipment necessary from Cherry Corp. to produce the doubleshot keycaps in Cherry profile.
But that was long ago and I'd assume that they maintain this equipment in working condition and also create new tools to make it functional for their business purposes.
Sure, this is somewhat speculative but there really isn't a place you would find this information since it's all behind the business's doors.
I know it's been a long time, but I thought you'd like to see Christoph Kredler, managing director and co-owner of GMK, talk about purchasing Cherry's tooling starting 3:20 into an interview conducted about two weeks ago -