Take a paper clip and bend it back and forth a ton of times. The fatigue effect is negligible over the short term but since he's trying to recreate old springs and sound there is a bigger effect. Best bet is to search scientific databases though
Paper clip is a totally, totally different material though. And are you talking about plastic or elastic deformation?
That Ellipse is trying to recreate old springs is another thing I take issue with. He has freedom to make improvements, make it better than it was. Why use old technology...
I mean yeah get the sound right, but instead of exact duplication work on making a spring that was totally corrosion resistant, invariant over 10 million cycles, and improved on the original sound (meaning, take what's good about the original sound and amplify it).
Yes...cycle fatigue is a thing. Won't debate that. But how many cycles? And how many times might a single key be cycled in a year?
The paper clip is a demonstration of what happens with repeated stressing of a material.
He's trying to replicate the old boards plain and simple.
Well considering this is his project and he stated his goals, he can't use a new material in his mind. He wants that same sound and feel.
Honestly though, why did you even buy into this project?
Same reason everyone else did? Because I want a really cool keyboard? I admit I don't give two ****s about it being a perfect, exact replica of the original (I'm not sure I've even actually ever used an original Model F). In fact, one of the reasons I bought into this project instead of picking up an SSK on ebay or whatever is because I wanted a fully modernized buckling spring . That the (new) Model F's are advertised as USB plug-and-play and fully programmable was a
huge selling point for me. I'm not insignificantly disappointed that similar modernization isn't being applied to the rest of the keyboard.
Personally, I think that - replication vs. improvement - isn't forward thinking, and I don't think it's a defense that holds water.
You didn't answer the paperclip question - plastic or elastic deformation?
Ellipse knows what the original is like, not me. So he is the one who is really qualified to judge where improvements should be made. But, again my feeling is that doing an exact duplication of a 30 year old product is totally missing a great opportunity to improve on it.