Have you ever dreamed of beating a burglar to death with your keyboard?Even if you didn't it might be worth to look at my full concrete keyboard set!Jokes aside, Hi and welcome to my first ever geekhack IC! I am more than proud to present you today my full concrete keyboard set that I produced and now plan to produce for all of you if there is some interest in the project.What I will present you today is set (case, wristrest and mousepad) made out of solid concrete. Lets start off with some pictures of my real prototypes:
Now lets focus for a bit on concrete and why I chose it as a material:
Technical insights:
What kind of concrete is used?I use self-compacting glass fiber reinforced fine concrete approx. 70N/mm˛ compressive strength. Standard concrete averages approx. 35N/mm˛. In the picture below you can see a cross-section of the used concrete. As you can observe there are no air inclusions in that special concrete which of course increases stability.
What is so special about concrete?Concrete has very high damping properties, which are used, for example, in hi-fi loudspeakers and machine beds. On the one hand, the minimal vibration or oscillation absorption of concrete, in contrast to wood, results in a much clearer sound image in the higher tonal range of hi-fi loudspeakers, such as classical music. On the other hand, this warm, vulominous sound depth, as known from other resonating speaker materials such as wood, is greatly reduced in bass-heavy electronic music. On the other hand, in the case of machine beds for industrial production facilities, the higher damping compared to the otherwise usual steel constructions increases the processing accuracy.
Surface treatment:All the products are finished with a tough, silky, water-based wax emulsion as standard. For cleaning, it is best to use only warm water, with a little detergent if necessary. Similar to furniture made of wood. Harsh detergents such as acids or vinegar, because they react with the cement, can cause the surface to dissolve. Must therefore be avoided at all costs. For subsequent care, beeswax or canauba wax, which is also used for wooden furniture, has proven successful in our case.What you should know is that through secretions of our skin-protecting fats, etc., a very personal patina will gradually form at the points of contact of the concrete enclosures.
How does the production look like?All our products are 100% handmade, built and designed MADE IN GERMANY. Every single one delivered will come with its very own characteristics and will be absolute unique.
Quality is our number one goal.
You can see additional pictures of my production process on the already created website: www.keebconcrete.comWhen and how will this product be avaiable?Now we come to the fun part. To make this available to all of you I created the website
www.keebconcrete.com! On this website I will start the pre-order process for the set in the upcoming weeks. A specific point in time is not yet defined. Nevertheless the goal is to ship the first sets in 2021, which is very much achivable.
In the coming days I will also add updates on the website linked above plus you are able to reach out to me directly if you have any kind of question.
To also reach out to me I have created a Discord server. Feel free to join me here and to hit me up with all your questions, remarks and suggestions! Link:
https://discord.gg/DHCR5mwVDDAre there any other layouts / surfaces / etc. planned?Yes! At the moment we are already working on a acid treated surface. Which will probably look like this. The left side has been acid treated and the right side is our "standard" surface.
More layouts will of course follow!
Thanks to all of you and I hope you enjoy this IC!
BTW: Just saw the other IC regarding a concrete keyboard case. Just as a proof, I did my first one already on 11/02/2021
https://www.reddit.com/r/mechmarket/comments/qklibb/ic_concrete_keyboard_set/
