ccc24 Any order received before 2/29 will ship with the early bird round in April/May. The products labeled "Early bird" on the site are for the early bird volunteers who want to contribute towards tooling, get a lower or special request serial number, and/or get their keyboard a few weeks earlier by moving to the front of the line. Before opening up the orders I noted that everyone will benefit from these volunteers without having to pay anything extra to participate in the early round.
Industrial gray, black, and beige are the main offerings for both the F77 and F62. No extra charge for any of those three powdercoated case colors.
Karura a forum member has created a 3D printed non-stepped short shift key and sells it on Shapeways.
scumnc just posted his findings earlier in this thread.
http://www.shapeways.com/product/YMFXWFRAK/ibm-model-m-keycap-1-75-non-stepped-v2?optionId=40367439Yes Karura I asked Unicomp about that key and they only sell it with the full JIS key cap set. I'd imagine they are using old stock and no longer have molds for that key size; otherwise they could set up the old mold, no?
Karura the cases will be made of zinc or aluminum (most likely zinc). They will likely be cast from molds as opposed to the CNC milled aluminum prototype cases.
potatowire local pickup would be in Manhattan. The tooling volunteers pay for everyone's ability to get in on the early bird round without paying anything above the regular prices for everything.
An announcement that thanks to one extra generous tooling volunteer, we have the needed funds to go ahead with the early bird round (assuming no one drops out of volunteering).
dohbot, it may be possible to add RGB lighting to your F77 and F62 if interested. I know that PhosphorGlow was able to successfully add lighting to Model M keyboards, which means it should be possible for this keyboard. The case has plenty of room if you needed to add some kind of lighting controller.
KetchyKech yes you can order brilliant white keys instead - please PM me if you'd like to do that and I will update your order.
Sorry vizir that info was out of date and I have fixed it on the "Extra PCB" product page (did you see it anywhere else?). All PCBs and keyboards include the controller. The controller is likely going to be factory soldered onto the main capacitive PCB by a ribbon cable. At one point I was thinking of soldering just the F77 and having a controller on the same PCB for all the others, but I have since moved to put all the controllers on a separate board to allow for future, more compact case designs for the F62 and F77 that a number of people asked me about. Sorry no photo with the split backspace. Check out an unmodified PC AT keyboard for approximately how it would look.
simingma the F77/F62's are on par with my other little-used Model F keyboards. The factory tested an average of a wide variety of sample Model F springs I had around and determined the average force, which they have successfully created springs within a narrow tolerance range of that force, so that the new Model F keyboards will require the same force as the originals. Now if you had a really worn out Model F in comparison these would be a little stiffer as all springs loosen up as they are used.
ImAWildDeer you can use a black caps lock and 1U key in place of the right shift (these are included if you order a black set). Also Unicomp usually includes a right shift key that's not black if you order the black set. Alternatively you can take their right shift key and dye it black - not sure it would be a perfect match with their black though.
jevvix yes you can contact me to talk about springs. This is not confirmed but I hope to include a number of extra springs at no extra charge with everyone's order. I expect to continue using high quality Japanese steel springs (like the prototypes) of a steel that is also used to make piano wire. But since this is a brand new project and the springs are not time-tested, I don't know how long they will last under usage.
R4WBIT they ship from NY.
U47 and Limewirelord I offer Industrial SSK custom dyesub keys because Unicomp still makes them and they will do a run of as little as one set for someone. They are darker in keycap color which makes the legends slightly less easy to read. Here's what they look like on a keyboard:
http://www.modelfkeyboards.com/product/industrial-ssk-blue-keys/romevi yes there will be the early group (all orders up to the end of February get into the early group) and the regular group buy runs from March through the end of July.
ccc24/cjhard/fanpeople you are right that you will likely need to re-seat some keycaps and/or springs when your brand new Model F arrives. All that rough handling during shipping necessitates this in my experience.
