Unfortunately I can't make a GH thread due to not having 25 posts yet but as the GB is live I'll be locking this thread
I was recently commissioned to design and cut a 65% stacked acrylic keyboard and the client has kindly allowed me to put the design up for a small limited group buy.
IC form: https://forms.gle/nFS9QcwBJZc72zSt9 In approaching the design process we really wanted to lean into the blocky nature of stacked acrylics and so avoided that curved edge that a lot of designs go for nowadays (not that I don稚 love them, just felt it wasn稚 right for this build). We also wanted a unique foot setup that had a premium look and feel. For this I looked at alu cases that feature a handle design around the edge of the base and imitated this with an acrylic ring.This also allows the front of the board to levitate off the desk when the bumpons are put onto the corners of the ring.
Which then left what to do about the feet and how to incorporate them into the handle ring.
I saw two options here: cyclops or pyramids. The cyclops option was going to be a standard strip design along the base which made it look like cyclops from X-men with his mouth wide open, it was pretty good but we both decided that the pyramids gave it a more unique look and had the added benefit of providing the case with a bit more flex at the top for a softer typing experience. The initial designs had two M2 screws on each foot holding the pyramids in place and stop them from rotating but after a bit of experimentation I found that a well fitted M3 hex standoff would do the trick just fine.
Cost was definitely a factor in this and we wanted to maintain a budget element to the board which meant keeping a simple sandwich mounting system with a 5mm plate. The plate has been very carefully designed to allow for both full ISO and full ANSI layouts whilst always maintaining contact with one of the ledges of the switch - I know this isn't an absolute necessity with these kinds of boards but I felt that if you're going to have a plate mount system why not actually use the plate to it's full potential?
This board was designed to go with the XD68 PCB from KPRepublic which for the sake of this group buy I値l give the option to have this included in the package. Although full disclosure I will just be ordering these in bulk from Aliexpress; you池e more than welcome to provide your own XD68 PCB or indeed use a KBD67 or any other PCB that supports the standard 65% layout with a blocker beside the arrow key.
In purchasing a board you値l also be able to buy an additional base, for example, if you wanted a matte black board with a frosted clear base then that値l be an option available to you.
As it stands I知 planning on offering six colourways to keep things streamlined (acrylic samples have been ordered, I'll post an update once I've received and photographed them):
-Matte black
-Clear
-Frosted clear
-Matte white
-Matte red
-Matte blue
One small change I値l be making from the original build is that it was made with with nylon screws however I found these just flayed into the countersunk hole when tightened and looked untidy so I値l be using metal screws instead with black for frosted black, silver for clear, frosted clear, blue and white, and brass screws for red.
Pricing is still TBC at the minute but I知 estimating around ｣120 for the case and then adding a PCB will be around ｣30. It's possible that the red and blue options might be slightly more expensive as I'm finding it difficult to track down a matte acrylic where I'm happy with the colour, but more updates on that will follow once the samples I've ordered arrive. As this is my first group buy I'll be limiting it to 20 units; I'd rather make sure I do everything properly and to a high standard rather than biting off more than I can chew, if the run is successful then I'll be putting together a second round. I'm still looking into shipping at the minute but it will be in the region of ｣10 for tracked and signed to the UK, roughly ｣15 to Europe and around ｣30 to the US and rest of the world.
Thanks for taking the time to check out my project and if you want to keep up to date with it then feel free to jump in my Discord server:
https://discord.gg/YAgmNftSWc (I set it up just for this so it's a little empty atm!)
Full Album: https://imgur.com/a/WEdTTVo
Update: Thanks so much to everyone who's taken the time to fill out the IC form so far, had some really good suggestions!
The acrylic samples have come in and I've uploaded some pictures here (haven't uploaded matte black or clear because we all know what that looks like):
https://imgur.com/a/0eOWZ63I've decided to add matte grey to the colour options because I've found a really nice stone grey acrylic that I think would be a shame to pass up on!
