[IC] CNC Anodized Aluminum case for CM Novatouch, Rapid-i, and Masterkeys TKL!

[norbauer]

eksuen and I had a little mini GeekHack convention this evening at Blue Bottle in Palo Alto. Thanks to his lending me his carbon keycaps, I can now confirm that SA keycaps fit on even the wrinkle coat cases.

[bubbedi]

Sweet!

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[derzemel]

Until you receive the new smples, can you take more pictures with the ones you already have?

We need more porn, an normal porn is too bland

Sent from fat fingers on small screen...

[norbauer]

Survey responses have slowed to a trickle, so I figured I'd share the results that have come in so far:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-62V2WSLX/

Main conclusions I'm drawing are:

• powder coating seems fine but a significant contingent would love to see anodizing added also
• best anodizing color to offer would be gray
• people don't seem to care too much whether it comes from China or the USA, though a fair number appreciate trying to get it done here in the US if possible

I'm also concerned that a decent contingent of non-USA buyers said that the $50 or so shipping cost might be a deal-breaker, since the general feedback seems to be that USPS Priority is the best option and that tends to be around $50 for a 4-pound box to most overseas destinations. I don't think there is much I can do about this one, unfortunately. I was also shocked by how much these cost to ship abroad.

Good news is that 85 people have responded so far. If we hit anything close to these numbers, I can at least say that the project will be possible from a financial perspective (anything below 25 or so and the unit price is so high as to be prohibitive).

So here is my plan, based on the above: wait the one more week or so for the USA shop's new fancy mill to be online and running and get those updated samples with larger bumpon recesses from him to account for the unusually thick powder coat layer on the wrinkle coat. I'm also going to have him make a second ample to test anodizing with the new higher-grade aluminum. If the anodizing doesn't work out, I may end up ordering some anodized ones from my China shop and the powder ones from here in the USA (price works out to be roughly the same, so long as we are above a quantity of 25 for each finish). In ano works out and the final powder samples come back satisfactory, I'll get both from the USA shop.

So my goal would be to offer these options: gray anodized, Space Station white (powder), and Enigma Black (powder, wrinkle). I'll keep poking along, trying to nudge things as fast as I can.

[nateth]

Awesome. Thanks for the update.

[McPwned]

eksuen and I had a little mini GeekHack convention this evening at Blue Bottle in Palo Alto. Thanks to his lending me his carbon keycaps, I can now confirm that SA keycaps fit on even the wrinkle coat cases.

Thanks to you both for checking into this!

[Butter]

Just sold my Novatouch, I don't think I'll be in this GB. Good luck

[the_marsbar]

I answered the questionnaire, but after giving it some more thoughts, this is going to be too expensive for me including shipping costs and added import taxes (I'm in Denmark). I'm sorry, but so far, count me out.

[r5d]

I would still be in for two cases for my (now) two novatouch boards. I'll take the powder-coated options, one of each. How much would combined shipping be for these to Europe (Germany)? Maybe some other germans will want to combine shipping with me for further savings.

Concerning taxes, I'm going to list these at a value of around $45 when I ship internationally rather than the price paid. I think this is totally legit because the only reason these cost so much is that they're being made in a very small volume as effectively custom pieces, so we're really paying most of that money for professional and machining services. If you look at the cost of materials and what these would cost if they were made at large scale as normal consumer products, I think $45 is a totally valid and defensible amount to list for customs purposes. I think this will keep us out of trouble (versus listing these as "gifts" with a value of $1 or something), but without folks having to pay needlessly exorbitant import duties.

If this will be possible at all, please make it so. However if you mark them with this value, the real value can't be anywhere ON or IN the shipment (no physical invoice as well) as the shipment may be opened officially. I regularly have to go the customs office and open my packages in attendance of customs officials, who will look at invoices and all included documents to determine sale value (including shipping costs) as that is the only value that counts for customs tax purposes here.

If this will still be run through Massdrop, it will be marked with the real sale value for sure. Or would you send international orders yourself?

[K]

I'm still in just landing padded my Novatouch and loving it atm. Although the shipping does pain me, Australia has awesome custom taxes where if it's below 1000 AUD then there is no charge.

[grav3serker]

Just finished dental banding and lubing my Novatouch today! Now all that's needed is this sexy case and she'll be finished!

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

[AskAJedi]

I'm in !


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Rageous]

Longtime lurker and first time poster here, I've been watching this for a long time and replied to the poll as well - I'm in for a grey anodized no matter the time required to finish this or the final cost. Thanks for the hard work!

[Nickjames]

Just got Novatouch the other day and googled for cases and this popped up! Would love to see it happen. Black or Dark Grey being my first choice, would love to see if I can get one in Red to match my upcoming Jukebox set, the white prototype in the video looked excellent as well. I wish CM would sell case parts like they used to so I can mod mine without worry :/

[codywanks]

Just received the grey powder coated prototype case from Ryan 

Am in the midst of compiling a list of comments and observations, but here's a teaser pic for now:


(full size)

I promise to post more pictures over the coming days!

[derzemel]

OMG, pleas upload an image on Imgur or anywhere else. Photobucket is the worst mobile site I have ever seen

Sent from fat fingers on small screen...

[codywanks]

OMG, pleas upload an image on Imgur or anywhere else. Photobucket is the worst mobile site I have ever seen

Sent from fat fingers on small screen...

Fixed

[derzemel]

OMG, pleas upload an image on Imgur or anywhere else. Photobucket is the worst mobile site I have ever seen

Sent from fat fingers on small screen...

Fixed

thank you very much! 

[fine_italian_leather]

Just received the grey powder coated prototype case from Ryan 

Am in the midst of compiling a list of comments and observations, but here's a teaser pic for now:

Show Image

(full size)

I promise to post more pictures over the coming days!

Judging by that pic i really hope he the final product will be Anodized.

[codywanks]

Judging by that pic i really hope he the final product will be Anodized.

Hmm. My colleagues/fellow keyboard enthusiasts that I've shown it to are not too keen on the powder coat either.

I'm perfectly happy with the look of the dark grey powder coat on this, but I have to admit it's somewhat fueling my desire to get a second, anodized one. Fingers crossed it'll be made available.

...so my goal would be to offer these options: gray anodized, Space Station white (powder), and Enigma Black (powder, wrinkle). I'll keep poking along, trying to nudge things as fast as I can.

On an unrelated note, is anybody interested in buying a kidney...?

[fax668]

I concur. It is probably exacerbated by the reflections in the photo but the coating does seem to give it a somewhat plasticy/rubbery look.

[Mike89914]

Reminder if you're just landing on this post, please fill out this survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FGPR7T8

So, guys, why do you think Masterkeys wont fit this case?

I just ordered one of these. It arrives Friday. I'll let you know if it fits.

I'm waiting on this update to see if I can join or not!

Thanks!

[phinix]

I think satin finish would be better. This one is too shiny.

Or go with graony enigma, best look in my opinion.

[norbauer]

OK guys, based on these observations and the poll feedback, an anodized sample is currently on order from a shop in China I have worked with in the past and trust. I think I have worked out some of the import issues, but it'll definitely be my first time importing anything in any quantity from China if we proceed with a production order of ano cases from them. Hopefully that won't be too much of a headache.  I know I have vacillated on this issue a number of times, but if it's what I have to do to get us the cases we want, I'll deal with it.

Thanks to codywanks for posting the photo and for the feedback he recently sent me on some possible design tweaks. Those will be incorporated into the forthcoming new prototype.

I hope to still be able to offer some powder options as well, but it seems like more people want ano than I had previously appreciated before the poll, so I felt like I should probably explore that option in earnest, and the US shop just totally disappointed me in being able to provide ano samples with consistent quality. All the other other places I've gotten to quote this in the US have all quoted me at above $400 (in some cases, well above) just to make the parts. So China seems like the best option if we need ano and don't want to pay a fortune. This shop always meets its lead times in my experience, so I should have a new gray anodized prototype soon.

[Rageous]

Sounds good, thanks for the update! 

[nateth]

I don't know if you're keeping count or not, but I'm looking at the Clueboard CNC case for alps when it comes out because I'm irresponsible with my money. I'll probably get that in grey, so all that to say, I think the white powder coat would be hot. Would you consider two separate buys since you might be doing ano in China? It makes me sad this is probably going to drag out more, but I understand the stringent quality control and attention to detail.

[elcubismo]

Would it function fine without the top half of the casing? I really like the way it looks here in the attached image from OP but would be curious if there are any unintuitive reasons that it wouldn't function well like this

This. I really like how it looks also. Could there be a cost decrease if we only get the bottom half?

[arhetue]

This looks awesome. I have hyperspheres on the way for my novatouch right now, looks like this will be next on the list to obtain...

[norbauer]

Hey guys, great news to report: the Masterkeys TKL fits inside this case perfectly! Here it is inside my anodized prototype, which is the closest to the one currently being made.



So that means this case can be used with the Novatouch, Rapid-i, and Masterkeys TKL.

[WNovizar]

Hey guys, great news to report: the Masterkeys TKL fits inside this case perfectly! Here it is inside my anodized prototype, which is the closest to the one currently being made.

Show Image

So that means this case can be used with the Novatouch, Rapid-i, and Masterkeys TKL.

Cool beans. Can't wait for the GB!!

[fax668]

That's just horrible! Now I'm serious contemplating buying two cases instead of one.

[r5d]

Hey guys, great news to report: the Masterkeys TKL fits inside this case perfectly! Here it is inside my anodized prototype, which is the closest to the one currently being made.

So that means this case can be used with the Novatouch, Rapid-i, and Masterkeys TKL.

Great news! Maybe adjust the title to reflect this for garnering more interest?

[norbauer]

Hey guys, great news to report: the Masterkeys TKL fits inside this case perfectly! Here it is inside my anodized prototype, which is the closest to the one currently being made.

So that means this case can be used with the Novatouch, Rapid-i, and Masterkeys TKL.

Great news! Maybe adjust the title to reflect this for garnering more interest?

Already did.

[nateth]

So is this anodized only now? Is there not enough interest in the power coat cases to warrant that option?

[Phenix]

can someone tell me in short:
what is better for the long shot in daily usage? (letting the "color options" aside)
anodized or powdercoated

[norbauer]

So is this anodized only now? Is there not enough interest in the power coat cases to warrant that option?

My hope is to do both. However, manufacturing of the powder cases has been dragging on and on at the US shop and I'm getting a little impatient. Given that there seems to be more interest in the anodizing anyway, I figured it would be best to trudge forward with that option, but I continue to work both fronts in parallel. If one is available first (almost certainly ano), I may just proceed and do that as a group buy first and then do a follow-up group of buy powder options after the ano cases ship. That could also work out nicely since there were some people who said they'd only have the money to buy a case soon and others said they would want to participate in the buy but would want to wait more than a month. This would give them two opportunities.

[norbauer]

can someone tell me in short:
what is better for the long shot in daily usage? (letting the "color options" aside)
anodized or powdercoated

Having used both fairly extensively, I can't say that there is much of a difference in terms of functional use. But here are my observations of the differences generally in terms of functional considerations.

The powder coating finishes that don't have a texture (i.e., the gray and white ones I've shown so far) do tend to acquire--or at least show--small scratches more readily. I think that the oxidized layer generated by anodizing is indeed probably harder than a powder coat paint layer, so that makes sense. But the engima black (wrinkle) finish doesn't show scratches at all due to its matte finish and texture. (Maybe they're still there, but you'd never notice them unless you gouged it so deep as to expose the raw aluminum underneath.)

Another slight downside to powder is that the finish is a little uneven compared to anodizing (which is grown uniformly over the entire surface using a physical/chemical process). This means that fits between edges are a little less crisp and in some cases the bumpon recesses may be a little too small for the bumpons they are designed to accommodate, or other fits between parts may be tight in areas where more powder accumulated than others. I have updated the design for the powder cases to be a little different to account for these tolerance issues, so it shouldn't be a major concern on the production cases. But it certainly has been a pain to me thus far, as it means I've had to develop completely different designs for the two finish options, which has made keeping changes in sync across the two versions a bit of a nightmare.

[nateth]

My hope is to do both. However, manufacturing of the powder cases has been dragging on and on at the US shop and I'm getting a little impatient. Given that there seems to be more interest in the anodizing anyway, I figured it would be best to trudge forward with that option, but I continue to work both fronts in parallel. If one is available first (almost certainly ano), I may just proceed and do that as a group buy first and then do a follow-up group of buy powder options after the ano cases ship. That could also work out nicely since there were some people who said they'd only have the money to buy a case soon and others said they would want to participate in the buy but would want to wait more than a month. This would give them two opportunities.

Thant makes sense. Thanks for the info!

[Mike89914]

Hey guys, great news to report: the Masterkeys TKL fits inside this case perfectly! Here it is inside my anodized prototype, which is the closest to the one currently being made.

So that means this case can be used with the Novatouch, Rapid-i, and Masterkeys TKL.

Great news! Maybe adjust the title to reflect this for garnering more interest?

Already did.

As promised when the masterkey fits.

TAKE
MY
MONEY

Thanks!

[norbauer]

As promised when the masterkey fits.

TAKE
MY
MONEY

Thanks!

lol. I should have the gray ano prototype in less than two weeks and I hope to be able to do just that shortly thereafter. Glad you're pleased!

I think the case looks pretty swank with the LED glow from the Masterkeys myself and am very happy that it fits. It seems that CM has converged on a single design for their TKL boards, which surely saves them a ton in tooling costs (and us too!)

[eksuen]

I must have that Space Station White!

[Pinecone]

The only color I care about isn't even on the poll  (Orange)
Will this be compatible with the QFR?

[McPwned]

So is this anodized only now? Is there not enough interest in the power coat cases to warrant that option?

My hope is to do both. However, manufacturing of the powder cases has been dragging on and on at the US shop and I'm getting a little impatient. Given that there seems to be more interest in the anodizing anyway, I figured it would be best to trudge forward with that option, but I continue to work both fronts in parallel. If one is available first (almost certainly ano), I may just proceed and do that as a group buy first and then do a follow-up group of buy powder options after the ano cases ship. That could also work out nicely since there were some people who said they'd only have the money to buy a case soon and others said they would want to participate in the buy but would want to wait more than a month. This would give them two opportunities.

I really like the Enigma Black - I hope everything ends up satisfactory!

[Jumie]

Is it compatible also for filco mj2?

[fine_italian_leather]

Is it compatible also for filco mj2?

No, but this one is: https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=280

[complex]

This is kind of a stupid question but I would rather be safe than sorry 

This would fit on a ISO Novatouch, right?

[K]

This is kind of a stupid question but I would rather be safe than sorry 

This would fit on a ISO Novatouch, right?

Well both ANSI and ISO layouts are the same size rectangles so its safe to say they would fit It would only not work if the case had dividers between them for the keys which I don't think any keyboard case has.

[Reckless5040]

We still looking at a $200 price point?

[norbauer]

We still looking at a $200 price point?

Yup. That's still the plan.

[Rageous]

While you're waiting for the anodized dark grey to come back, are the space white and enigma black options pretty much all set and ready to go? I'll be upping my order to at least one grey and one white with confirmation of that general price point.