Gonna copy-paste this from my website update, but if you want a TL;DR...
Cases were not made to my standards. I dont trust the factory to 'fix' these as there's no perfect fix to the issue that I am seeing. Going to allocate current 50 units as b-stock and move to my other factory.
--
All cases were completed last week and during QC, the factory found some issues with the anodization which have arisen as a result of the material. It's quite a mystery to us since the prototype came out flawless and according to the factory, the same material supplier and anodizing factory was used for both the prototype and production run. Nearly all units have uneven anodization around the sides as a band that goes around the entire case. Some units have minor streaking from acid etch. We are hesitant on having the factory fix these so we will be paying for these and offering them as B stock at heavily discounted prices.
For the 50 original customers who are in the group buy, we will be manufacturing new cases for everyone. We have another factory which has been used to manufacture custom keyboards before and will organize another batch of cases to be produced. As the 7 series alloy has proven to be difficult to anodize, both by the factories that have been used before and by other makers who have used it in their products, we will switch to either a 6 series or 5 series alloy depending on price, quality and availability.
As with manufacturing, we will be running the new factory through the paces as with a brand new product being manufactured in a brand new factory. Although they have made other high end custom keyboard kits before, we will still be doing a handful of pre-production pieces for quality assurance and will be discussing expectations with them. We believe that this will take a significant amount of time, but we are still on track for the original Q1/Q2 2019 ship date as we were quite far ahead of schedule with the current (now b-stock) units.
Assembly has started for the PCBs and should wrap up shortly. They should arrive close to the end of this month and made available with b-stock cases. Extra A and B stock from the current factory will be available on a first come, first serve basis. If you would like a notification for these, please fill out the form below.
https://goo.gl/forms/LxlISk1kQ2KXVRT02