Author Topic: Anyone have OLD polycarb customs, if so how are they holding up?  (Read 1084 times)

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Offline directheatedtriode

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Lets say a minimum of 5 years old. Used either stationary or moved around.

I'm curious if they've developed any cracks, faults, etc, especially if they have heavier weights in them. Sort of curious as when I joined GH polycarb was more of a niche but now it seems incredibly popular presumably as linears have seen a massive surge in popularity since then.

Offline tp4tissue

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Re: Anyone have OLD polycarb customs, if so how are they holding up?
« Reply #1 on: Sun, 11 April 2021, 17:16:19 »
unless there's heat or sun exposure, there shouldn't be any problems.

Offline Sup

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Re: Anyone have OLD polycarb customs, if so how are they holding up?
« Reply #2 on: Sun, 11 April 2021, 18:31:52 »
From the feeling i don't think it would crack even in long term. discolor and gets scuffs yeah probably, but the good thing about poly is you can buff those scratches out.
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Offline Maledicted

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Re: Anyone have OLD polycarb customs, if so how are they holding up?
« Reply #3 on: Mon, 12 April 2021, 11:09:55 »
Matias boards are made of polycarbonate, and I have stacks of them. Some of them look like they went through a war or two (I bought one parts board from them directly). I think I have seen one of the really old semi-transparent ones (which may not be made of PC?) that had some hairline cracks in the lower casing near the feet. These are relatively thin cases too.

For laptops and phones, if I buy a protective case, I make sure that any hard structural component of the case is polycarbonate ... because I know it is literally bulletproof, and used for ski and paintball mask lenses. I have intentionally dropped my phone from chest height (I'm over 6 feet tall) straight onto concrete once I had accidentally done so and found that literally nothing happened (I make sure my phone cases have silicone rubber between the phone and PC, and that the rubber provides some barrier between the screen and the ground at any angle). I have put plenty of cracks into tempered glass screen protectors, it is hard to find more than a bright spot on the PC of my phone case however.

I have said for years that all portable consumer electronics should be made of the stuff, especially phones and laptops. It weighs less than aluminum and if both are relatively thin, will never dent like aluminum will *cough* Apple *cough*. Metal cases are for aesthetics and heft more so than durability, by comparison. If they made PC cases that were as thick as say, an IBM 4704 case, or the aluminum Aliexpress TKL cases, in a layout I care about, the only reason I wouldn't take them instead is if I needed the zinc or aluminum to use as a blunt weapon, or boat anchor, etc.
« Last Edit: Mon, 12 April 2021, 12:04:39 by Maledicted »

Offline pixelpusher

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Re: Anyone have OLD polycarb customs, if so how are they holding up?
« Reply #4 on: Mon, 12 April 2021, 11:37:09 »
The oldest PC board I have is only about 2 years old and it looks brand new.  I have a 7 year old frosted acrylic case that also looks good.  I noticed yesterday the the frosted nylon bottom of my M65-a is starting to yellow.

Offline tp4tissue

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Re: Anyone have OLD polycarb customs, if so how are they holding up?
« Reply #5 on: Mon, 12 April 2021, 21:55:28 »
From the feeling i don't think it would crack even in long term. discolor and gets scuffs yeah probably, but the good thing about poly is you can buff those scratches out.

They really aught to always have opaque sand blasted finish, because otherwise, the mirror poly carb finish looks gross with scuffs.

Offline jamster

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Re: Anyone have OLD polycarb customs, if so how are they holding up?
« Reply #6 on: Mon, 12 April 2021, 23:49:16 »
Lets say a minimum of 5 years old. Used either stationary or moved around.

I'm curious if they've developed any cracks, faults, etc, especially if they have heavier weights in them. Sort of curious as when I joined GH polycarb was more of a niche but now it seems incredibly popular presumably as linears have seen a massive surge in popularity since then.

5 years isn't old! I think only one or two of the decent keyboards in my household are newer than five years.

Also- polycarbonate is very resilient, it's acrylic that is much more fragile.