Been reading through all the replies and just have a couple things to note.

There definitely seems to be a subset of artisan enthusiasts here that would like to see something happen in the US instead of Germany. I think there is a great opportunity for this group to plan a smaller event (ArtisanCon TM) for 2025. I definitely loved to see everyone in SLC, and get that its more challenging to make it to Germany. My suggestion is to go for it! Plan an event with your friends here and make it happen.

Nice of you to be so ready to separate out the community. 

My two cents as a community member who cares above all about the community. 

A meet, much less an annual convention for a niche hobby should have four guiding principles, in my opinion. 

Community building
Showcasing great examples/collections of keyboards, artisans and related items
Good entertainment options
Promotion of the hobby

I'd like to hear how the decision to move Keycon 25 to Europe benefits the members of Geekhack and the other members of the various communities that Geekhack has seeded. 

Keycon is in my perception an event that happened thanks to key community members coming forward and taking some input from the larger community. All the love to JM, Hoff and everyone who organized them in the past.  This year the reasoning for SLC was given and everyone rolled with that and was excited to see Keycon back.  The event was great this year but this isn't about how this year went, it's how incredibly poorly this has been communicated and how tone deaf it feels to me as a member of the community.   Announcing on the NK stream a unilateral decision to move an event that had always been held in the US to Germany.  Oh and maybe not a cool place with stuff to do like Frankfurt but the middle of nowhere out by GMK?  Sounds great for NK and the GMK relationship. 

Oh and talking about Tampa 2026, man if there isn't any real dialogue with the community you can do it wherever you like.  The community will serve it's own needs. 

Soooo, Let's try this again.

Putting to the side the fact I can't sell for &(*^, I had 2 main issued making keycaps last time.

Issue 1 was simply holding them while cutting. Square was ok, but anything with a tapered side was kinda impossible. They would jiggle and move no matter how i clamped them. It was also a big issue to basically make them one at a time.

Issue 2 was the stem. Well, not the stem specifically, but installing it square and level on every keycap.

Sooo, to mitigate almost all those issues, I have made a fixture plate. It can hold a 60% keycap set, plus 10 additional 1u caps. It can take any scrap of wood large enough for a single cap. It can work with any profile up to 12mm height. The bottoms and stems are done in one shot, so all stems will be precisely aligned and offset on every cap, securely glued in.




Last on the list was surface finish. I realllly wanted to basically eliminate sanding and i have managed here. Sanding with 1000 grit would make the finish rougher, which is something i can deal with The bottoms after being removed form the fixture will need a tiny swipe on the sandpaper but otherwise, these come off the fixture "finished" and ready for oil.

Now we need to move on to the first real set! Eek! I think it will be padauk and ebony, cause that's the scraps I have on hand.

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