Any updates with this amazing project?
Actually, yes!
I think I've decided to bail on the Corian idea for this particular project and kick that down the road to a different upcoming case I'm working on. The issue is that the RealForce has this huge-ass PCB and footprint, so I've had to engineer everything pretty tightly around that in order to keep things from getting awkwardly out of proportion. However, the Corian manufacturer isn't used to machining really tiny features to tight tolerances. (They say their min cutter diameter is 4.3mm, which strikes me as a bit wacky; I'm still waiting for an answer on why that is the case.) I've seen some phone camera pics of the Corian sample, and the physical one is on its way to me, at which time I'll take some better photos and post them here. However, that sample isn't usable since some small pocket features had to be increased to 4.3mm. There's still a chance I'll be able to work something out with the manufacturer to do the Corian, but at this point I'm just leaning towards doing this design in aluminum and then designing something next with the Corian manufacturing limitations in mind from the beginning. I'm also going to use the throwaway sample to conduct some drop tests, as Rama suggested to me recently at Originative meet-up in LA, so I'll see how durable the material is.
Anyway, I really wanted to do something special in terms of material/finish on this project--because the RF is my favorite keyboard--so, with Corian likely out, I'm planning on offering an option for hard (Type III) anodizing. This creates a color similar to Apple's "space gray" and it is much more resistant to scratching than normal anodizing. So I'll probably offer two finishes: clear Type II (silver color) and clear Type III (dark gray). The hard anodizing is considerably more expensive, so that'll have to be an "upgrade" option. I'm meeting with the manufacturer today about doing it in aluminum and am going to ask them to do a sample in hard anodizing so I'll have pics of it in that finish too.
For this one, I'm looking at manufacturers right here in Silicon Valley and also abroad. Since this design is a bit more fussy than ones I've produced in the past, I'd love to work with a local manufacturer so I can do on-site QC personally, but it may be a challenge to get them down to a price that we can all stomach.