[GB] Granite Set ~ Sublimated Full PBT (spacebar included)

[Matt3o]

Melissa is the nicest person and SP proved once again that is always willing to do the right thing. It happened with DSA Retro (with the wrong modifiers), it happened again with Skull Squadron (by making all the kits tip) and again with Granite. I don't understand what else the haters need to shut the **** up.

That being said. I suggested SP to send me a sample before going mass production, this would be the easiest to avoid these kind of issues. Probably it's too expensive/unpractical for them to run just one sample. I don't know. All I can suggest to SP is to improve QC.

Anyway I'm glad this will be solved. Some of the pictures I've seen here were admittedly pretty alarming.

[DanielT]

Melissa is great, she helped us in Galaxy Class GB, with all the ordering issues, the ISO kit was tipped even if the MOQ was no met by far.
I can only say 

[sakai4eva]

Melissa is the nicest person and SP proved once again that is always willing to do the right thing. It happened with DSA Retro (with the wrong modifiers), it happened again with Skull Squadron (by making all the kits tip) and again with Granite. I don't understand what else the haters need to shut the **** up.

That being said. I suggested SP to send me a sample before going mass production, this would be the easiest to avoid these kind of issues. Probably it's too expensive/unpractical for them to run just one sample. I don't know. All I can suggest to SP is to improve QC.

Anyway I'm glad this will be solved. Some of the pictures I've seen here were admittedly pretty alarming.

Well, the problem is that there is a little bit of fanboyism, and I'm just trying to keep things as objective as possible. That's why I was requesting someone from SP to clarify things, and she did.

We're all good then

[ideus]

Dear Melissa, It would be very important to find the root causes for the sides of the keys to be slightly bended inwards. Also some keycaps like the enter key has what appears to be the mark of the sublimation die on top of it. Both defects may be related with the sublimation process. This is an opportunity to fix those issues so your future runs of PBT sublimated caps may be improved.

[LechnerDE]

We have discovered that one of the molds used to produce the single space keys for the Granite set was misaligned resulting in the mount being slightly off center. This is contributing to the varying gaps between keys when mounted on a keyboard, and also explains the registration issues we were having during the sublimation printing. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and frustration this has caused.

If you are not satisfied with the Granite set you received, please email Melissa at mpetersen@solutionsinplastic.com with your NAME, ORDER NUMBER and SET DESCRIPTION of the product you would like replaced. We will attempt to replace the one space keys in those kits over the next couple weeks.

The ISO return keys are being produced this week so those that ordered this kit should be receiving shipping notifications soon.

Again, we apologize for putting Matteo’s beautiful set in a negative light but we hope to rectify this soon. Thank you for your patience.

Thank you very much for this detailed explanation Melissa 

Since my set also contained the ISO Enter key I hope my batch has no issues.

I won't be home again before October, so my set will already be waiting for me

the funny thing is that is passed through customs without a hitch and i didn't even have to pay any import fees, which is really weird, because i almost had to pay for the macross and that one was cheaper.

I hope I will be just as lucky. This would save me ~50$!

[GSimon]

Voila! On the Leopold FC750R, spacebar is for show it doesn't fit due to spacing.

Legends seem to be printed fine/aligned correctly. Overall though I'm not the biggest fan, probably because I've grown found of the SA profile though also the key spacing gaps. The Rough texture feels nice. Might just hold onto this set for a future keyboard, or for someone else down the road.

[drrtyrokka]

Got my invoice, NICE!!! Hope they fixed the issues and the ones with ISO-Enter and international legends won't have any warps and misalignment..

[jlor]

Got my invoice, NICE!!! Hope they fixed the issues and the ones with ISO-Enter and international legends won't have any warps and misalignment..

Also got mine! What a relief, finally seeing that email.
I too hope they fixed alignment issues and stuff for this batch. Fingers crossed as it would be a real hassle sending the package back over the Atlantic to replace them.

[usopia]

I received my shipping notification yesterday. The same I heard from other german buyers.

[...]
(Attachment Link)

...veeery nice! 

[Elrick]

Yes, Melissa offered to refund the complete purchase + shipping due to shock, 'horror' reaction to these latest sets that I've received from them.

BECAUSE they (SP) have really picked up their game when it comes to anything produced via plain old ABS.  The key-sets normally arrived in perfect condition and when they're fitted out in my favorite Keyboards they're an absolute delight to behold.

BUT the current batch I received done in PBT felt like I was cleavered in half by a machete because it broke my heart to see such a massive failure when it came to fitting them into their new keyboards.  I couldn't accept such (how to put it nicely here) horrible, misshapen keys that have ever arrived to my front door.

Melissa has contacted me and have sent back their package today  .

This was not a good day for me, losing Matt3o's Granite Keyset.  I know now that I need to stick with SP ABS only key-caps in the future.

[Matt3o]

This was not a good day for me, losing Matt3o's Granite Keyset.  I know now that I need to stick with SP ABS only key-caps in the future.

why's that? it seems they learned their lesson.

[jlor]

This was not a good day for me, losing Matt3o's Granite Keyset.  I know now that I need to stick with SP ABS only key-caps in the future.

why's that? it seems they learned their lesson.

We don't know that yet. We will find out if they learned their lesson when the next pbt group buy ships.

[Matt3o]

oh c'mon!

[ideus]

This was not a good day for me, losing Matt3o's Granite Keyset.  I know now that I need to stick with SP ABS only key-caps in the future.

why's that? it seems they learned their lesson.

We don't know that yet. We will find out if they learned their lesson when the next pbt group buy ships.

There were at least three main defects in this first production run using PBT caps with sublimated legends. One was the out-of-center stems, the second, the sides of the keys bended inwards, and the third, the marks on top of some keys with sizes over 2 units. They just have acknowledged the first. Thus, there is no evidence they have learned yet.

I am using my set now, and I am happy with it, but it is clear it is not a well made one. I can ignore the defects, but I do not understand why they are not showing us full accountability for the issues. In some industries these kind of quality issues are just out of question. We are not like that, but it does not mean an over $100 set of plastic parts should be like this.

[taylordcraig]

Show Image

CODE Clear with Granite keys and Dolch WASD cluster.

How did you paint your case?
I've been looking at painting one of mine.

Here you go. I think that the angle of the picture as well as the placement of the C key made it look worse, but it's still a little off regardless.

More

Show Image

Show Image

The `~ looks a little bit better than the X in that position.  Could be that X is a little to the left and C is a little to the right :(

Some of these caps aren't pressed all the way down. After I put a DSA set on my board I go over each key with both of my thumbs one at a time, pushing really hard twice to seat them propperly.

Not on clears but my right green shift is definitely stuck on my board with browns. Too scared to rip out the stem or stabilizers so its still on there. Wiggling doesn't seem to help.

I have this on browns, blues, greens and tried oh white/black and it never got stuck but I need to plastic wrap costar stabs. Makes me sad.
Still looking for 1 common kit, nerdom, and icon pro and looking to trade a text mod for icon mods.

[Mooby]

Show Image

CODE Clear with Granite keys and Dolch WASD cluster.

How did you paint your case?
I've been looking at painting one of mine.

That looks like a Vortex Aluminium Case.

[taylordcraig]

If it is then VERY GOOD TO KNOW that code will fit in a different tkl case. It has very weird cable placement and I guess you'd just cover up the DIP switches.
But I've still been looking for a way to spruce this thing up.

[nayr]

Some of these caps aren't pressed all the way down. After I put a DSA set on my board I go over each key with both of my thumbs one at a time, pushing really hard twice to seat them propperly.

Unfortunately, I think that they are. I just tried (again) doing what you did and there was no effect.
I emailed Melissa though and she said that they'd be willing to replace the single space keys on from the common kit. So that's good at least.

[tbc]

when installing dsa, it's best to do one row and then view from the side.  viewing from the top does absolutely nothing to confirm.

just going to say that my up arrow wasnt set down all the away, even though it was used for months.

[abjr]

Here's my QFR:



I think it looks pretty nice, however, I am a little disappointed that the key alignment is so far off, esp. the bottom row. I'm on the fence about asking for a Common Kit replacement. I know Melissa from SP mentioned that there was an issue with one of the molds, but would that have caused so many keys to be off? I don't want to request a replacement and have the same issues or waste her time but I did spend over $100 on these. If it was like $20, I probably wouldn't care as much.

I actually wouldn't mind seeing SP post a pic of a fully populated keyboard after the issue is corrected. That might help me make up my mind.

[rowdy]

Period of sun today, so I took some more photos.



Such orange, so yellow, much bright

(Kinda mini summer set ...)



Gaps - only a few, and I don't really notice unless I look at the keyboard, which I usually don't:

[Elrick]

Period of sun today, so I took some more photos.

Gaps - only a few, and I don't really notice unless I look at the keyboard, which I usually don't:

I use to work as a fitter hence for me seeing unorthodox gaps between anything, throws me off from using that instrument.  Because I can easily see everything at a glance as to whether it is all lined up correctly or not, maybe the OCD in my feature set tortures me beyond anything else hence my sadness in not being able to use any keyboard with these installed.

I suspect you will need to re-design the pcb and reattach all the Cherry switches so that the keys SP produced will all line up correctly with no excessive gaps.........

[rowdy]

Period of sun today, so I took some more photos.

Gaps - only a few, and I don't really notice unless I look at the keyboard, which I usually don't:

I use to work as a fitter hence for me seeing unorthodox gaps between anything, throws me off from using that instrument.  Because I can easily see everything at a glance as to whether it is all lined up correctly or not, maybe the OCD in my feature set tortures me beyond anything else hence my sadness in not being able to use any keyboard with these installed.

I suspect you will need to re-design the pcb and reattach all the Cherry switches so that the keys SP produced will all line up correctly with no excessive gaps.........

This set is going to end up at work, where I operate in semi-darkness so I am unlikely to notice it anyway.  Most of mine are ok, there are only like 2 or 3 that are like this.

[Mooby]

Period of sun today, so I took some more photos.

Gaps - only a few, and I don't really notice unless I look at the keyboard, which I usually don't:

I use to work as a fitter hence for me seeing unorthodox gaps between anything, throws me off from using that instrument.  Because I can easily see everything at a glance as to whether it is all lined up correctly or not, maybe the OCD in my feature set tortures me beyond anything else hence my sadness in not being able to use any keyboard with these installed.

I suspect you will need to re-design the pcb and reattach all the Cherry switches so that the keys SP produced will all line up correctly with no excessive gaps.........

It was a known fact for long time, that there would be some degree of warping especially on the longer keys. The alignment issues are another problem of course. But the warping? I knew it and if I couldn't live with it I had months to sell my order to someone who wouldn't care. Sample photos with visible warping were out long before delivery. Why do you keep your order when you know you won't like it?

[bianco]

too bad i didn't have enough funds to get all the kits


the nerdom kit looks very nice. thank you matt3o for organizing this

[Elrick]

Why do you keep your order when you know you won't like it?

I only received my order on Monday 7th of July 2014 (this week).  When I first opened the package I was impressed with SP's presentation (as always) BUT when it was installed into my 1800, Filco and then a spare GON (regret doing that) that was when I freaked at their malformations in every keyboard.

I didn't really see a thorough example of anyone else's till I saw another person who photographed it head-on with no filters applied or led effects to cover up the distortion of the keys.  But always when we FIRST paid up for these key-caps there was no mention nor any photo's showing these horrible misshapen keys at all.  Plus you keep hoping that YOUR own order would arrive perfect, like with every order you conduct on PMK's website in the past.

So before everyone gets on their HIGH horse and start dispensing fantasy versions of what was released onto the customers here know that it happened AFTER all the money was paid up and not before, because frankly I suspect Granite would hardly reach tipping point if SP bothered to show the manufactured keys up front first (which I suspect they wanted to avoid at all costs, just my own personnel viewpoint here, because I don't work or run SP).

I am just glad Melissa agreed to refund the full costs I paid for this hence no damage to my bank account just yet.  But I remembered when PMK started she stated clearly to everyone out there if you (the customer) is unhappy with your key-set then send it back to them and you shall receive the full refund plus all shipping costs as well.

If a Manufacturer is true to their own standards then they need to stand behind their own product when it comes to quality.  Need to see if this will be carried out as to their email statements to me and as usual I will keep everyone appraised here on this forum with my current situation regarding, receiving a full refund  .

[Mooby]

Why do you keep your order when you know you won't like it?

I only received my order on Monday 7th of July 2014 (this week).  When I first opened the package I was impressed with SP's presentation (as always) BUT when it was installed into my 1800, Filco and then a spare GON (regret doing that) that was when I freaked at their malformations in every keyboard.

I didn't really see a thorough example of anyone else's till I saw another person who photographed it head-on with no filters applied or led effects to cover up the distortion of the keys.  But always when we FIRST paid up for these key-caps there was no mention nor any photo's showing these horrible misshapen keys at all.  Plus you keep hoping that YOUR own order would arrive perfect, like with every order you conduct on PMK's website in the past.

So before everyone gets on their HIGH horse and start dispensing fantasy versions of what was released onto the customers here know that it happened AFTER all the money was paid up and not before, because frankly I suspect Granite would hardly reach tipping point if SP bothered to show the manufactured keys up front first (which I suspect they wanted to avoid at all costs, just my own personnel viewpoint here, because I don't work or run SP).

I am just glad Melissa agreed to refund the full costs I paid for this hence no damage to my bank account just yet.  But I remembered when PMK started she stated clearly to everyone out there if you (the customer) is unhappy with your key-set then send it back to them and you shall receive the full refund plus all shipping costs as well.

If a Manufacturer is true to their own standards then they need to stand behind their own product when it comes to quality.  Need to see if this will be carried out as to their email statements to me and as usual I will keep everyone appraised here on this forum with my current situation regarding, receiving a full refund  .

They avoid to show samples, so that they can send out flawed products only to be able to gladly offer refunds and exchanges. That makes perfect sense. Maybe group buys just aren't for everyone. Especially not for those who want to see the finished product before paying for it.

[SpAmRaY]

I only really noticed fit issues on the numberpad stabilizers, I had to play around with them, of course I didn't think to try the keys the other numberpad set I also bought 

[Matt3o]

OMY! That peacock looks fantastic on Granite!

I noticed that F and J are slightly taller than the other keys, I filed them a little and they are now perfect.

[Elrick]

They avoid to show samples, so that they can send out flawed products only to be able to gladly offer refunds and exchanges. That makes perfect sense. Maybe group buys just aren't for everyone. Especially not for those who want to see the finished product before paying for it.

Maybe the quality needs to be stepped up instead of finding useless excuses to protect them from any responsibility.  Because it's their first run with PBT plastic then some will forgive them but know that I am in dozens of Group Buys (currently) thus far this was the ONLY failed one for me in over 3 years of purchases.  Hence this will be my absolute first refund with SP concerning their quality issues.

Maybe you should know your facts first before trying to apply your own fantasy version of what should be done here because frankly you have no idea of what's going on, so don't try to rack your brain in applying some of your own home-spun recommendations, because it isn't wanted here  .

[Mooby]

They avoid to show samples, so that they can send out flawed products only to be able to gladly offer refunds and exchanges. That makes perfect sense. Maybe group buys just aren't for everyone. Especially not for those who want to see the finished product before paying for it.

Maybe the quality needs to be stepped up instead of finding useless excuses to protect them from any responsibility.  Because it's their first run with PBT plastic then some will forgive them but know that I am in dozens of Group Buys (currently) thus far this was the ONLY failed one for me in over 3 years of purchases.  Hence this will be my absolute first refund with SP concerning their quality issues.

Maybe you should know your facts first before trying to apply your own fantasy version of what should be done here because frankly you have no idea of what's going on, so don't try to rack your brain in applying some of your own home-spun recommendations, because it isn't wanted here  .

Or it's just your gap-phobic neurosis that doesn't apply to anyone but you around here.

[rowdy]

They avoid to show samples, so that they can send out flawed products only to be able to gladly offer refunds and exchanges. That makes perfect sense. Maybe group buys just aren't for everyone. Especially not for those who want to see the finished product before paying for it.

Maybe the quality needs to be stepped up instead of finding useless excuses to protect them from any responsibility.  Because it's their first run with PBT plastic then some will forgive them but know that I am in dozens of Group Buys (currently) thus far this was the ONLY failed one for me in over 3 years of purchases.  Hence this will be my absolute first refund with SP concerning their quality issues.

Maybe you should know your facts first before trying to apply your own fantasy version of what should be done here because frankly you have no idea of what's going on, so don't try to rack your brain in applying some of your own home-spun recommendations, because it isn't wanted here  .

Or it's just your gap-phobic neurosis that doesn't apply to anyone but you around here.

Have you seen nayr's set?

http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=56354.msg1391363#msg1391363

[Mooby]

Yes i have. Have you read Melissa's statement regarding this issue? My own set has some warps too, but it certainly doesn't belong to one of those batches addressed by Melissa. I was talking about the warping that was already known to be happening before production started.

[m1_account]

I know I'm adding nearly nothing to any discussion here, but after like 3 attempts and daily use since I got them, I've still found caps that weren't pressed all the way down.
In the pics I posted several pages ago, like 15 of the caps weren't down all the way. Interestingly, I couldn't tell by looking.
Something is really satisfying about pressing down and feeling the cap slip down a little.

[janvkn]

They look and feel great on my Poker II

[jdeblese]

Print quality looks pretty good over here, too. I'll have to mail SP on monday about a slight mix-up, but apart from that the international legends are fairly low, I can't see any problems.

I haven't put them all on a board yet, of course.

Big image of multiple sets here.

[Zeal]

Received my set on Friday, but didn't have time to put it on til today. I've got quite a lot of pbt warps. 

I think the 5 key is also missing some meat from the sprue mark ripping the side off.



Is it also normal for the right shift/enter to have a bit of indenting on the surface? (around the stabilizer stem area)

[swill]

Received my set on Friday, but didn't have time to put it on til today. I've got quite a lot of pbt warps. 

I think the 5 key is also missing some meat from the sprue mark ripping the side off.

Show Image

Is it also normal for the right shift/enter to have a bit of indenting on the surface? (around the stabilizer stem area)

Ya. I also have big holes where the sprue marks are on some caps. At least it's hidden.

[FreeCopy]

Colorway and legends are fantastic. This is pretty much what I've always wanted with the icons and mono legends. Beautiful work Matt3o!

Physically, the production of this set ended up quite ugly. It's rather unfortunate for what is otherwise a near perfect set IMO.
Plenty of warping, unusually large sprue marks, and off center keys.
Texture on my alphas is pretty inconsistent. Texture on my mods is almost non-existent. Not shiny, but not textured, kind of neat actually.


Currently on my Poker II

[Vanilla]

So..... when's round 2? 

[swill]

So..... when's round 2? 

In about a month in the classifieds.

[sakai4eva]

So..... when's round 2? 

In about a month in the classifieds.

Already started.

A lot of dissatisfied customers.

In the end, I was excited to get this because of dvorak/colemak experimentation on my keyboards, but I guess at this point it no longer matters.

Might just spring for some DSA blanks in the PMK site in the end.

[Matt3o]

I will speak with Melissa. The QC is not splendid, I'm not sure I want to run a round 2.

[StylinGreymon]

It makes me so sad that QC basically ruined what should have been THE set to own.
Yes, Melissa has offered to fix the issues, but still...

YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE THE CHOSEN ONE, GRANITE!

[jlor]

I will speak with Melissa. The QC is not splendid, I'm not sure I want to run a round 2.

Make sure they fix their communication while they are at it. My email apparently didn't get registered in their system upon checkout (I created a user on the PMK site). So while it was displayed on my users order site, I received none of the mass-information emails. Causing some serious uneasiness at my part - especially since I could see peoples orders were shipped and this thread was my only source of information.

I'm sure Melissa hates me by now since I've written to her about that problem 3 times and it only now got fixed (I think, I have started to get mailing list style mails about their products at least). But she is fast, professional and service oriented in her responses - just really too bad that it was a problem in the first place.

P.S. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that misaligned keys have been weeded out of the batch that were sent with printed ISO enters.

[Elrick]

I will speak with Melissa. The QC is not splendid, I'm not sure I want to run a round 2.

Even if they dropped the ball like Razer Corp does on a routine basis, they still make fine key-caps.

I just wish they made your design in ABS because they have excelled from 2 years ago when they first started dispensing key-caps throughout the world.  Your Granite shouldn't be killed off due to faulty PBT molding but to upgrade it to ABS and make it available once again.

Like I said before every company makes mistakes, it just depends upon how they will address it in the future when it comes to producing fine examples of key-caps.  They have done it before and I hope will return to their highest standard, that I know they can produce  .

[swill]

I will speak with Melissa. The QC is not splendid, I'm not sure I want to run a round 2.

Even if they dropped the ball like Razer Corp does on a routine basis, they still make fine key-caps.

I just wish they made your design in ABS because they have excelled from 2 years ago when they first started dispensing key-caps throughout the world.  Your Granite shouldn't be killed off due to faulty PBT molding but to upgrade it to ABS and make it available once again.

Like I said before every company makes mistakes, it just depends upon how they will address it in the future when it comes to producing fine examples of key-caps.  They have done it before and I hope will return to their highest standard, that I know they can produce  .

I have to admit, I have not been impressed with any of the caps from SP other than their SA molds. I don't think I will buy anything else from them other than SA.

[sakai4eva]

I will speak with Melissa. The QC is not splendid, I'm not sure I want to run a round 2.

Even if they dropped the ball like Razer Corp does on a routine basis, they still make fine key-caps.

I just wish they made your design in ABS because they have excelled from 2 years ago when they first started dispensing key-caps throughout the world.  Your Granite shouldn't be killed off due to faulty PBT molding but to upgrade it to ABS and make it available once again.

Like I said before every company makes mistakes, it just depends upon how they will address it in the future when it comes to producing fine examples of key-caps.  They have done it before and I hope will return to their highest standard, that I know they can produce  .

I have to admit, I have not been impressed with any of the caps from SP other than their SA molds. I don't think I will buy anything else from them other than SA.

SA Granite. Panties-dropper. Doo eet nao.

[Elrick]

SA Granite. Panties-dropper. Doo eet nao.

Nice choice of words there sakai4eva, "Panties-dropper" I wish it was true to everyone us besides us addicts here on GH  .

Once people get a taste for SA it's hard to change to another choice.  I'll be all over this if the SA profile was given here.

I'm already waiting for Matt3o's SA Midnight to be released and I think that one shall give us some more SA sweetness to behold  .

[sakai4eva]

I promised myself that I would stop buying keycaps at some stage, but an actual SA set that looks halfway decent would be bought in an instant.