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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: ander on Mon, 13 February 2017, 03:50:25
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Ever wonder what Unicomp (http://www.pckeyboard.com), our favorite current manufacturer of genuine buckling-spring keyboards, looks like down there in Lexington, Kentucky?
Tonight it occurred to me that we could at least see it from the outside, courtesy of Google Maps (https://goo.gl/maps/p4nZCEkvMPF2).
From the air, you can see it's a pretty big place:
[attach=1]
Of course it was built to accommodate IBM's volume of keyboard production, so it's hard to say how much of it Unicomp actually uses. But it probably takes about the same amount of space to make a BS board as it always has.
[attach=2]
Literally millions of keyboards were loaded up along that rail siding over the years (including some particularly pulse-quickening ones, LOL).
Approaching from the street:
[attach=3]
[attach=4]
[attach=5]
[attach=6]
Wonder if you can walk in, order a keyboard, and have them make it for you on the spot? It'd be fun to try.
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Wonder if you can walk in, order a keyboard, and have them make it for you on the spot? It'd be fun to try.
I doubt it :p , if you can then the hospitality level is too d@mn high :))
have a tour around the factory will be nice, I guess. ;D
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I expected the building front to be full of bulges and painting defects... and with the Unicomp sign off-centered.
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I expected the building front to be full of bulges and painting defects... and with the Unicomp sign off-centered.
:))
It's funny to see how it's fully surrounded with residential houses. I wonder what the surroundings looked like 20, 30 years ago.
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Has anyone here ever actually visited them? I know some of them live very close by.
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I expected the building front to be full of bulges and painting defects... and with the Unicomp sign off-centered.
Aw, they're not that bad... But I wouldn't be surprised if the building creaked a bit. :?)
Wonder if you can walk in, order a keyboard, and have them make it for you on the spot? It'd be fun to try.
I doubt it... have a tour around the factory will be nice, I guess.
Imagine the aroma of bubbling ABS drifting through the neighborhood on a fine spring afternoon... I wonder what dye-sublimation smells like?
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I expected the building front to be full of bulges and painting defects... and with the Unicomp sign off-centered.
Aw, they're not that bad... But I wouldn't be surprised if the building creaked a bit. :?)
Wonder if you can walk in, order a keyboard, and have them make it for you on the spot? It'd be fun to try.
I doubt it... have a tour around the factory will be nice, I guess.
Imagine the aroma of bubbling ABS drifting through the neighborhood on a fine spring afternoon... I wonder what dye-sublimation smells like?
PBT not ABS
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PBT not ABS
I was going by what czarek said here:
...Old IBM cases are made from PVC which I think is no longer allowed to be used in keyboards, new Unicomp cases are made from ABS...
...though Esteemed Elder ch_123 also said:
IIRC, Unicomp cases are made of a blend of ABS and PVC...
In any case, whatever they use, you can bet it's got a pungent aroma.
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PBT not ABS
I was going by what czarek said here:
...Old IBM cases are made from PVC which I think is no longer allowed to be used in keyboards, new Unicomp cases are made from ABS...
...though Esteemed Elder ch_123 also said:
IIRC, Unicomp cases are made of a blend of ABS and PVC...
In any case, whatever they use, you can bet it's got a pungent aroma.
You referenced dye-sublimatiom in the post I replied to...you don't dyesub a case you dyesub keycaps and you don't dyesub abs you dyesub pbt.
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PBT not ABS
I was going by what czarek said here:
...Old IBM cases are made from PVC which I think is no longer allowed to be used in keyboards, new Unicomp cases are made from ABS...
...though Esteemed Elder ch_123 also said:
IIRC, Unicomp cases are made of a blend of ABS and PVC...
In any case, whatever they use, you can bet it's got a pungent aroma.
You referenced dye-sublimatiom in the post I replied to...you don't dyesub a case you dyesub keycaps and you don't dyesub abs you dyesub pbt.
Dell cases were dyesubbed AFAIK.
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That's what the outside looks like.
What about the inside?
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Wonder if you can walk in, order a keyboard, and have them make it for you on the spot? It'd be fun to try.
It would be like Subway except keyboards instead of sandwiches.
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That's what the outside looks like.
What about the inside?
Yeah, that's what I was most interested in.
Would love a tour of the place if I ever get a chance to revisit the US of A.