Author Topic: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard  (Read 270687 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline pixelpusher

  • * Elevated Elder
  • Posts: 4179
  • Location: Tennessee - USA
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #600 on: Sun, 05 July 2020, 20:19:10 »
I beleive he's implying that 2 years have passed, so we are starting on the first day of the 3rd year.  Odd way to look at it, but I get it. 

Any updoots?

Offline eyedrop

  • Posts: 601
  • Location: Keeb Abyss
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #601 on: Sun, 05 July 2020, 23:51:31 »
Oh right, that make sense now.  Starting year three.

Hopefully some of those issues can be resolved quickly and boards can be delivered.

Offline deskcandy

  • Posts: 128
  • Location: Los Angeles, California
  • Keyboards your way.
    • Desk Candy
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #602 on: Mon, 06 July 2020, 22:21:10 »
Hi everyone,

Quick update. I picked up a batch of ~10 good light sand bottoms last week so will start pairing those up, sending order updates, and shipping those out. On the anodizing front, the anodizer wanted to try another workholding method with titanium screws and I was only able to get those to him last Monday, so I'm going to visit them again tomorrow for another update and see how things are going. Color on the grey units is very good but it's really tough to get them consistent. I think we are very close but I'm not sure if they have run more than a few yet. Will keep you guys posted.

Thanks as always for the patience.

Best,
John

Offline deskcandy

  • Posts: 128
  • Location: Los Angeles, California
  • Keyboards your way.
    • Desk Candy
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #603 on: Mon, 20 July 2020, 10:49:21 »
Hey everyone, quick update here.

Just got back from the anodizer and picked up 6 grey units. They all look great but the grey anodization has to be done in small batches to get the color as consistent as possible so it will take a few weeks for all of them to be completed.

In the meantime, I will start getting these 6 ready to ship so please look out for order confirmation emails. Thanks!

Offline beekey

  • Posts: 434
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #604 on: Mon, 20 July 2020, 12:06:34 »
Will some of these also go to Europe?

Offline crowKAKAWWW

  • Posts: 75
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #605 on: Mon, 20 July 2020, 12:29:16 »
Thanks for the update, we're almost there! Any chance we can get some photos?
RAMA M60A
KBDFans Frosted Tofu
Cannon Keys Satisfaction 75
Desk Candy Modern M0110
---
ALF x Scott G60

Offline deskcandy

  • Posts: 128
  • Location: Los Angeles, California
  • Keyboards your way.
    • Desk Candy
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #606 on: Thu, 23 July 2020, 15:21:07 »
Some of these will go to Europe, but proxies aren't taking units until their shipment is 100% complete so EU and China will probably be among the last ones fulfilled unfortunately.

Here's a pic of the gray.

Offline mgsickler

  • Posts: 848
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #607 on: Thu, 23 July 2020, 18:00:01 »
Some of these will go to Europe, but proxies aren't taking units until their shipment is 100% complete so EU and China will probably be among the last ones fulfilled unfortunately.

Here's a pic of the gray.
Nice. Looking forward to getting mine. :)

Offline schlep

  • Posts: 72
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #608 on: Fri, 24 July 2020, 07:50:50 »
Some of these will go to Europe, but proxies aren't taking units until their shipment is 100% complete so EU and China will probably be among the last ones fulfilled unfortunately.

Here's a pic of the gray.

I hope one of the 6 goes to me. 😃 From Singapore.

Offline sleepybrett

  • Posts: 27
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #609 on: Sat, 25 July 2020, 09:04:50 »
You need to start publishing lists of orders (with initials) with estimated shipping dates. This **** is officially out of control stupid.

Offline dwarflemur

  • Posts: 166
  • Location: cali
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #610 on: Sat, 25 July 2020, 11:04:14 »
You need to start publishing lists of orders (with initials) with estimated shipping dates. This **** is officially out of control stupid.

What a nicely and politely worded friendly message lmao.

Being toxic ain’t gonna help anyone bruh
Camp C225 | Norbatouch | ALF X2 + X3 | Orange TKL | CA66 | Leaf 60 | a bunch of others

Offline sleepybrett

  • Posts: 27
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #611 on: Sat, 25 July 2020, 15:29:08 »
You need to start publishing lists of orders (with initials) with estimated shipping dates. This **** is officially out of control stupid.

What a nicely and politely worded friendly message lmao.

Being toxic ain’t gonna help anyone bruh

I'm not sure how that was 'toxic' ... this guy and the company that represents him has had our money for more than three years. For months and months he makes no updates. Now he's sent out a handful of boards, if the replies are to be believed, but those of us who have yet to be surprised by boards magically showing up in the mail have literally no idea when we will see the products promised.

I'm kind of passed just hoping boards show up at some point.

Offline deskcandy

  • Posts: 128
  • Location: Los Angeles, California
  • Keyboards your way.
    • Desk Candy
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #612 on: Sat, 25 July 2020, 15:53:23 »
Hey thanks for the feedback. It hasn't been more than 3 years - this ran in July 2018 and it just passed 2 years. Not that I'm saying that's acceptable or reasonable...believe me when I'm also upset this has taken this long as the time delays have cost me a decent sum of money that I won't be able to get back.

The reason I am not putting shipping dates on every order is because of how my vendors are working.

Me: "Hey when can I pick up more completed Cerakote units?"
Them: "Next Wednesday we'll have 10 more done, and will have 100% complete by end of next week"
Me: "Awesome!"
[Next Tuesday] Me: "Hey confirming that I'm picking up 10 units tomorrow"
[Next Wednesday] Me: "Hey about to head down to pick up those 10 units" (it's an hour+ drive depending on traffic). No reply so I call and they say "oh yeah we've been slammed so we don't have anything yet"

It sometimes goes on like this for weeks of me pestering them and sometimes they deliver in bursts and I try to work as hard as I can to ship everything out. I am trying something else right now which I think might give them motivation to finish faster but I really cannot 100% promise they will deliver by a certain deadline.

On the anodization side, the shop is very professional but just had a really hard time getting the color right, so I expect that part to be done in fairly short order.

Offline deskcandy

  • Posts: 128
  • Location: Los Angeles, California
  • Keyboards your way.
    • Desk Candy
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #613 on: Sat, 25 July 2020, 15:55:01 »
Also on the point of "have had your money for X years" - I don't have the money any more and have had to put in more than $10k of my personal money to get this project done. it's all gone to vendors and storage costs in order to machine these keyboards. I'm not sitting here balling out on GB funds or anything  :p

If it makes you feel any better, this GB has been way worse for me financially than anyone who joined the GB.
« Last Edit: Sat, 25 July 2020, 16:01:21 by deskcandy »

Offline deskcandy

  • Posts: 128
  • Location: Los Angeles, California
  • Keyboards your way.
    • Desk Candy
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #614 on: Sat, 25 July 2020, 16:08:36 »
In terms of overall status, I've shipped about 70 keyboards out of 150 and another ~25 in stock that I'm trying to pack up this weekend. About 20 Cerakote units left for that vendor to finish and the anodizing vendor is responsible for the rest (35).

Offline broden

  • Posts: 11
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #615 on: Sat, 25 July 2020, 16:10:03 »
To be fair, I can understand why people are agitated.. on the other hand, this is the first time I hear how deep in you are John. I do appreciate the dedication. Regular GB rules apply, it is not like buying from a shop and risk is involved.
It sucks, but it is what it is.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Offline Starius

  • Posts: 602
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #616 on: Sat, 25 July 2020, 20:22:20 »
I've had my Modern M0110 for a few weeks now, I'm typing on it right now. 
For those of you still waiting, I just wanted to say it is indeed worth the wait.  It is a quality signature piece keyboard, and from what I can tell John / Deskcandy has taken all the necessary precautions to ensure these boards measure up to that level of quality in spite of setbacks.
 
All group buys have risks, it's the unpredictable nature of the beast.  I've taken part in enough group buys now in the last few years to know that "delays" should really be expected in some shape or form.  Of course, the causes and lengths these delays will vary from one group buy to the next.  But this is no "Lumina" situation here.  I have faith that your patience shall be rewarded.   

On a somewhat related note, I work in the sale of professional grade tools and I can tell you that we live in a age where it's very difficult just to get stock product items, often waiting for months on end for inventory to be fulfilled.  In light of that, I consider any custom made projects like this coming out this year to be a win.  Just my 2 cents, for what it's worth. 

Offline pmsingchicken

  • Posts: 12
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #617 on: Tue, 28 July 2020, 23:34:35 »
So close to 69

Offline crowKAKAWWW

  • Posts: 75
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #618 on: Wed, 29 July 2020, 15:07:39 »
Hopefully that means mine is almost ready! (I was the one that snatched #069)
RAMA M60A
KBDFans Frosted Tofu
Cannon Keys Satisfaction 75
Desk Candy Modern M0110
---
ALF x Scott G60

Offline pixelpusher

  • * Elevated Elder
  • Posts: 4179
  • Location: Tennessee - USA
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #619 on: Fri, 31 July 2020, 14:58:05 »
Just got my order.  Everything looks pretty good.  Plate has some scratches and the base shows all of the machining marks through the cerakote, but I won’t see those in use. 

The bummer I had was using the throwback alps set.  Apparently no one ever noticed that SPs DCS alps space bar isn’t fully compatible with alps switches.  It only allows about 2/3 of the switch travel before contact between the underneath of the space bar and the switch top housing.  Rotation doesn’t help because alps switches are symmetrical, unlike MX. 

I guess I can do a non-matching MX space bar.   

—————————-
Edit
I think I found out a way to make it work.  It seems the issue is that the cap stem doesn’t have the cross supports around it to keep the stem from going too deep into the switch. So if you are careful when you put the cap on the switch and only press it down partially it fixes the issue.

I’ll upload some pics when I get it finished.   I got serial Number 72!
« Last Edit: Fri, 31 July 2020, 16:26:49 by pixelpusher »

Offline pixelpusher

  • * Elevated Elder
  • Posts: 4179
  • Location: Tennessee - USA
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #620 on: Sat, 01 August 2020, 01:25:51 »
Well, this was a challenge, but here’s the finished product. 

Late, so you get potato. 

248515-0

I couldn’t get any of the alps throwback space bars to work.  They were all too out of spec.  I wasn’t planning to use this Yuri set on here, but here we are.  Blue alps, of course. 


Sound test

« Last Edit: Sat, 01 August 2020, 01:53:14 by pixelpusher »

Offline crowKAKAWWW

  • Posts: 75
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #621 on: Sat, 01 August 2020, 01:39:44 »
Very nice, can we get a sound test by any chance?
« Last Edit: Sat, 01 August 2020, 01:45:35 by crowKAKAWWW »
RAMA M60A
KBDFans Frosted Tofu
Cannon Keys Satisfaction 75
Desk Candy Modern M0110
---
ALF x Scott G60

Offline pixelpusher

  • * Elevated Elder
  • Posts: 4179
  • Location: Tennessee - USA
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #622 on: Sat, 01 August 2020, 01:53:24 »
Very nice, can we get a sound test by any chance?

added it

Offline deskcandy

  • Posts: 128
  • Location: Los Angeles, California
  • Keyboards your way.
    • Desk Candy
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #623 on: Sat, 01 August 2020, 16:29:07 »
Hopefully that means mine is almost ready! (I was the one that snatched #069)

Just sent out your order confirmation ;)

Offline deskcandy

  • Posts: 128
  • Location: Los Angeles, California
  • Keyboards your way.
    • Desk Candy
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #624 on: Sat, 01 August 2020, 16:30:22 »
Just got my order.  Everything looks pretty good.  Plate has some scratches and the base shows all of the machining marks through the cerakote, but I won’t see those in use. 

The bummer I had was using the throwback alps set.  Apparently no one ever noticed that SPs DCS alps space bar isn’t fully compatible with alps switches.  It only allows about 2/3 of the switch travel before contact between the underneath of the space bar and the switch top housing.  Rotation doesn’t help because alps switches are symmetrical, unlike MX. 

I guess I can do a non-matching MX space bar.   

—————————-
Edit
I think I found out a way to make it work.  It seems the issue is that the cap stem doesn’t have the cross supports around it to keep the stem from going too deep into the switch. So if you are careful when you put the cap on the switch and only press it down partially it fixes the issue.

I’ll upload some pics when I get it finished.   I got serial Number 72!

Looks great!! Yeah we tried to hide bottom machining marks as much as possible but this was really tough on the Cerakote units - we did two layers of paint, otherwise would have been a lot worse. The anodized units go through a metal polishing step on the bottom which comes out a bit smoother :/

Offline pixelpusher

  • * Elevated Elder
  • Posts: 4179
  • Location: Tennessee - USA
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #625 on: Sat, 01 August 2020, 17:54:35 »
The cerakote finish is great on mine. More than pleased with it  :thumb: :thumb:

Offline deskcandy

  • Posts: 128
  • Location: Los Angeles, California
  • Keyboards your way.
    • Desk Candy
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #626 on: Mon, 03 August 2020, 22:43:19 »
Hey everyone,

Quick update.

- Just picked up 3 more Cerakote keyboards - these were all custom colors and emails going out for those shortly (Corvette Yellow, Jesse James Blue, Graphite Black). We should have all but one custom colors done tomorrow or Wednesday, then it's all light sand from here on out. There are 25 light sand keyboards remaining to have surface finished (out of 72 total light sand keyboards in the entire GB). Cerakote guys are 90% confident we'll have them all done by August 23.
- Anodizing is still moving along pretty quick. Should be picking up at least another 10 on Wednesday or Thursday to ship out later in the week or over the weekend. Depending on where they are at, this could be the final or second to final pickup on their side. There are 21 more anodized units to finish and they have consistently done 10-15 per week for the last 2 weeks.
- Please check your emails. Most people are replying to order confirmation emails within a few hours (thank you!) but there are a handful who are nonresponsive or reply after several weeks or months. I have very limited space and if you don't reply right away, I need to set your keyboard aside and it may delay your shipment further once you are able to respond so please try to get back to us asap to confirm shipping address and order contents.

Here's an overview of the shipping* and stocked status. Most email confirmations have gone out for "stocked" keyboards. *Note that "shipped" includes keyboards which are packed in their smaller box and fully ready to go but are going to proxies. The proxies are doing a bulk shipment at the end, so if you ordered thru zFrontier or MyKeyboard you'll be one of the last to receive your keyboards. I could these as "shipped" as I work towards an unfinished inventory of zero.



No firm promises yet but I am looking at having around 12 Cerakote extras and ~10 non-Cerakote extras (I have a really cool finish idea in mind but don't want to share it yet :cool:). Cerakote guys accidentally did too many blank Light Sand keyboards, which I've set aside just in case I need them until the GB officially ends, but those will probably be the first available. Whatever is available, including extra accessories such as brass plates, will go on sale a few weeks after the last order has shipped to give everyone who joined the initial GB some time to think about if they want any of those things before they are sold out.

Thanks everyone and stay safe.

Offline deskcandy

  • Posts: 128
  • Location: Los Angeles, California
  • Keyboards your way.
    • Desk Candy
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #627 on: Wed, 05 August 2020, 23:52:49 »
Current fulfillment status:



Close to 2/3 fulfilled now. Wasn't able to do a Cerakote pickup tonight but should be getting in another 8-10 tomorrow.

Anodizing is skipping a week :'( I'll be syncing back up with them Monday and hopefully getting most, if not all, of the rest of the anodized units next week.

Offline deskcandy

  • Posts: 128
  • Location: Los Angeles, California
  • Keyboards your way.
    • Desk Candy
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #628 on: Sat, 08 August 2020, 19:12:17 »
Current status:



There were 3 anodized units ready on Friday that I haven't picked up yet and aren't represented here. Targeting pickup Wednesday as there will hopefully be more available by then. We are 2 units away from being complete on the EU proxy order, both anodized, so there's a decent chance that will be able to go out in 1-2 weeks.

18 Cerakote units left, down from 35 as of last Monday. At this rate we could be done with Cerakote in 1 week :) All Light Sand except a Rose Gold and Multicam White/Gray custom left.

Offline crowKAKAWWW

  • Posts: 75
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #629 on: Wed, 12 August 2020, 13:50:43 »
Came in today, it's nice and heavy  ;D

249337-0
RAMA M60A
KBDFans Frosted Tofu
Cannon Keys Satisfaction 75
Desk Candy Modern M0110
---
ALF x Scott G60

Offline macclack

  • Posts: 501
  • Location: San Diego, CA
    • Macclack
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #630 on: Wed, 12 August 2020, 14:16:07 »
Came in today, it's nice and heavy  ;D

(Attachment Link)


Nice number  :thumb:

Offline deskcandy

  • Posts: 128
  • Location: Los Angeles, California
  • Keyboards your way.
    • Desk Candy
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #631 on: Wed, 12 August 2020, 22:46:52 »
Came in today, it's nice and heavy  ;D

(Attachment Link)

Looks great! I am really happy with how gray came out in the end, I think all the rounds of R&D might have been worth it ;)

Offline deskcandy

  • Posts: 128
  • Location: Los Angeles, California
  • Keyboards your way.
    • Desk Candy
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #632 on: Thu, 13 August 2020, 00:10:56 »
Hey folks, PSA for those of you who ordered Cerakote keyboards. There are a handful of Cerakote keyboards where there is a very tight fit between top and bottom and since top and bottom come attached while shipping (to prevent damage), please be careful not to yank apart your Modern M0110 pieces. I would recommend using a non-scratching slender object like a plastic pen inside the USB port which is deep enough to give you a bit of leverage to gradually separate both halves.

249377-0

One thing we learned from this GB, is that even after relaxing our tolerances and only working with very thin surface finishes (anodizing and Cerakote), there were still occasional fitment issues.

Also excuse this sorry looking green Modern M0110, this is a very old V1 prototype from 2017 and is super dusty and has its own set of issues lol

Offline pixelpusher

  • * Elevated Elder
  • Posts: 4179
  • Location: Tennessee - USA
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #633 on: Thu, 13 August 2020, 00:11:17 »
It really does look nice.  Now... I have a question.  Since you've gone through all of this mess and produced some lovely boards... do you have any plans to run another board?  I really, really, really like the cerakote finish on my board.  It's amazing.  I would love to see future projects offering something similar.  Maybe something else classic-inspired like a gasket mounted kishsaver?  :)

Offline deskcandy

  • Posts: 128
  • Location: Los Angeles, California
  • Keyboards your way.
    • Desk Candy
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #634 on: Thu, 13 August 2020, 00:21:04 »
I love that you love the Cerakote finish :D I'm probably not going to do any manufacturing for a while after this as the logistical realities for this don't really make a lot of sense for me. Also - in the blog post/postmortem I'm hoping to write once this is wrapped up, I'm planning to write a section about the issues with Cerakote lol. To give the quick preview in bullet form:

  • It's really, really hard to get a consistent finish with Cerakote versus other popular alternatives like anodizing, e-white, or powder coat because it's basically just a heat-cured paint and has to be applied by hand i.e., less "automatic" in color application
  • Cerakote's color library is just not well setup to serve the keyboard community. That could obviously change and they are starting to release more light colors, but it's really a lot of earth tones and blacks to serve the gun collector community.
  • Cerakote is not as durable as people say it is, especially with the light colors like sand. It scratches and smudges VERY easy (please treat your M0110 with care guys!!!) and hard to touch up any issues with starting over from scratch (blasting, degreasing, painting, baking). Smudges are easy to clean off but for other finish issues you need to repaint. Do NOT under any circumstances attempt to sand your Cerakote!

Doing a Cerakote GB was a really stressful experience for me, and even if I do another keyboard GB in the future, Cerakote will pretty much be at the bottom of my list in terms of finish options. It definitely looks cool and is totally unique, but I have a feeling this GB was unique in its Cerakote offerings for a reason (i.e., other people don't want to touch it either...)

Offline deskcandy

  • Posts: 128
  • Location: Los Angeles, California
  • Keyboards your way.
    • Desk Candy
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #635 on: Thu, 13 August 2020, 00:27:43 »
Current shipping status:



TLDR is that we need about 20 more anodized and 15 more Cerakote finished. About to ship out 2 but the "in stock" buffer is a bit higher now but I'm dead tired and going to try and burn this down a bit tomorrow.

Offline pixelpusher

  • * Elevated Elder
  • Posts: 4179
  • Location: Tennessee - USA
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #636 on: Thu, 13 August 2020, 00:27:49 »
Yes, it seems everything I've been involved with concerning cerakote has been a nightmare.  But again, the light sand finish on my board is hands down the best cerakote finish I've had so far.  (I own 3 others).  So, props to your eye and the finisher's skills.

Perhaps powdercoat is the way to go.   Of course, I assume that has a lot of ramifications on board design.  I've been in the hobby for several years now, and I can remember from day 1 wanting something like my Modern M0110.  So happy to have it.

Offline deskcandy

  • Posts: 128
  • Location: Los Angeles, California
  • Keyboards your way.
    • Desk Candy
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #637 on: Thu, 13 August 2020, 00:31:15 »
Yes, it seems everything I've been involved with concerning cerakote has been a nightmare.  But again, the light sand finish on my board is hands down the best cerakote finish I've had so far.  (I own 3 others).  So, props to your eye and the finisher's skills.

Perhaps powdercoat is the way to go.   Of course, I assume that has a lot of ramifications on board design.  I've been in the hobby for several years now, and I can remember from day 1 wanting something like my Modern M0110.  So happy to have it.

Thank you, notes like this give me the energy to keep pushing ;D

I don't recall if we did for your specific board, but most Light Sand Cerakote boards had to be repainted at some point (like complete redo, sandblast, repaint, bake) and some even with a touch up or two after then. It's just incredibly inefficient to run a GB like that because I live about 40 miles away from the Cerakote vendor, so sometimes I had to make multiple trips and only after 2 or 3 trips get like 4 keyboards completed lol

Offline deskcandy

  • Posts: 128
  • Location: Los Angeles, California
  • Keyboards your way.
    • Desk Candy
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #638 on: Thu, 13 August 2020, 00:34:57 »
Yes, it seems everything I've been involved with concerning cerakote has been a nightmare.  But again, the light sand finish on my board is hands down the best cerakote finish I've had so far.  (I own 3 others).  So, props to your eye and the finisher's skills.

Perhaps powdercoat is the way to go.   Of course, I assume that has a lot of ramifications on board design.  I've been in the hobby for several years now, and I can remember from day 1 wanting something like my Modern M0110.  So happy to have it.

Also yeah, powdercoat is annoying because you need to consider whether to build 2 different CAD files with different tolerances, one for anodizing and one for powdercoat to account for a substantial difference in thickness if you have closely interlocking parts (like Modern M0110 had). It exponentially increases the complexity of the GB once the raw machined aluminum parts are not 100% fungible (another obstacle I created for myself with unique serial numbers and custom engravings...). If you want to offer anodized + OTHER finishes, powder coat is probably a bad option but if you're only doing powder coat (or something like a tray mount with a simple design), then it can work for sure. I love powder coated things personally, just feels more "rugged" to me and there's so much more texture possibilities. Major hat tip to Mr Norbauer for his work building amazing powder coated keyboards.

Offline your_fish_monger

  • Posts: 19
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #639 on: Sat, 15 August 2020, 18:11:59 »
I've been a pretty big a-hole at times, both in this thread and on Reddit, about this GB. But I'll be damned if my anodized board isn't one of the most impressive pieces I've ever seen in this hobby. I know you're probably taking a bath on the financials in this. But your QC is much appreciated. Timeline has been rough but holy hell was it in a weird way actually worth it.

Offline deskcandy

  • Posts: 128
  • Location: Los Angeles, California
  • Keyboards your way.
    • Desk Candy
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #640 on: Sat, 15 August 2020, 21:50:04 »
I've been a pretty big a-hole at times, both in this thread and on Reddit, about this GB. But I'll be damned if my anodized board isn't one of the most impressive pieces I've ever seen in this hobby. I know you're probably taking a bath on the financials in this. But your QC is much appreciated. Timeline has been rough but holy hell was it in a weird way actually worth it.

Haha yeah no worries, I totally feel you and have felt burned myself in GBs in the past so I do see where you're coming from and try not to take it personally. It's really tough to prove, especially over the internet, that this is a "real" project and I definitely am not trying to rip anyone off, but I ran into some really challenging (for me) issues with the project and the stress got to me so bad it was hard to provide the right level of updates to put y'all at ease.

In other news, I just got this video from the Cerakote guys. All the remaining light sand keyboards are blasted and ready to paint for Monday. Shooting to FINISH Cerakote production next week. Let's do this!!


P.S. I might need an additional week after this coming week to ship all remaining Cerakote to folks that ordered through me (as opposed to MyKeyboard or zFrontier). There's a crazy heatwave hitting LA right now and the temperature in my workshop was close to 100 without AC or ventilation today so it's hard for me to put in the hours to get everything shipped out until things cool down (literally).

Offline deskcandy

  • Posts: 128
  • Location: Los Angeles, California
  • Keyboards your way.
    • Desk Candy
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #641 on: Sat, 15 August 2020, 21:52:10 »
Here's another pic from the anodizer I thought was cool.  Forgot to ask what those huge machines are behind the hanging keyboards.

249622-0

Offline deskcandy

  • Posts: 128
  • Location: Los Angeles, California
  • Keyboards your way.
    • Desk Candy
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #642 on: Wed, 19 August 2020, 01:12:59 »
Hey folks, quick status update. Only 3 more Cerakote keyboards to go!!! 2 of them are special colors we have been trying to get just right and then 1 more light sand that I'm not too worried about at this point.



Making an anodized pickup Thursday or Friday and that should get us pretty close to 100% in stock by end of week. Will keep y'all posted.

P.S. 1 more keyboard away for each of Mykeyboard and zFrontier so fingers crossed can ship out intl proxy orders next week.

Offline Starius

  • Posts: 602
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #643 on: Wed, 19 August 2020, 09:30:37 »
You’re doing great man! Feels like a significant milestone on the road to completion there!

Offline heavyheaded

  • Posts: 70
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #644 on: Fri, 21 August 2020, 13:36:47 »
Got my sand cerakoted board in today and holy moly, what an absolute unit! 7.7 lbs built with caps, and the finish and overall look is beautiful.

Offline deskcandy

  • Posts: 128
  • Location: Los Angeles, California
  • Keyboards your way.
    • Desk Candy
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #645 on: Sat, 22 August 2020, 00:26:36 »
Sweet!

Current status:



Got a good backlog of keyboards to ship out so will be sending a bunch of order confirmations this weekend. Everything will ship Wednesday as I will not have access to my shop again until then. Thanks everyone.

Offline macclack

  • Posts: 501
  • Location: San Diego, CA
    • Macclack
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #646 on: Sat, 22 August 2020, 08:23:40 »
It's so cool to see this project coming to near completion. What a trip it's been!

Offline bobgr8

  • Posts: 139
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #647 on: Sat, 22 August 2020, 08:37:39 »
hopefully it'll inspire other designers to many in the US itself (I'm not from the US), which would really help local businesses in the US



Offline FearsomeCubedWarrior

  • Posts: 385
  • Location: TX
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #648 on: Sat, 22 August 2020, 12:47:23 »
hopefully it'll inspire other designers to many in the US itself (I'm not from the US), which would really help local businesses in the US
It will not. Many issues were caused exactly by local manufacturers.

Offline deskcandy

  • Posts: 128
  • Location: Los Angeles, California
  • Keyboards your way.
    • Desk Candy
Re: [GB] Modern M0110 custom keyboard
« Reply #649 on: Tue, 25 August 2020, 02:02:16 »
hopefully it'll inspire other designers to many in the US itself (I'm not from the US), which would really help local businesses in the US
It will not. Many issues were caused exactly by local manufacturers.

TL;DR - more nuanced than just US vs China, there's different options available in each locale and different ones are better for different GBs and more importantly, GB runners and China is more "beginner friendly" than the US. My basic advice to first-time GB runners would be to pick one of the China shops that has already done mech keyboards before and knows how to work with non-pro CAD designs. If you know CAD/CAM, metal finishing, packaging, and ecommerce pretty well already and have a warehouse, then US might be an option too.

Yeah it's hard to compare apples to apples. many China-manufactured GBs are manufactured by what are called rapid prototyping or low-run manufacturing shops. They don't necessarily do all the work themselves though and may subcontract work to others, like a general contractor contracting out certain specialized tasks to others (e.g., CNC machining, anodizing, packaging, etc). I have not found anyone like this in the US who can actually take care of everything from start to end. The rapid prototyping shops I talked to in the US may give you a referral for anodizing, but they will not actually handle the logistics of it for you.

So in this GB, I basically had to fill many of the same functions the China-based rapid prototyping shop would in terms of coordinating the work between several different vendors, which was a big PITA instead of just a simple contract "I give you some $, you give me back perfect keyboards, I give you rest of $". HUGE learning experience but yeah, nobody seems to match the turnkey service you can get in China here in the US. Hard for me to pin down whether that's cost of labor or just cultural differences (nobody wants to be responsible for all the problems in an end-to-end product) but I would not go down the same route again in the future.

This GB on its own doesn't mean "do not do GBs in the US", more that the particular approach I took was too much for my level of experience at the time with manufacturing and the particular subcontractors (so to speak) I hired were not ideal to the project. All of that on top of how complex I made the SKUs (too many color choices, engraving, etc). I think if you know exactly what you want and how to coordinate all of the logistics you can definitely make US manufacturing work, albeit probably at a higher price point. Norbauer is doing this and pulling it off successfully.
« Last Edit: Tue, 25 August 2020, 02:05:35 by deskcandy »