geekhack
geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: Skoobs on Sun, 04 December 2011, 23:59:29
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Anyone know of any decent mechanical keyboards that are made in America and still in production?
would it be useful to compile manufacturing location by brand to add to the wiki?
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Anyone know of any decent mechanical keyboards that are made in America and still in production?
Here are a few:
Unicomp (http://pckeyboards.stores.yahoo.net/) - they make several mechanical models
Kinesis (http://kinesis-ergo.com) - their Advantage keyboard is mechanical.
Data911 (http://www.data911.com/) - My TG3 (http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Island:20454) is mechanical and says "Made in USA".
Perhaps WASD Keyboards (http://wasdkeyboards.com/) qualifies too, at least they engrave and install the keycaps in California.
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I believe unicomp boards are made in USA. am i right!? ...
edit: lol never mind me..
edit2: WASD is strictly only keycaps engraved/printed/lasered in USA. Boards are from Taiwan and use the same enclosure as one of the thermaltake boards.
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My Kinesis label says assembled in USA, does that count as being made in USA in terms of NAFTA? When I mail things across the border it asks me to report which country they are manufactured in for customs purposes and that would be a plus if I ever do.
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If there were one its price would be quite high, 300USD at least, taking into account of high salary of US labor market.
I think that most keyboard components are made from Asia, then come to US to assemble to save cost, while keeping "Made in US" or "Assembled in US" tag to please/mislead US consumers.
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is unicomp just buckling spring?
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is unicomp just buckling spring?
I would like to say it is, but you better check the wiki to confirm.
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If there were one its price would be quite high, 300USD at least, taking into account of high salary of US labor market.
I think that most keyboard components are made from Asia, then come to US to assemble to save cost, while keeping "Made in US" or "Assembled in US" tag to please/mislead US consumers.
Maybe for the dime-a-dozen mech boards with Cherry switches; but Unicomp is pretty much the only manufacturer using buckling springs, so most of their parts would be specific to their own keyboards. Plus there have been discussions about the different level of quality from Unicomp (plastics, etc) compared to more "modern" manufacturers.
Unicomp boards are less than $100.
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Unicomp is top notch mkay. They use pbt plastic for their keycaps and they don't charge an arm and a leg for em. :D.
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never tried buckling springs... would be fun to get my hands on one.
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And there you go hitting the one thing they can't really do. Their only real issue is that they are following the same process on the same equipment making basically the same stuff that they did when lexmark owned it. Being as cheap as they are is why they can't really afford to make new tools for a new model.
But it is still PBT keys, more or less because they always have been.
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Deck Keyboards are made in Wisconsin.
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DSI is an American company and pretty sure they manufacture in the USA, but have not owned one of their boards so I do not know. They make keyboards with cherry and ALPS switch options and have some stuff for the handicapped. Seem like a decent outfit.
http://www.dsi-keyboards.com/dsi_keyboards.aspx
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DSI
That's a new name to me. They also seem to have "left handed" keyboards (currently a cherry blue for 100), for those who want the minimum space distance between their mouse and keyboard, and don't mind relearning 10key for the left hand.
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Germans are better anyway so who cares ;D