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geekhack Community => Keyboard Keycaps => Topic started by: Pyrolistical on Tue, 27 December 2011, 01:56:36

Title: Make black anodized aluminium blank keycaps...with kickstarter?
Post by: Pyrolistical on Tue, 27 December 2011, 01:56:36

There seems to be a lot of interest in metal keycaps.  But the sources are either lacking or too expensive.

So could we start a project funded by kickstarter to make metal keycaps affordable?  Its like a group buy, but with more work involved.

I like how such a project is well defined, but there are still main details to fill in such as:

• manufacturing sourcing (who knows Chinese?)
• cost per keycap estimation
• cost per keycap type
• cost per keycap finish
• drawing up keycaps (probably at least one mechanical engineering who wants metal keycaps in the world)

And to keep costs down I think first run should be a subset of the full 104 keys.  The finish of black anodized aluminium blank key caps is probably the middle ground of what everybody wants.  The impact of cost by adding other finishes/sizes (need some funkier key caps for Kinesis Advantage for example) also needs to be considered.

What say you?

Title: Make black anodized aluminium blank keycaps...with kickstarter?
Post by: telepete on Thu, 29 December 2011, 12:21:45

I'm interested. I don't know much about kickstarter tho. I feel like it would be a terrible experience to type on a deck with some metal keys and some plastic ones. You would need to offer at least an 87 key set. I think this may be a bit like getting penguins to fly but if it ever happens I'm in.