you know you are obsessed with keyboards when you are thinking of getting a keyboard roof. what are you going to get next? a keyboard sponge bath kit?
The roof for Filcos is overpriced, doesn't fit well, and expensive as hell for what you get. I would definitely not buy another one (I bought two the 1st time around.) The sides are completely open and so it doesn't really protect your keyboard from dust. I haven't proven it yet but I suspect over time they will wear the finish off the keyboard housing.
If I could suggest improvements I would make one that fit properly and was closed on all sides and had some kind of liner (felt, neoprene, something) along the bottom edge so it wouldn't mar the keyboard. I feel the material is a good grade of material, it's just a sloppy fit and not much more than a rectangle of plastic. Definitely room for improvement. I would also suggest offering a smoked finish, the clear starts to look bad quick. I clean mine often because of it.
I don't know what to suggest to you, before I saw these I had never heard of the idea which is why I bought them. If there are other choices I'd like to see them.
Otherwise a towel or a piece of saran wrap is a better value. It will keep the dust off and won't scratch your keyboard and when it gets dirty you throw it in the washing machine or trash, respectively.
I'm too lazy for keyboard roofs. I just brush the keyboard every so often and shake upside down.
I'm interested in buying a keyboard roof (http://www.elitekeyboards.com/products.php?sub=access,roofs&pid=rfmek) for the Filco board I will be buying soon. I like to keep my keyboards clean and dust free, so it seems to me that a keyboard roof would help. I want a nice roof though, not some cheap, plasticy looking one.
What is your recommendation? The one in the above link is sold out, so obviously I can't buy that particular one.
I would never buy that HHKB Lite roof for my HHKB Pro II, it has a hole in it!
you know you are obsessed with keyboards when you are thinking of getting a keyboard roof. what are you going to get next? a keyboard sponge bath kit?
When I need to clean my keyboards, all it takes is a 5 minute craigslist stop. I can guarantee any of you that, right now, no matter where you live, there is some pervert close by that would gladly lick your keyboard clean for NO CHARGE.
These roofs are designed to the millimeter to fit FILCO fullsize and Tenkeyless keyboards. How do they not fit well? How should they fit better?
The sides are open because the FILCO keyboards have a curved frame housing, matching this in acrylic or pretty much any other material would require $$ that unfortunately isn't justified by the low demand for keyboard roofs.
I use a full size roof on a lesser used PC and it does a good job keeping the large majority of falling dust off the board, so the small openings on the side don't seem such an issue for dust...
if you're looking for a complete splash-proof enclosure made of acrylic (for one particular mechanical keyboard on the market), then you should be prepared to pay more. This is mostly an enthusiast item, so it's probably not going to escape low volume production.
As far as the price goes, what should a piece of hand assembled, hand polished acrylic cost? The first revision of this item was a very small batch and it is made in America so it carries a price that reflects the cost of labor and materials in the USA for a custom item. Further revisions will also be made in the USA.
Is a "smoked finish" like a sandblasted finish? The market for roofs is rather small, adding another process like this will increase the price.
Well it's settled: not getting the roof. Not because of the fit or the bubbles, but because I have no place to put it when I'm not using it. It'll just get in the way.
I don't know how that can be or what it was measured against, but for example, the roof when fitted over the keys has 2 or 3 mm of reveal on both top and bottom, slightly less so on the bottom than the top. That isn't objectionable, what I mean by not fitting well is I would like to see it rest more firmly against the upper and lower rows of keys on the outside edges. I think the fact that it's loose is more likely to cause rubbing in the finish over time- when you set the cover over the board it slides down to rest against the top row of keys, which supports it.
I have no way of knowing any of your costs but I can't believe you can sell a good keyboard for 100 dollars and that it costs 16 percent of that price to machine a plastic cover closed on all four sides.
It is an issue for dust, I live in the desert mountains and I know of at least one other of your customers here on the forums who lives in a similar environment. Also, anybody using the keyboard in any kind of shop or industrial environment would have the same issues.
I think it's already priced too high for what we get. However, as we have shown, we are willing to pay for something oustanding. I didn't complain about the 40 dollar wrist rest. I made some observations on it here a few months ago. I think it's a damn fine piece. It reeks of quality...that's the kind of gear people on the forum like owning.
I don't know what it should cost, probably whatever you can get. I think for the price it's not a good value as is.
Show Image(http://geekhack.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=6874&stc=1&d=1262291742)
Back in the day these were TOOLS not jewelry.
Lite weight and covers all 4 sides too. Spiffy.
This item doesn't have a high margin and was never intended to be a high margin item, even though webwit would like to think the worst of everyone trying to make a buck...I'm not a rich salesman.
This extra 2-3mm is to leave enough "play" that you have a little room for error when you set the roof down so that you don't actuate any keys by accident, additionally the keyboard housing is at an angle, so gravity naturally draws the roof down and this extra 2-3mm makes the front edge of the roof flush with the front edge of a FILCO keyboard, which is my aesthetic opinion. Even without the "play" gravity would still pull the roof against the top keys.
The roofs are made in the USA (as stated on our web), labor costs a bit more here than it does in Taiwan where FILCO keyboards are made. If you don't support American labor, you have the choice not to buy a roof.
Matching acrylic to the curved housing on the sides of FILCO keyboards is costly and there hasn't been anywhere near enough demand for roofs to justify making these things 1000 at a time to bring the price down enough to meet the sensibilities of the Westerners whom are acclimated to the fruits of Chinese laborers that work for <$1 an hour.
That's a disingenuous statement and there's no relation between supporting American labor and buying a roof. Besides, half the people on the forum aren't even American, do you expect them to buy the excuse that the thing costs 1/4 of a new keyboard just because you chose to source it in America?
Maybe you're the one who doesn't support American labor. Why don't you source your keyboards in America instead of from Taiwan? How come the logic works for keyboards but not for keyboard roofs? Inquiring minds want to know. :drum:
The sad thing is even at 26 bucks a pop they're not meeting Westerner's sensibilities.
As far as I'm concerned, your website, products, and service already exceeds expectations.
My trackball is American.
I mean, like JOHN WAYNE American.
[snip]
If the relation between what you buy to where it is made doesn't matter to you then I think you're an irresponsible consumer.
I don't expect any responsible person to buy anything of which the origin, means of production, and merchant they don't fully support.
The first batch sold out, there is nothing sad about it.
So I'm not all that sure what you're getting at. If you're dissatisfied with the product, and you don't have any unreasonable objections (such as it doesn't work well for water skiiing), then please send an e-mail to us so that we can provide formal assistance. Your candor on this topic, otherwise, is digressing into patronization, which I don't care to further entertain.