Billet Aluminum Dactyl Manuform Keyboard

[XUR]

I'm being ambitious and diving into the deep end with this idea. The goal is to try and build a keyboard with as much quality as possible in the construction. I have access to a 5-axis CNC mill so I'd like to try and machine a Dactyl Manuform out of aluminum, along with its bottom plate.

Before I send the cutting file over to the machine shop, I'd like to do as much due diligence as possible and was hoping you all could help:

• There are quite a few cutting files out there for the Dactyl Manuform, is there a consensus on the latest and greatest? Any thoughts on this file from BeeKeeb: https://gumroad.com/l/dactyl-manuform-mini-stl
• Could I enlist the help of someone who has experience with building this keyboard to modify and refine the cutting file? Since this will be out of aluminum, the holes for the bottom plate where the heatsets go in the plastic 3D printed version should be direct threads... anything else to facilitate the mounting of the chips would be a plus, too

If someone is willing to help me refine this file, I'd be willing to pay for your time!

[Leslieann]

Unfortunately, you (typically) can't just take an object meant for one type of manufacturing and transfer it to another, and this was very clearly meant for 3d printing.

Besides material property differences, there are manufacturing differences as well that need to be taken into account (tolerances, capabilities, and more). I would suggest looking to see if anyone has already adapted this to other manufacturing methods before you go further because getting someone to make this practical on a mill won't be a 5 minute job, it's almost a full redesign (especially if only working from an STL), and still could be even just to just adapt it. STL is not an engineering file, it's sort of like handing someone a picture with basic dimensions as opposed to a cad file.

Can this be done on a 5axis with minimal changes, probably, would it be awesome? Absolutely(!), but it's so good and so wrong it would be engineering porn, woe be the sad soul who presented this to management and the bean counters. That whole backside needs to be hogged out and so does a lot of the front, this takes time, not to mention do you understand how large of a block you will need to start with only to have 99% of it end up the shop floor. Now imagine you made a mistake in your cad file (very easy to do) or anything else happens that causes it to mess up (a deep scratch on the way to the anodizer). That said, if you do decide to do this as a single billet I'd love to see the result and hear what it cost, because it's just so crazy! (in a good way!)

By the way, the shop will probably not even accept an STL file and will immediately send up red flags.