Hello from India

[poi_themachine]

Hello everyone,

I first forayed into the community around an year ago and have been a lurker ever since. I am based out of India and would love to connect with folks in India if there are any on the forum. It seems to be a very small sporadically active sub-community from what I have noticed in geekhack as well as r/mk. Makes experiencing new keyboards a wholly virtual or expensive affair.

My current keyboard collection includes -

1) DAS TKL with Greentech Brown switches - Primarily used in office due to the low noise factor.
2) Anne Pro with Gateron Blues  - Secondary driver
3) Pre-assembled keyboard from KBDFan with Gateron Clear + Aluminum Plates - Used to be secondary driver, currently I switch to this when I have to type a lot.
4) Kumara Red TKL with Otemu Blue switches - my first keyboard. And its currently being used to mostly tinker around and for experimentations.



Keycap collections includes -

1) YMDK Customized 61 ANSI Keyset OEM Profile Thick PBT Keycap
2) Julebox Keycap Set - Modifier Keys from Massdrop
2) GalaxyC PBT All over Dye-Subbed Keycap Set - from Massdrop


In addition, I am one of the supporters for the Kickstarer campaign for Penna Typewriter Keyboard and am waiting for the Matt3o/dev/tty MT3 to ship.

I think I have had enough experience with the Cherry Mx-clones and have tried some Cherry Blue originals on a friend's keyboard. I would love to venture into the IBM Model Ms, AEKs category atm.
My current plan to grab them involves visiting some of the IT recycling plants in Delhi. But if anyone in the community has been to India and knows places where I can get my hands on these older keyboards, that would be awesome.
Additionally I have started reading up on keycap crafting and will want to venture into some self produced custom keycaps in 2018.

The biggest problem with being in India is that sometimes the cost of shipping is as high as the product itself. One of the reasons why most of my purchases other than the Kumara dragon have been on Ali Express.
Someday I will want to have a collection of Alps, Topres and Buckling Spring keyboards. I do like the form factor of 60% keyboards but some of my work involves a lot of numbers and design work requiring arrows. The current collection is equally divided between 60% and TKL keyboards.

A huge shoutout to everyone in the community for the effort they put into the tutorials and reviews. Has made life so much easier for a beginner to understand the world of Mechanical Keyboards. 

[OfTheWild]

Welcome!
Looks like you're off to a great start there. I really like that Penna kickstarter although it does seem fairly complex. Beautiful though.

Shipping sucks everywhere. Unfortunately there isnt a lot of product being made in India yet for the mechanical keyboard community. There is however a lot in Korea and China though so I would imagine it might be a little cheaper for you? Maybe not.

As for the old IBM and Apple boards, I think a lot of ours come from places that bought a ton of them back in the 80's and 90's like schools or government surplus. At this point most of them have been sorted through and people are posting them on eBay. It is kind of rare to find them showing up in thrift stores or pawn shops anymore.

[hgoel89]

Finally someone other than Moz and me doing some customer keyboards. Well I build my own keyboards.

I currently have

1) GH60 in Tina B with Gat Browns and Maxkey Portland SA set. (About to be taken apart for DZ60 with 67g Zealios)
2) Ergodone in custom made acrylic case (Desoldered right now, will get a new case with Box Black switches)
3) Custom MF68 with bluetooth MCU.

I have two boards in Pipeline

1) Transparent Acrylic YMD96 ETA this weekend
2) 12X5 with Matias Quite Click switches