[IC] HHKB Style 60% Case

[cmd]

Added my thoughts and added a blue grey link in the form. Thanks a ton for adding the raw off the mill option, looking forward to getting this sucker anodized!

[need]

Added my thoughts and added a blue grey link in the form. Thanks a ton for adding the raw off the mill option, looking forward to getting this sucker anodized!

YES definitely blue grey.
Just make sure it doesn't become baby blue...

[Dotdash32]

White would be really good, but not a pure white. The Pok3r white case is too white, there needs to be a certain amount of yellow/greyness to it.

You probably want a black one in there too, maybe silver. Other than that I think purple and orange are winners. The Tex cases seem to be popular colours.

I've got the textured black, are you thinking a flatter black? 
If the top orange and blue get selected, another base coat is required.  It looks like that will need to be purchased either way at this point, but is it worth adding as a "silver" option?  If people wanted silver, my though was either "raw off the mill" or bead blasted. 

The form has had some additions, you may want to check back and edit your response.

There was a lot of interest for an orange earlier, is the orange in the form not quite the right color?  It's supposed to look anodized, but the picture doesn't show that well.

Thanks for all the responses, hopefully more prototyping next week.

[FrostyToast]

One thing to note is that the conductivity of the case is a major concern.
You especially cannot just use a case "raw" since that will mess up the circuits. It also would concern me if the powder coating chipped or wore off somehow again bringing up this problem.
I would ask of you to have the cases clear anodized. Even for the coated boards.

[cmd]

One thing to note is that the conductivity of the case is a major concern.
You especially cannot just use a case "raw" since that will mess up the circuits. It also would concern me if the powder coating chipped or wore off somehow again bringing up this problem.
I would ask of you to have the cases clear anodized. Even for the coated boards.

Frosty, raw would be for doing your own anodizing! I do agree with you though, I think anodizing is the better way to do this...

[Dotdash32]

One thing to note is that the conductivity of the case is a major concern.
You especially cannot just use a case "raw" since that will mess up the circuits. It also would concern me if the powder coating chipped or wore off somehow again bringing up this problem.
I would ask of you to have the cases clear anodized. Even for the coated boards.

The main area of concern here is the bottom of the case and how the PCB would rest on it.  In the standard case, there will be an acrylic plate, which is non conductive.  The slanted case and weighted bottom would have that issue, but powder coating is one of the most durable coatings in the industry.  The issues with powder coating usually come into play in ten plus year periods, and under high wear.  In this situation, the critical surface will be enclosed, and the only thing that could scratch it (the PCB itself) is going to be secured with screws.  Since most people are not exposing their keyboards to extreme physical abuse or taking them apart and hitting them with a hammer, I don't think that powder coating will have a statistically significant difference in life.

I've never seen powder really chip, and the stuff were looking at getting is rated for 1,000 hours under a continuous salt spray.  I don't believe durability will be an issue on this kind of interior part.  If we were making a building, there would be more issues.

If it's really popular, I can send the cases to get anodized as another option.  There are places pretty close to me that I can send the parts to, but I'm hesitant to because I can't control the price in the same way.  I can do the powder coating myself, but I don't have access to anodizing equipment.  Basically, it'll just be pricier.  But I've added anodizing as an option in "No powder coating."

Also, if anyone is worried about conductivity, a piece of paper cut to size works wonders.

[jebbra]

I too do some google research regarding anodizing vs powder coating on aluminum and didn't find much difference beside the look of it. I suggest powder coating to give a clear difference between other aluminum case. And for the white, if we compare to GMK keycaps CP white (slightly off white) will match more keyset rather than UN0001 white (ghost white).

Seems like I will snatch this as this is a nice alternative for KMAC Happy, maybe will pair it with Sentraq PCB and plate plus GMK Stromtrooper.

[Malenky]

I'm definitely interested in this!

[cmd]

Have a proto yet?

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[Dotdash32]

You were expecting an update, but it was me!  Endmill failure (again).

I went out to do the machining last night, and low and behold, the endmill got pulled out of the collet.  I'm going to be contacting some people to try and resolve this, but it's going to take time.  The machine was making these horrible sounds like it was about to die, and the endmill ended up about a quarter of an inch deeper than it was supposed to.

On the bright side, I got the fixture plate all drilled out, and the super small hole that gave me trouble last time got drilled without a hitch!  I also have another CAM system coming that should let me update the CNC program at the shop, so I could keep working if something like last night happens again. 


So here you can see the endmill diving in.  It was about a hair width away from punching through the stock, which would have meant it was taking .75" x .3" cut, which was way too much for this machine.  The bottom of that pocket is supposed to be flat.  It's a work in progress...

[Dotdash32]

Just a reminder that today is the last day to fill out the form for colors!  I'm going to be making the order later today (probably), so get your answers in while you can!

I'm only going to be getting colors with mostly positive feedback.  Lots of maybes and no's will probably exclude the color.  No yes's will significantly decrease the chance of the color being an option.

Link Here

[BaconEggandCheeseBagel]

Voted


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Dotdash32]

Ok, it's a bit after June 10th, but the survey results are in.

What I'm going to do on Monday is order a sample kit in the colors that you all selected, and then i'm going to do a small test for each color on a piece of aluminum so you can all see what it looks like.  I'll have another round of voting, and the top choices will be selected as options for the GB.  I'm working on figuring out a decent ordering system for choosing colors for each item.  The minimums for powdercoating will probably only be a few pieces, but I will reach out to an anodizer on Monday to get a quote.  Unless we get a lot of people, it's probably going to be a bit expensive.

I'll be getting samples of Flat Blue, flat orange (in case anodizing doesn't meet MOQs), Sparkle Granny Smith Dormant, Dormant Purple, Purple Starlight, White Satin, RAL 7031, and Blue Gray.  I already have the black and red, so it's going to be an option no matter what.  That doesn't mean anyone is obligated to choose them.

If this really upsets anyone, there are the raw or bead blasted options.  If your heart really desires it, you can get it finished at another place.  These options will be cheaper, since they do not have a special finish applied.

[Dotdash32]

Quick update: got a quote for the anodizing.  If there is the same interest as in the survey (2 people), it will be about $50 per piece, and only if it's one color for both of them.  The powdercoating will have a pretty similar appearance, and will be a lot cheaper per item.  I'll be ordering the samples later today.

[Dotdash32]

Ok, I'm really hyped for this update!

I just got back from about 4 hours of machining, and I got the first prototype finished.  There are a couple of errors, but that was because the endmill decided to dive into the metal at 100ipm, when it should only handle 20.  I got that figured out though. 



So I got the first part out, and it looks really good, IMO.  At this point, I think it's ready for production.  I want to do this this summer, before school starts up.  I have a few trips, and in order to get enough time to produce these well and get the powder coated/finished, it's going to be better to start sooner than later.  I'm going to talk to MD tomorrow about launching on their site, but otherwise I'll probably just do it over here on Geekhack.  It takes quite a while to make these things, around 1.5 hours in total.  With a batch, it's going to be a lot easier to make these, and the set up time will be reduced, but not by too much.

There was one issue with the radius mill not working quite right, I'm going to troubleshoot the dimensions on that.  It probably didn't get imported to CAM right, but it should be a pretty easy fix.

So what I'm asking you, dear Interest Checkers, is to be ready.  Due to my limited ability to make these, I'm going to limit it to about 20 pieces.  This might change, but that is my preliminary estimate.  I don't want to promise more than I can deliver.  At this point, the slanted case isn't ready, sorry.  But the acrylic base plate and aluminum base plate are set to go.  As I start getting orders, I'm going to start getting the stock and get it ready.  I'll post updates, somewhere, either on GH or MD or Twitter or something. 

The powder coating samples are still in the mail, so apologies for that.  Colors are still up in the air, but we're basically going with one of each color from the poll.  I'm going to put a MOQ on the colors, since it's a lot of work to switch colors.  Pricing to come soon.

Thank you all for keeping up with my crazy 6+ month IC.  Since I haven't done this, I'm going to update the OP so that my thread doesn't look dead. 

If anyone cares, I have an Imgur album of pics from tonight.  Those clamps are hand welded, I'm surprised and proud they stood up so well. 

[loud_asian]

This looks so good.
How are you deciding who will be in on this buy? I'd hate to miss out on this

[Dotdash32]

This looks so good.
How are you deciding who will be in on this buy? I'd hate to miss out on this

First come first serve, but I might do other runs or just on a per-order basis depending on interest.

[Dotdash32]

Color chips came in, but the company didn't mention that 3 of the colors were out of stock.



Jukebox and generic brown packing paper for color reference. 

From left to right: RAL 7031, Dormant Purple, Anodized blue transparent, and Sparkle Granny Smith Dormant.
A couple notes: the blue feels oddly soft, like satin or something.  It's a slightly different texture than anodized, as it gives the piece more texture.  The RAL is more grey than blue.  Other than the anodized, the colors are all pretty shiny and smooth, but the light reflects almost like a hammertone.


Comparing reflectiveness.  Basically only the blue is less shiny.

At this point, the two colors with two options, purple and green, have a solid color, and a sparkly color.  I also looked at another white, that's a bit glossier, but more muted.  Both options will probably stay on for the GB, but there will be an MOQ of two or three pieces each.

[kawasaki161]

Both options will probably stay on for the GB, but there will be an MOQ of two or three pieces each.

This might be kind of hard to reach with a maximum of 20 orders, I'm also not a fan of Massdrop for such small runs since it only unecessarily drives up the price for the end user (does it really have so many advantages for the seller in these small quantities?), as seen with the TK78 drop that was ~$50 (don't quote me on that, might have been $40) more on Massdrop than it was in the GB that happened after the massdrop thing failed.

[Malenky]

This seems amazing, really hope I can get in on it.

[BaconEggandCheeseBagel]

DotDash - first a foremost... WOW! What an amazing final product at the end of the day. I think I speak for everyone in this thread (and those who might be following and never posted) that we really appreciate/ed all the time you took to explain every step of the process and allowing us to "troubleshoot" with you so to speak. It's awesome seeing a final product come to fruition after all that work!

Depending on the price of it (as long as its not insanely prohibitive) I'm in for one. The purple sample looks surprisingly dope!

Keep up the great work!

[Dotdash32]

Made overdue update to the OP about the status of the GB.  When i say "Long overdue," I mean LONG overdue. 

[BaconEggandCheeseBagel]

 

[menuhin]

Have to necro this thread.

Longing for a case with this aesthetics, don't matter with 6u space or 7u space.

[Dotdash32]

It's technically still in progress at Massdrop, and I talked to Yanbo at one meetup, but have not gotten more than that.  If people really want, I might be able to do very small batches if you DM me.  I can't promise that the price will be as competitive though.

[ideus]

A case fitting the authentic layout with a six units space bar would be great. There are some options that fit the seven units space bar one, already.

[Dotdash32]

A case fitting the authentic layout with a six units space bar would be great. There are some options that fit the seven units space bar one, already.

I know it's been like a year and a half since this thread started, and there have been options that have arouse in the time since my original posting for HHKB and WKL layouts.  I am wondering at this point if it's worth continuing to pursue this case (did my first real GB with some help this summer, and feel like I know more of what I would need to do so it happens within this millena).  I'll probably update the first post with a poll, though I doubt people will see it. 

[Puddsy]

stop necrobumping this thread it's really getting on my nerves

just wait for the next MX HHKB buy, there are like 2 or 3 more planned for this year alone

[ideus]

stop necrobumping this thread it's really getting on my nerves

just wait for the next MX HHKB buy, there are like 2 or 3 more planned for this year alone

Where are they?

[Puddsy]

stop necrobumping this thread it's really getting on my nerves

just wait for the next MX HHKB buy, there are like 2 or 3 more planned for this year alone

Where are they?

Fjell pro is coming end of October, I think.

LZ CLSs/h coming probably before end of the year

[ideus]

stop necrobumping this thread it's really getting on my nerves

just wait for the next MX HHKB buy, there are like 2 or 3 more planned for this year alone

Where are they?

Fjell pro is coming end of October, I think.

LZ CLSs/h coming probably before end of the year

I'll keep those in mind, thank you for the reference.