is aluminum bottom poly top still an option or nah?
I decided to drop the idea of mixed material. A material science PhD student has informed me it might potentially cause problems in the long run.
The reason is that metal and plastic have different thermal expansion rates and other properties, it can cause minor size or shape differences when the keyboard is exposed to heat, sunlight, or water (moist).
It will not be noticeable for weight or badge as they are small, the larger the material the cumulative effect is larger, so if the top piece is 0.2mm wider than the bottom piece it will be quite noticeable and look bad.
Therefore, for this GB, it will be PC, aluminum, or full brass (raffle). If you are truly interested in this idea you might get both and mix them. I feel in most cases will not be a problem, but since no one has done it before I’d proceed with caution, especially making it as a GB option to encourage uses to try something that might not be ideal.
That said, I do believe it’s a good idea and I will personally try it out for a few months. If there are no issues I will report back and maybe future GB runners for other boards can safely use this combination.
And we are prototyping gf enhanced black PC now!