Where to order Cherry plate mount stabs in Europe?

[Eszett]

Hi! To make it short, this is my question. To make it abit longer: I'd like to order a steel plate for my custom build. I planned to have cutouts for Cherry Plate Mount stabilizers. But I doubt that I'll find Cherry plate mount stabs in Europe. So maybe I should change the cutouts to Costar stabilizers? Or maybe to Cherry PCB mount stabs? I don't know .. Maybe you can give me an advice, which stabs & cutouts I should go for...

[Nephiel]

If it helps, I'm also in Europe and recently built my first board. I got the Cherry plate-mount stabs from SPRiT:
deskthority.net/group-buys-f50/mx-springs-via-proxy-shipping-geekhack-t8416.html

[Eszett]

Thanks Nephiel. Yes, when it comes to exclusive objects, like gold plated springs or something, I accept importing from Korea. But for a simple and cheap a run-of-the-mill product, widespreadly used a billion times? Do I really have to import that from the other side of the world?

[Nuum]

You could try asking in our Marketplace, I'm sure many people have some leftover stabs lying around.

[HzFaq]

How many do you need? I think I've got a few Cherry plate mount stabs laying around.

[Eszett]

@HzFaq I need 10 x 7u (for Space), and 10 x for 2.25u (Enter).

[Muirium]

10 spacebars!? Is this a Hyper7??

[Eszett]

@Muirium For a smale scale keyboard production (Group Buy). Longer answer: Basically I just want one custom built keyboard for myself. But when you produce a PCB, minimum quantity starts around 10 pieces. So what do I do with the other 9 PCBs? So my idea was to build 10 keyboards instead of 1, and get rid of the other 9 in a mini group buy.

[HzFaq]

Oh shit, yeah I can't cover that many! I could probably do a boards worth though...

I did a little group buy a year or so ago for them from mouser, I think that's the link below.

http://uk.mouser.com/ProductDetail/CHER ... YCKUV3Hw==

[Eszett]

Description: Switch Fixings 1x2 KEYCAP W/FRAME

Is this useable for 2.25u enter and 7u space as well?

[chzel]

The stabilizers are the same, only the length of the wire changes. You could get enough 2u stabs and bend your own wire.

[Eszett]

@chzel Ah, ok. I checked the prices on mouser for 20 stabs:

merchandise total 14,96 €
delivery charge 20,00 €
order total: 34,96 €

Probably cheaper when i order some stabs from Korea

Is Mouser (UK) the only shop in Europe who sells stabs (any kind) at all?

[Muirium]

Seems so. WASD is where Matteo goes for his (inferior) Costar stabs. They're in Murca.

A UK proxy really helps cut that shipping to size, by the way. I might be after some more too. Does Mouser do PCB mount Cherry stabs too?

[Eszett]

Hi Muirium! WASD is in Murca? It says: "WASD Keyboards 4121 Clipper Ct Fremont, CA 94538".

I would indeed take PCB mount stabs in a pinch, too. However, the user alaricljs wrote in the thread "https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=40319.0": "Mouser does not stock the PCB mount."

[Muirium]

California is indeed in (ah)murca. Not to be confused with Canada, which is way up North a Murca.

Bummer about the PCB mount stabs. They're a bugger to source!

[Eszett]

Oh my gosh, I googled about half an hour until I found this:

murica The way un-educated Americans (generally rednecks, hicks, republicans, or very patriotic people) say America. Man: If you don't like how we do things heer'n murica then you ken GIT OUT!!

We haven't learned such slang words in school. However, let's get back on topic. "Murca" I associate with "VAT", which is no good for us (European people).

[flabbergast]

Hi! To make it short, this is my question. To make it abit longer: I'd like to order a steel plate for my custom build. I planned to have cutouts for Cherry Plate Mount stabilizers. But I doubt that I'll find Cherry plate mount stabs in Europe. So maybe I should change the cutouts to Costar stabilizers? Or maybe to Cherry PCB mount stabs? I don't know .. Maybe you can give me an advice, which stabs & cutouts I should go for...

Most of the current plates available around have cutouts that support all three at once (costar, cherry pcb, cherry plate). But it's a bit more complicated-looking, and the plate-mount cherry stabs sometimes need hot-gluing, or costar stabs need a bit of shaving, if the plate is not cut exactly to specs.

It looks like this and I think you could use swillkb's plate tool to get some more precise data.

[Eszett]

Thanks flabbergast! Then I can at least order my steel plate immediately (with cutouts for all three types of stabs), _before_ I find any stabs. You made my day!

dancing-cats.jpg (10.69 KiB) Viewed 7274 times

[Muirium]

Oh my gosh, I googled about half an hour until I found this:

murica The way un-educated Americans (generally rednecks, hicks, republicans, or very patriotic people) say America. Man: If you don't like how we do things heer'n murica then you ken GIT OUT!!

Spoiler:

[swill]

Thanks flabbergast! Then I can at least order my steel plate immediately (with cutouts for all three types of stabs), _before_ I find any stabs. You made my day!

dancing-cats.jpg

Make sure you discuss with the fab shop how they handle kerf. If you are not aware, kerf is the width of the cut produced by a cutting tool and it becomes very important as soon as you start working with precision components (like plates).

My tool allows you to specify the kerf if the fab shop does not do any adjustments and just cuts on the lines you specify. I know some fab shops try to make this easier for the end user by adjusting for kerf as part of their process. Be sure to check with them as this will make a big difference...

Good luck and enjoy our build.

[Eszett]

Hi swill! Yes, I know. The laser cutting service cut my last plate according to your plate builder pretty well even without KERF. I think I will need KERF adjustments only when I'm planning to powdercoat. But thanks for mentioning!

[Muirium]

Kerf is a word. Not an acronym. Although it's one so rare that the first time I ever heard it was when cutting keyboard plates too!

[7bit]

You can have them from me (really soon! [TM])!

[Eszett]

Hallo 7bit, ja das wäre prima. Meldest du dich bei mir, oder wann soll ich nochmal bei dir anfragen?

[scottc]

The German discussion forum can be found here: http://deskthority.net/german-f16/

I find it poor form to speak other languages in a discussion previously in English, it confuses the people that were around before yet don't speak the language.

</rant>

[Muirium]

But then I don't get the chance to show off my amazing, world standard, UK taught foreign language skills.

Ich bin ein jelly donut sprächer!

[Eszett]

I just asked 7bit, if I shall write him a PM.

[7bit]

I currently only have threm in 7 units. But soon also in 2 etc.

[Hypersphere]

But then I don't get the chance to show off my amazing, world standard, UK taught foreign language skills.

Ich bin ein jelly donut sprächer!

Ich auch! Although my smattering of Deutsch was not learned in the UK. I don't mind occasional use of languages other than British or American English in an English-speaking forum. English has become so prevalent that one almost forgets that other languages are actually spoken.