browncow wrote: ↑07 Nov 2023, 16:14
That's an awesome project. I'm thinking of cutting and bending (i have a sheet metal roller at my workshop) a plate for this. I am not too updated though on the whole buckling spring state of things currently though. Except of the pcb, i assume the barrels, flippers and springs are aviable as new? Basically if i made the plates to mount the barrels, ordered your pcb and some kind of xwhatsit controller, 3D printed the case, could we build a completely from-scratch board? Sorry for noob questions, but i've been out of the loop for a while and it's a very interesting work you've done
for the plate design you can ask taylorswifttt - he has whatever is the format for laser cutter to laser-cut the top plate. He also bent 10 copies and from what I can deduce from comments, he rued the day he decided to embark on that journey and no amount of asking will lead to a second batch.
You can buy newly-made barrel for $1 and a flipper+spring for another $1 - which is, frankly, exorbitant. SSK has 86/87 keys and 87/88 barrels (the one under spacebar is optional but recommended), so $173/$175 just for the barrels.
Because the maker of those new barrels fucked up the mold QA slightly, taylorswifttt's lasering program will need to be changed little bit, otherwise the barrels (and the keycaps!) will sit slightly rotated in the plate.
Then you'll need keycaps - another at least $60, unless Unicomp is willing to sell you the keycap set sans keyboard (which will be probably $30, but Unicomp keycap quality is meh)
Don't forget 4 white stabilizer inserts, $2 each
Controller - $50-60 for xwhatsit, $20 for CommonSense (but to bootstrap CommonSense you'll need Windows, about a gig of traffic and ability to follow written instructions. Or visit Newcastle WA, LOL).
So that's $260-300 before PCB, plates or the case (or taxes!)
Or the foam, for that matter - although foam is optional, really.
Not exactly economically feasible. For that kind of money, you may indeed consider buying a replica from you-know-who. It's exterior is decently made (albeit heavy as hell). You _definitely_ don't want to look inside, but exterior is good enough (although I, personally, am not a fan of chunks of paint on the outside - maybe IBM didn't have proper painting technology back then, but it's 2023 and we do now!), and key feel/sound is very close to the original - I can't tell the difference (although this isn't telling much, lol).
Now, back to "from scratch" - I almost have 3D models for flat, MX-compatible, silent (or not - depending on optional silicone inserts), RGB-lit (or, again, not) buckling spring keyboard (which can use flippers from model F, but I have a redesigned 3D models for flippers, too (optimized for the flat surface, reduced travel for reduced sound)) over here:
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=28101 - and even some encouragement from a friendly boutique keyboard manufacturer - but there's not enough interest (because I'm not marketing it so nobody outside this forum knows about it), and I don't currently have ~$150k (that tilde is _really_ big. 72pt font, may be even larger.), needed for tooling and the first production run, in cash.
