Hi keyboard friends, just curious, how much are the machines that make say GMK’s keycaps with PBT and what brand of machines they use? How about the brand (and model if that info is available) of the machines used by say OwlLab for their bezels and other non PCB and non-switch related parts and how much is that or are those?
Thank you. God bless you. Revelation 21:4
I can’t even.
My brain really isn’t sure if this is a troll, if someone had a brain malfunction, used chatGPT and told it to throw in some random marketing hype words, if the person is serious, or all of the above.
There are multiple questions and statements wrapped in one lengthy paragraph.
The tone of the post seems to be both serious (wanting to start an independent manufacturing business) and casual (attacking shenzen and using the word ‘coz several times.)
If you want to be taken seriously, I suggest keeping the tone more formal and splitting your message into individual paragraphs. Perhaps offer a set of questions for us to address, maybe even in a numbered list.
What you posted here would take work from the reader to decipher. You should not expect strangers to want to expend time and resources for you without incentive.
Hi keyboard friend, my apologies, thanks for correcting me, I hope the more concise version of the inquiry is way better. 
✟
Have a great chill upcoming sunday.
No idea about the machines for injection molding PBT
A CNC machine for making keyboard cases will probably be between $50k and $100k
The only idea of what it would cost to buy a usedCNC machine for making keyboard cases is based off of what keycult tried a few years back. I believe they purchased a used machine for around $30,000. Those were very limited in production. So this scale wouldn’t allow you to sell a large quantity of boards.
You might be able to buy a simpler, used CNC for less, maybe as low as $4,000 for a 2 axis machine. It would be a large learning curve.
These machines are pretty much out of scope for individuals to own and operate.
So, I am not in the plastic injection molding industry. Im sure you could get lucky and find a much older machine for fairly cheap ($10k+). Main thing would be does it run? Or what would it take to make it run?
Followed by making the molds. The design is where the magic/experience comes in for plastic injection. Next is the machining. Id guess numbers for a single shot mold is anywhere from $5k-$10k per item to be molded.
Now for the machining side of things. Of which I have been doing for 18 years. Used CNC vertical mills depending on how old or used you would be willing to put up with (repairs and such) can be sub $10k. They however will be slow and if worn out might struggle with holding tolerances. So, @Pixelpusher is accurate for machine pricing if youre looking for decent lower end machines. Nice vertical mills start $150k+ range.
Just dont forget in there that there will also be tooling cost. Tool holders, pull studs for those tool holders. Then the cutting tools to put in them. I could continue with other costly factors but I think the point was made.
Overall, jumping straight to that level would be prohibitively exspensive especially if you have no experience with any of those main factors.