[GB] the Heavy Grail, a Norbauer housing for the HHKB

Wow. I think 8 Heavy Grails each fine-tuned slightly differently would be quite an experience.

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That’s like being asked to pick your favorite child! Each has its own unique character. If I had to choose which I used the most, probably either Veracity Steel with 30g domes, or the GOCF with drilled PC plate, MX-compatible sliders, and OG BKE Domes from a Sony control unit. Or maybe the Aerospace with the prototype Plato plate and aged Pro2 domes. See?!? Impossible to choose!

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Exactly. Ask any sultan in the neighborhood.

How did you drill the plate and would you recommend doing so? I also have a GOCF and Novatouch sliders, but I haven’t installed them. Turned out when I got them the previous owner had cut away the stabilizer pins or what you call them for some reason, so have been hesitant using them for that reason.

I’ve nearly completed my HG build, but does anyone know what this extra price of foam is for?

That is merely waste from the die-cutting process and can be discarded.

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I see two new finishes have been added to the Heavy Grail page…

Excited to see what they look like!

Ryan said that the Christmas version is a shiny polished chrome and the New Year’s version is anodized primary red, similar to Keycult red.

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Haha. You guys don’t miss a thing.

But yes @pixelpusher is right. I was just getting those loaded into the catalog in advance. I’m still waiting on the samples so I can photograph and show what they look like, but the Christmas edition will look exactly like Veracity Steel but it will be chrome on top of aluminum (and thus less than half the price), which actually gives more uniform cosmetic results due to the process. I’ve been amusing myself lately by calling that finish Mendacity Steel.

The Lunar New Year edition will simply be an anodized primary red, which is a color I’ve never produced before in any housing. These are all being produced with the small batches I’ve recently offered (already in production or complete), so the numbers and fixed, and should ship around the same time (late winter).

I’ll likely make these available on Christmas Eve and Feb 10 and will send a newsletter when I do.

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:joy:

A popular Lunar New Year / “Year of the Dragon” color combination with red is gold…it would be really cool if there was some sort of golden accent!

True, this would be a perfect usecase for my 24k gold keycap set

Belated GOCF build I had sitting in my drawer for two years - finally slapped a Hybrid Type-S inside it. Getting the gasket perfectly aligned so it doesn’t look out of sorts when viewed through the frame was a very underrated difficulty point. (It’s a shame there doesn’t exist a viable transparent material to serve as the gasket.)

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Isn’t there some kind of silicone rubber that would do?

Poron is really a very special material that’s hard to simulate with other options. The correct solution really is to add alignment features into the housing body itself, which is something that I’m doing on future keyboard designs. There just wasn’t really room for it in the Heavy Grail.

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There it is!

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@norbauer I saw that the titanium edition of the Heavy Grail Pro 3 is already sold out. Is there a possibility of additional HHKB titanium housings, or are the numbers final?

I’m sorry to say that not only is it sold out but I also have pretty long waiting list in case anyone else cancels any of those existing orders (which is unlikely). :grimacing:

I thought the batch before these current Grails was going to be the last, but then I got some replacement switch plates from the factory due to some prior rejects, which is what allowed the current small batches (including the Christmas chrome). However, even with this replacements, my supply of switch plates is reaching its utmost end. :sweat_smile: I have set aside the last 20 plates for a Lunar New Year edition in February.

Eventually my goal is to do an HHKB-style layout capacitive board of my own design using my own switches and stabilizers, but likely not even for pre-order until 2025.

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Your own HHKB-style board? Yooooooooooooooo. After all the development on the Seneca, I can’t wait to hear more about THIS project!

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hi jasom