Been following the development of this for a while, finally made an account to throw in my support! I think this will finally get my HHKB to endgame status.
Really looking forward to matching my Hipro HHKB with maybe a white K2 or black anodized finish Heavy Grail!
Wonder what color/finish would go best with 108UW Justsystems caps…
Deskeys are also working on Topre MX sliders.
I’m getting more hype ab this by the day. The HHKB layout has ruined my brain completely.
I got a Norbaforce and couldn’t get used to the layout of the 87u. Can’t wait to have that norbauer polish on my favorite layout 
Yeah, I’ve heard that too and and haven’t wanted to step on their toes by making a competing product. Happy to have them trying to tackle this problem rather than me, honestly. Theirs will be a lot cheaper than mine would be anyway since they’re in China. Here’s to hoping that they’re able to solve the tolerance issues that have bedeviled previous attempts.
I have a Topre Realforce 104UG HiPro, and I don’t ever use it: its high profile keycaps make it (so much) more wobbly and noisy than my HHKB with its standard keycaps (blanks in my case).
I also have the MATT3O /DEV/TTY MT3 (which are also Hi-Profile), and for the same reasons, I don’t use them in my mx keyboards.
Also, I don’t feel the high profile is user friendly for a touch typist.
I prefer a low profile, preferably the cherry profile, for touch typing.
I can now confirm that you can use the HHKB Pro 3 Hybrid models with the housing in addition to the Classic models. You just would be giving up the battery/bluetooth functionality. Happily, this means if you already own a hybrid model and wanted to upgrade it with to a wired Heavy Grail, you don’t have to buy a whole new HHKB to be compatible.
Have you tested the silenced (HYBRID Type-S) models as well? Doesn’t seem that it would make a difference, but I don’t own one (yet), so don’t know how the silencing is done.
The more details that come out about this, the more excited I’m getting.
I unfortunately don’t have one on hand to test with, but it would be just like putting silenced sliders in a normal HHKB housing. I guess the sliders would just stick slightly more from the housing?
Any idea if there will be room in the housing for us to attempt to use the ydkb or hasu bluetooth mod? I understand the metal construction may hinder it but I’m still keen to give it a go.
Also are you still aiming for a July launch? Love your work, been following it for a while but this is the first time I actually have a suitable donor!
Do you think that if the demand becomes overwhelming that you will cut the GB short?
Generally speaking aftermarket breakout PCBs like this are designed to have the same footprint as the original breakout PCBs, so they usually work. I haven’t tested bluetooth reception through the housing, however. Folks have told me that they were able to get bluetooth to work in my Heavy-6 cases, though I haven’t personally verified, so it’s worth a try but YMMV. 
If I had to guess, you’d likely have better luck with the aluminum over the steel housing.
That is definitely my aim, but the injection molding company promised me the samples by “mid-July” and at present I have not yet received them. I’ll be nagging them later today for an update.
I always do my best to get people what they want if they participate in a pre-order, so when my group buys are running I try to let everyone in who wants one. I also sometimes order a few extras for people who don’t find out about the offering until it’s too late, but carrying inventory for items that have such a high unit-cost gets risky and expensive, so the numbers are always fairly small. This is why I tend to sell out of my planned extras in many cases before the group buy even ships. But, in short, if you get an order in within the GB window, you should definitely be fine. Beyond that, I can’t really make any promises, and in the event of any shortfalls of course (which happens), it’s the extras that have to get cancelled first rather than the people who ordered earlier in the GB.
Will the felt acoustic dampener also be available for this housing?
Yes, a dampener will come standard on these and likely all of my keyboards in future.
I should’ve been clearer sorry, the issue with those mods is not so much the PCB fitting as much as the battery. Will there be any room in the housing for a battery or will it be as tight as possible to prevent echoing inside?
Oh, yes. I would imagine so. There is quite a lot of room inside of the the housing, particularly toward the back, due to the angle.
Awesome, thank you so much. Can’t wait!
I understand covering the breakout USB ports for cleanliness and uniformity for all, but I would have loved to see a version with slots for the 2 breakout usb 2.0’s. just too messy?
Yes, and it transmits too much sound, which is more of a concern on a metal housing than on the stock. I also did a bit of an informal survey of all my die-hard HHKB fan friends, and I couldn’t find anyone who would own to actually using those ports, so it seemed the right trade-off.
Will any of the finishings be smooth enough for a sticker? I’ve saved a few HHKB stickers (for years now) just for this.
one might assume the veracity steel would be adequately smooth