Plastic replica? Are you sure you know what you’re talking about?
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Just the plate is plastic, the housing is all metal baby.
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isn’t it plastic?
The whole point of this project is to figure out how to get an HHKB into a metal housing without too drastically changing the dampened feel and sound of the polymer plate on the original. So it’s a metal housing with a custom injection-molded plate that is designed to fit into it.
At low quantities injection molding can be regarded as costing essentially just whatever the mold costs, which in this particular case means: extremely expensive.
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I’m not so interested in investing in this. Essentially you’re paying premium for an industrial quality keyboard made in plastic. What happens if you crack the plate? You can’t order a custom one from someone else. You’ve lost 650 usd.
Surely this is a new concept, in the long run well have high quality, big and sturdy plastic cases for a low price (I’m thinking about cases for tkl keyboards and similar).
@norbauer Ever think about making a metal plate (alu/brass)? I think the acoustics/sensation would be very new and interesting. Although, cost in the R&D and final product would be expensive.
I haven’t seen any complaints from HHKB users about cracking even though the entire case is ABS plastic. Even when people drill / cut holes into the plate for MX stabilisers it still hold up fine. I think your concern is completely unwarranted LOL
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From my observation, most HHKB users are pretty zealous about the “dampened” typing feel and rate it much higher than the steel-plate Realforce/FC660C. Thus there might not be many takers for alu/brass plate.
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Well, I didn’t join this gb because of price and lack of iso, but if I was about to join, ad additional plate would be absolutely necessary for me. This has nothing to do with how you use it, but with the fact that shit happens.
Just to confirm- you do realize this is a totally custom case/plate/housing being built for the existing PFU Happy Hacking Keyboard Professional 2/Classic keyboards (which have been made of plastic for 23+ years, and have never been offered an ISO layout), correct?
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A few people have tried that over the years, most notably (I think) massdrop had prototypes of one a while back. Every time it has been tried afaik it has resulted in very unpleasant loud pinging. @norbauer explained it pretty well in the OP
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If your only reason for not getting the case is that you don’t think you can get additional plates, I think that’s a trivial thing to solve really. Since the plate is manufactured separately from the enclosure Ryan could have the plates on his storefront as a separate item - similar to how the breakout board was sold separately from the Norbaforce R2 enclosure.
And yes, shit happens. It’s just tend to be that if you don’t look for it, it doesn’t happen. You’re talking about the worst case scenario like it’s happening at 50-50 odds. That’s where I disagree with your reasons.
I guess I flew passed that part of the OP. Thanks. 
Hey bud, recognized you from over at Geekhack, and you’re true to form here as well.
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Although, if you want an alternative for an custom case for the hhkb but with metal plates, or something different, you can either wait for KBDFans case, which might be done in a couple of months? Don’t know, just know they teased one a couple weeks ago. And there’s the Evija, which uses switch housings from other boards, like realforces, and stuff. In my opinion, though, if you want the “high end” version of what the hhkb proposes, the Heavy Grail is it.
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I second this! There are many people making cases that try to provide a metal housing for the HHKB (and most of them are really beautiful) but failed at recreating the sounds of the HHKB.
Ryan’s decision to keep the integrity of the acoustics is the main reason why I’ve already put money aside for this! I 100% knew he was dedicated to perfecting his craft but I just can’t believe he was crazy enough to put the necessary R&D into keeping it as close to the stock experience hahahaha!
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what
I think the way of expressing yourself is not constructive for anybody.
I suggest reading the FAQ area , especially the “Be agreeable, Even when you disagree” part.
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where?