Keymacs a reproduction of Symbolics 365407 keyboard

Marketplace Sharing fun finds
#1

It may not be new to some of you, but I found something incredible to me when I was in vacation:
https://keymacs.com/

This is a crazy guy who made a Symbolics 365407 keyboard reproduction and selling it.
I am a total noob for ALPS keyboards but I can recognize when some hard work has been put into. To my knowledge the only guy who did something crazy like that was @Ellipse for the Model F reproduction.

The youtube channel is stunning as hell:

And look at those keycaps …
This man did polyurethane resin double shot at home that look nice like industrial ones by GMK or SP, one of the Youtube videos shows the making of one keycap, super impressive and instructive.
They are MASSIVE, specially the large stabilized keys that have no void space in them.

The price on the other end … but hey given the work done and the fact it is mostly done by hand it justify the price IMO.
Any Symbolics enthousiast wanting to take the plunge at 900$ ?

PS:
By looking at the videos, and later some links on the web, I discovered that ALPS switches were in fact factory lubed.
No one has been able to find a proper replacement … until now it seems.
It is called Nektar lube and is a mix of different oil/greases.
See this link for more details:
https://deskthority.net/viewtopic.php?t=23878&start=210

2 Likes
#2

Dude put in work on the build logs too! :heart_eyes: You know this guy cares.

4 Likes
#3

I’ve meant to do one of my build logs on this board, but real life has just been far too busy this year. And in this case, it wouldn’t really be a build log, as Keymacs has done all of the work - this one has brown Alps, cleaned and lubed with Nektar (a blend of NyoGel and OKS).

For now, this will have to do:

IMG_7102
IMG_71022048×1536 286 KB

It bears repeating - one person designed and machined the case, designed the PCB, built the online tool for programming it, designed and double-shot the keycaps himself, and designed and produced the stabilizers. I believe the Alps switches are the only part of this board that he did not design and manufacture himself (although he did source the brown Alps, disassemble and clean them, and lube them himself). The entire project is nuts, in the best possible way.

I don’t have a personal typing video of this, but I’m 95% sure this video is the board I purchased, and even if it isn’t, I’m nonetheless willing to stand by that video as an accurate depiction of the sound of this board.

I agree with @Rico completely - this is expensive, especially if you opt for Alps and the full build by Keymacs - but if you’re a Symbolics enthusiast, this is it.

7 Likes
#4

I remember seeing this on Deskthority. Super awesome

#5

Super nice purchase @jshufelt !

1 Like
#6

Wow, what an amazing looking board.

It looks like it belongs on an executive’s desk at the Tyrell building…

#7

I configured one of these, definitely fetching a pretty penny, but goodness, looking at the pictures and design considerations made makes it supremely appealing.

#8

While it is still hot, @Jae-3soteric recently made a build of his second (yes) Keymacs with brown ALPS.
Very interesting to see.

The link is here: