Keymacs a reproduction of Symbolics 365407 keyboard

The description of each ALPS keyboard says where the switches are harvested from. Like this—

That’s just irresponsible. There is no reason to ruin a vintage keyboard just to make a new one. Ruining a vintage computer is much worse.

It would be different if they re-sold them after putting ALPS clones in them so they at least still function, but I doubt that is happening.

Irresponsible is a rather strong word :sweat_smile:.

This is a passion project in every sense of the phrase, and I think there’s merit to the idea that people would like inter alia an artisan, modern board to house their vintage ALPS, especially one that has all the qualities/backstory that this one does.

I hope you don’t see this as a dismissal of your point of view, but rather a plea that there’s more than one way of looking at the value generated.

The board part of it is very impressive, especially the custom ALPS tooling he made for the resin keycaps. But junking another board just for the switches is nonsense.

There’s enough interest in this community that we can fund new tooling for ALPS SKCx switches. We do it all the time with MX style switches.

It may comfort you to know that I bought most of the switches desoldered or just with a mount plate with no case and no keycaps, … so there was really not much to save.

I am afraid that in the future it is going to be even worse—I plan to make experimental Symbolics-style keyboards on beamsprings and buckling springs, so a couple of 5251s and Model Fs will be disassembled in the process. You know, when saving whales, you sometimes have to sacrifice a couple of gorillas. :joy:

That would be, of course, great. If fact, the only little thing that keeps us from making a decent SKCM clone is the switchplate, everything else is a piece of cake (or at least can be tuned in iterations).

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Hi guys! This topic is a bit old but for those who do not read DT: I have finally mastered my CNC milling & resin-casting technique and I am now able to produce multiple-shot legends for my keyboards. The results exceeded my expectations. Here is a typing demo of the first unit build with full Symbolics legend:

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That sound… My God

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Ready to rumble :person_fencing:

(Thank you, @lispnick! More soon.)

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omg that looks soooo neat !

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The sound reminds me of wooden salad bowl.

What a flex :muscle:

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For those of you who are interested in the sound of my keycaps on MX clones, here is something for you (the keyboard used is one of my early creations, hand-wired, bespoke case, switches NK_ Creams 1st. gen in the original condition, not lubed):

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