Dude. Same. My sentiments exactly.
The only downside to wood, that I can see, is the propensity to swell and contract with moisture.
I only mention that because I have a wooden 60% case that was an absolutely bear to get the PCB into and Iām pretty sure itās not coming out without some violence. Which may just be a manufacturing defect, but natural materials can be tricky.
Youāre totally right. I suspected I ought to let the case acclimate to my part of the world before attempting any sort of build. Iām leaving it desk side for a week or so just to be sure.
How is PCB mount height? With wooden cases in the past, PCB sat too high which made typing difficult without a balm rest.
Hmm. Thatās a super great question.
They look about the height youād expect, but I donāt have a spare PCB to confirm.
No hurry. Let us know if they seem higher than usual after your build, whenever that may be.
This set is so weirdly cool. Are the legends pad printed or?
Process is crazy: the caps are ādip-dyed, then dye-subbed, and then laser engraved to arrive at the final effect.ā
I kind of feel like those are out of order though. I would expect they were laser engraved first, then dye-subbed. Since the white clearly follows into the engraving.
One of the guys behind the group buy, Ulliam, described the process in more depth in the GeekHack thread announcing the GB:
āThe keycaps start off as a white base that are dip dyed (similar/comparable to sublimation) to the medium grey, they are then dye-sublimated black and etched back to smooth white using laser engraving.ā
Neat!
Can you feel the legends? How do they compare to the usual home key bumps?
Oh thatās awesome and makes complete sense. I was a little confused what exactly the dip dying was even doing and now itās all coming together. This is a super cool way to make a keycap. I hope there are more that take advantage of this approach.
@ajoflo yes, you can feel them, but itās very subtle. The home keys are just dished more, but appear to have the same depth of engraving on them.
Right? Between this new process and reverse dye-sub, Iām excited that weāll start seeing a lot more interesting PBT keycap legends and colors.
Just so I understand the process fully; dip dying is chemically the same as dye sublimation but without a printed transfer paper, right?
Oh, fascinatingā¦ that makes me really curious about the kind of laser they are using and how itās set up. I used to operate a laser cutter and engraver in the signage business, and IIRC it takes some finessing to get a smooth, glossy finish like that on an engraved surface - itās usually very rough, almost like a softer fine sandpaper.
Usually the engraving process itself essentially makes millions of tiny explosions in the material; vaporizing it one micro-pulse at a time - each of those pulses more or less is one āgrainā in the grit of the surface. Whether itās somehow in the same pass or with a subsequent pass, the laser appears to be melting the plastic back down into a melted-together surface.
I seem to remember that being technically possible with the unit I had been using, but accomplishing it was sort of a hack-y procedure that you kind of had to wing.
Say all that to say - that looks exceptional for a laser-engraved plastic surface.
Ooo, Iām hoping to hear how these work versus the stock sliders. Lotās of hopes pinned to these.
Same Iāll report back. But, this one word gives me hope:
About time KBDfans got with the times on tray mount 60%s. Just the 4 side mounts makes a tray mount 60% feel so much more consistent & sound better. Add in a half plate with a super flexy PCB like the HADflex60 & you got a recipe for a tray mount that feels better than some customs IMHO!