What did you get in the mail today? (Part 1)

In natural daylight, do the mods look like the beige gray of OG Cherry doubleshots or closer to the gray of GMK Muted? I’ve seen pictures that lean to either end of that spectrum depending on the lighting, but it would be nice to confirm.

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Closer to muted, the pic of the set laid out I have up is pretty close to the IRL look. The pic on the board was done in very warm lighting from my lamp causing it to have the beigeish OG Cherry look.

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Buyee coming in clutch with my Christmas treat:

Realforce 108US - uniform 30g, all “white” (beige really) caps

grimy as a mofo but nothing that some elbow grease and Dawn can’t handle.

I may just keep this stock instead of gutting it for parts–unsilenced Topre is sloooowly growing on me thanks to my stock 23u. And here we are back to a full size boi which I haven’t seen since the start of the pandemic.

Can I just say Buyee/Mercari JP literally kicked the ass of every other GB I’m still waiting on? I bought this on the 11th!

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I’m once again a resident of Topre Town. After an original run with a newer Hybrid Type-S, I’ll admit that I didn’t get it. I decided to give it another shot though and picked this up. Though I strongly aesthetically prefer it’s Ivory brother, the age made it something I didn’t want to pass up (11/08). It definitely needs a solid dose of TLC but I’m happy to provide that to return it to its rightful state. Even after just using it for a couple of minutes, I already really enjoy the sound of it more than I did before.

Because of its age, I’m going to try to keep the modifications to a minimum. The stabilizers are currently tragic so they’ll need to be tuned and lubed. Outside of that, I have a USB Type C controller coming from Hasu but that’s all I have planned for it. This is outside of my MX wheelhouse so I’m excited to expand my learning with this one. It’s already got me wishing I could try other Topre boards!

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The stock stabs have been atrocious sounding on any & all Topre boards have tried, so that’s normal & nothing to worry about. They should clean up real nice with a good lubing!

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Good to know! I figured its age probably isn’t helping matters any since anything applied when it was built has probably long since dried or deteriorated. But hey, the weird spacebar click is a learning opportunity! Hopefully this weekend I’ll be able to get it cleaned up and then I’ll do the controller and stabs in one go when the controller delivers early next week.

Edit: just did my morning check of the controller tracking and it went from a scheduled delivery of Tuesday to out for delivery! Guess I gotta get on my Topre stab lubing research!

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  • FR4 & PC plates from Woo-chey
  • Olive & Pim!
  • A misprinted deskmat I like
  • Mystery switches >>> Box Royals :man_shrugging:
  • Gold Cap Yellows

The Caps came in a bag, and I don’t see any lube leakage - so Gateron must have done something about that. V1s would drip trace amounts from the bottom middle air port. :droplet:

Well, I’ve been meaning to do some experiments with leaf-swapping BOX switches, looks like I found my donors. 🪛

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Novelkeys mystery switches - Box Navies
Tofu60 dark purple case
KBDFans 65% aluminum plate

First clickies in my collection. I played around with them for a bit and they are not terrible. I don’t think I’ll permanently mount them in any of my upcoming builds (tada68 and tofu60) but I might try for a themed build. I’m thinking something that has some “vintage” vibes. Welcome to any suggestions on that.

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full set of DSA meant to live in the PC Grail that is coming.

side note: what’s up with these SP 6u spacebars?

second side note: does anyone know a good source for a GEC colored 6u spacebar with correctly placed stems?

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Deep Navy arrived. It’s lovely.

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I’d like to see Deep Navy vs. Rudy. I have Rudy dark horse kit but it’s always bothered me that it tends to look a bit more purple

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I don’t have Rudy, but in this :3ildcat side-by-side, they practically look the same

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I was trying to remember where I saw the comparison, lol. They look so close it’s crazy. I feel like GMK color matching has gone awry over the last year and a half. I wonder if it stems from designers getting sick of the back and forth of the matching process and just want to get the set queued up for the year long wait in line for production.

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Some more clones. Aether PBT dye sub and black lotus ABS double shot. i’ve been daily using an ABS set by the same manufacturer for a month and they still don’t shine, so the material seems to be quite decent. Still need to get some GMK set some day to compare them.

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The Aether clones are actually nicer than IFK Aether, which were of middling quality to begin with and ran with an odd font. The clones have a nicer cherry inspired font.

Stinks for the designer, but is good for the consumer.

The only reason to go with IFK would be the greater compatibility.

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NEC APC-H412 with NEC Blue Ovals. The switches feel smoother than, dare I say…Alps Blues!

Tulip ATK 03.01.44 with 2nd gen SMK inverse cross mount. Quite rough feeling switches, but their weirdness is the real charm. You can even use MX style switches as keycaps if you really wanted to.

Both are really awesome, kind of rare vintage keyboards. Early Christmas presents for me ehehe :slight_smile:

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6u DSA SP spacebars are made for POS boards so they will not fit regular 6u spacebar unless modded.

I have a DSA Granite set on my novatouched HHKB Type S Hhkb dsa granite - Album on Imgur

I have modded the lateral stems as in the tutorial below :

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Thanks I’ll give this a shot!

I think the disconnect between renders and outcome has been more common. It’s nice that vendors are showing photos (vs. renders) of R2 sets and extras, especially when in conjunction with a color checker.

Coincidentally, from what I’ve seen, color matching may be the most scientific/standardized step in the process of making a set. But I just read threads, so I also don’t have a full picture.

Launch creams from Novelkeys

I love the color. Photo doesn’t do it justice.

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