A new arrival falls into the switch cave…
Akko Crystal Blues - aka on-rails on the cheap or budget Aqua Kings that are actually pretty good
All-polycarb light linears with tight tolerances and factory lube; definitely looking forward to giving these a test drive.
I just received mine today and WOW!
The reverse die sub work of the WOB set is just amazing:
MacSurfy designed a great set and Keyreative did a great manufacturing work 
(I’ve had it for a few days but it’s been hectic. Close enough.)
DCS, a 10u spacebar, and a glitter space kitty!
Is that Solarized Dark? Looks more blue than the renders, but I like it. The limitations of SP stock colors. Also, it is nice to see the Less but Better in the wild.
Quite unexpectedly, my Rama.Works Deskmat showed up! I wanted a slightly smaller (but thicker) mat (300mm x 720mm x 4mm). And I must say it looks great (a very rich blue), and feels a bit more premium than my Koi one (which I also quite like) thanks to the better stitching.
Having a deskmat was the single most influential change for the sound and loudness of the keyboards, so I’m pleased to now have one for the office as well 
Christmas the postie came twice today 
Kailh x Chosfox Midnight Pro switches
EDIT: oh bummer I accidentally ordered the tactiles instead of the linears…
For tactile they’re really nice, I quite like the sound, so I’m going to sell the tactile a on and buy the linears
So on one hand I think those Midnight Pro silents are some of the best around when it comes to how they sound and feel - but on the other, those stems can damage some caps, so be careful what you mount on them. I think you’re more likely to have a good time with caps that have PBT stems on the thick side.
I do hope they revise these, they really are top-tier dampened switches aside from that one factor.
whoa, I had no idea! Thanks for the heads up. I’ll use my least favourite keycaps first to see if there’s a problem. What a bummer!
Is it possible to, dunno, shave the stem off?
Yes… but it’s a little more complicated to do that reliably than it might first seem. Someone in the community went through quite a lot of effort to produce a tool that would do this reliably, but apparently never got it down to being totally satisfied with it. Still - I hear they do in fact work, and I’ve been hoping the project (and production) would resume.
I think part of why the project lost momentum is that the BOX stems did end up getting revised and most BOX switches sold today pose little risk to keycaps.
That said, now we have a whole new bunch of fat stems in the wild, and on otherwise really good switches - come back, Cruciformer - we need you more than ever! 
Even without all the new ones, though - there are still buckets of 1st run BOX switches around (Kono has been trying to sell their R1 Royals for yeeaaars - hey, at least they label them), and it would be well worth $40 to have total peace of mind about your caps. I once bought a batch marked as revised, but it contained a few un-revised ones… I’d destroyed three keycap sets before I realized what was happening and why. I have boxes of confirmed dangerous and/or sus BOX switches that could be reclaimed, and there are plenty of stock boards (like early Anne Pro 2’s) that shipped with cap-killer switches.
Ah what a bummer that the project is dead - I’d happily pay a reduced price for a b-stock cruciformer to give me at least a chance at saving keycaps I rather liked the switch…(minus the bump)
I’ll inspect the keycaps I popped them on, but I only used them for 5 minutes or so
I’m currently working out what I like about them, and what I like in a switch - not too heavy, deep sounding, almost silent, and linear. But I realised how much difference the keyboard makes - the Raise sounds completely different to the Keychron with the same switches and same keycaps. Fun times ahead! 
Sangeo60 FR4 plate for LM60 arrived from Hype Keyboard today. While I liked the brass plate that came with LM60, FR4 sounds and feels better IMO.
Got SA Tatooine from NovelKeys. Looks quite good overall, and I am looking forward to building a board around it, but I still can’t get over how Lucasfilm Licensing put their copyright symbol right on the escape novelty. So dumb IMO. It comes in a hell of nice box, though.
You’ve REALLY been bit by the Topre bug haven’t you? 
It is! It’s a very cool blue but that shot was also in direct morning sun so that warmth is probably doing it a disservice. Still haven’t quite chosen what to pair with it but I’ll sort that out soon. The Frog Mini and less, but better, on the other hand, haven’t left my desk since I built it.
At this point, I’ve become the bug
I have no interest in using a TKL and yet, I have this itch for an RF 8xU.
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