Thank you for your dedication Ryan! I can’t wait for mine to come in!
I got my shipping notification!
Omg
I have fucked up. I had no idea I ordered winkeyless. I don’t have a board for this… I bought a breakout board for R2!
What a royal screw up. I’m going to go cry for a while now.
Halp. I feel like I’m gonna 
What the heck can I do? Anyone have a regular vhs finish they wanna swap for wkl?
2 Likes
Haha. No worries @pixelpusher . I should be able to swap for you. Just send me a message by replying to your order confirmation email.
7 Likes
Omg. Ty ty. Sent it.
2 Likes
Hi Ryan just wondering, are you guys going to shutting down for a while?
Possibly at some point late next week, but not until I get this and the next batch of Norbaforces out the door. 
If you were planning on ordering something and need it soon, I’d definitely recommend doing so by early next week. I think the government may start taking stronger measures in recommending the cessation of a wider range of business activity here in California in the not-too-distant future.
Incidentally, most Norbaforces are shipping out today. Retro Refrigerator, Palm Desert, and Astrophysical were slightly delayed due to the COVID-related understaffing at the factory, but those should be arriving to me and shipping to GB participants next week.
Then the only remaining items will be the stainless housings. Those are currently on their way to the polishing shop (which as of today is still operating) for finishing and will be somewhat longer.
7 Likes
If anybody has an extra KBDFans 1.5u Mx topre slider laying around that they want to sell me, or trade a novatouch slider for let me know 
Can’t wait to put all these pieces I have around together for my ultimate norbaforce!
1 Like
Got my shipping notice! So excited to get it
What will come first: my Norbaforce or the Canada/US border closing and maybe stalling the shipment?
Stay safe everyone and enjoy your boards!
So far as I know, no borders anywhere are closed to shipments or cargo, only the non-essential flow of persons.
1 Like
That’s what it sounds like. Trying to be cautiously optimistic!
1 Like
That’s pretty much the best we can all hope for these in these dark days. =\
By way of an update: so far I’ve shipped all finishes except these: a few Tactical (but those are going out Monday), and all Retro Refrigerator, Palm Desert, and Astrophysical. Those last three powder finishes are trailing the first shipment in a second shipment due to arrive this week. The stainless will follow just over a month from now (in open business days), as the hand-polishing on those is pretty painstaking and takes awy longer than any other finishing process.
I need to try shoot and edit together a video today explaining how to assemble an R2, since the process and hardware are slightly different from the 87U–even though most people manage to figure it out on their own. If anybody has any questions in the meantime, I’m of course always available by email (shop@norbauer.com) to help.
4 Likes
Got my case this morning - I am in the process of moving though so I will not be able to put things together for a few weeks
10 Likes
HAWT.
Mine should be showing up Wednesday but… I won’t be back from work travel until the weekend 
This is a troubling time to be traveling; be safe, my friend.
1 Like
Whooo got mine today! Very impressed with the FedEx international option. All payment up front including taxes and brokerage fees and it turned out cheaper than USPS in this case.
Edit: just sent you an email @norbauer
6 Likes
Given all the logistics upheaval surrounding getting these out amidst the current public health situation, I didn’t have time to shoot an assembly video for the R2, but you can refer to the Mark I assembly video for 87U Realforces, which is almost identical.
One small difference is that the risers don’t come attached by default on the Mark II compared to the Mark I, so if you want them on, you just need to screw them into place.
The following details are different for the R2 keyboards compared to the 87U family:
-
The R2 keyboards don’t have the separate grounding wire, so there is only one cable that runs between the breakout PCB and the Realforce and no grounding wire eyelet to unscrew. The R2 cable has five wires rather than the four-wire cable used on the 87U family. So you can ignore the references to the (yellow) grounding wire shown in the video. Just unplug the stock cable and replace it with the breakout cable and breakout PCB and you’re done.
-
There are three washers included with the R2 parts pack. One of these is just a spare. The other two go on the screws that hold the two tabs at the bottom of the Realforce plate into the Norbaforce housing. (Because the 87U and the R2 have slightly different positioning of those tabs, the washers effectively just make the head of the screws bigger so they can capture the R2 tabs.) The other two screws that hold the plate into the housing–on the sides of the plate up near the top–don’t require washers.
3 Likes
I also found your stream with @TaehaTypes to be a very good guide on assembling the board.
Need to pay careful attention to keycap alignment before fully tightening the screws too!
3 Likes
Oh, good point! Totally forgot about that.
1 Like
Got mine!!
I unboxed it and I’m letting it sit in the garage for a day just to be safe, but I’ll upload some pics of it tomorrow.
Thanks for getting my screwup fix @norbauer
Stay home and stay sane everyone.
4 Likes