[IC] the Heavy Grail: a Norbauer housing for the HHKB

The hour is upon us friends! I’m in for that sunset Blvd

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Hey they look awesome!
Can i ask, what material are the cases made off?
I love this 2:
VERACITY STEEL (seems obviously made of metal)
APERTURE (is like a hard plastic or metal?)

There is any way to see some renders of them with blank black keycaps on?

I will love to see a black bersion of those, like aperture Black instead dark grey

The powder coated cases are made from aluminum and the veracity steel is made from stainless steel.

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The plate is black in both the color vadiant? From the renders looks like the aluminum case has a white place on

The “rear cover plate” is the (presumably metal) piece on the rear of the keyboard that you would install to “close” the case as the final step of assembly. It is not visible in any of the photos.

The “switch plate” as it was referred to is the piece into which the HHKB’s sliders will be transplanted. It will be white or pink ABS plastic (you will very likely be able to choose this color independent of case color).

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These look great! Just to confirm though, there will not be a black option?

Oh, that’s a bomer… i want a black switch plate, why only white and pink? Seems an odd choice. White fits nice with the pink and white cases but not with the stainless still and the grey one.

Oh man, I am floored with those renders. I’ve been set on getting one in K2 as my first Norbauer housing ever, but Sunset Blvd and VHS are so tempting, they look so clean!

All of these are utterly fantastic man, I haven’t been this excited for a keyboard project ever. As someone who’s built their fare share of customs, I have always returned to my HHKB eventually as my daily. I’m so stoked to give one of my favorite objects a new home in one of these housings :relaxed:

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Sunset blvd, for sure. Might be hard to find caps I like for it though.

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I thought maybe seeing the final pictures would help me decide. Not the case at all. I’m currently stuck between the VHS and the aperture.

Question: Were you to produce a PC version of this case would that only be frosted like previous cases you have produced or would we see “smoke” or color variants?

Might help with my choice on this one

Correct. I hadn’t been planning on one, for either the housing or the plate. Black is not a great color for injection molded plastic products in ABS, as it tends to show wear and any cosmetic irregularities in the molding process very readily.

They are actually good old-fashioned photographs. As a matter of principle, I almost never use renders when I can avoid it. (I feel that if I’m going to sell something, I need to be sure that at least one of them can be made to exist.)

There will be more photos with the GB. This was just to show the finish options.

I personally think it pairs nicely with the stock Topre white caps, fwiw. I probably should have shot it that way, but I had that weird keyset that I wanted to showcase somewhere, so that’s what I ended up using in that photo. :blush:

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I don’t have any 2020 plans for a polycarb housing of the Heavy Grail. Maybe a limited edition at some point late in 2021 after the metal housings have shipped, depending on how everything goes.

Generally speaking though, I’ve been looking for solid blocks of smoke colored polycarbonate to machine for a while, but I haven’t been able to find any. Let me know if you have a source! :slight_smile:

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Ah, my mistake! I appreciate that principle as well, it’s exceptional product photography.

Thanks! Someday I’ll make a video showing my product photography process. It’s very…over the top. haha.

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Was there a reason not to go for a matte black option for the case? Or was is personal preference?(Not trying to sound like a douche, just genuinely curious)

If you have any pictures of the Aperture colour with the pink plate on hand it would be much appreciated!:slight_smile:
Super ready for an endgame level HHKB :smiley: Thank you for making one available

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No particular reason. I just had a limited number of colors I could accomodate and didn’t want to spend two of them on “boring” options, and so I just went with plain white rather than plain black for that. I’m all about being an antidote to the dark—aspiring badass— gamer aesthetic that is so predominant in PC hardware these days, so I tend to favor bright and happy color options whenever I can.

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Haha, fair enough. The Aperture option looks to be a good substitute for those looking for a darker option (with the added bonus of an interesting texture).
Looking forward to the GB! Will you make a typing test available when it goes live? I’d love to hear the way it sounds.

Oh wow, super excited about Sunset Blvd! Veracity Steel looks awesome too but I imagine that is going to be super spendy, lol.

You imagine correctly, haha.

As much as I lke Veracity steel, i am going to go mad trying to keep it finger print free lol.

Probably Aperture for me.