Since JTK ran Hyperfuse without likely getting OCo’s blessing (unless they performed a small miracle), I was wondering how involved the designer was in this case. At the very least they acknowledged him, and I’m hoping he was actively working with them on it, or gets a cut. Is this the first HSA set to have custom novelties?
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CX SA/ AF SA is definitely very close to HSA but just judging off my HSA set I have and the pictures I have seen online of AF SA. I believe AF SA is slightly more dished/sculpted than JTK’s HSA profile. Don’t have a AF SA set on hand but pretty sure that is the case.
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These look very promising to me (although the spring is pretty light). I’ll have to make sure I pick up the first batch for fresh molds 
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This would look sick on my Soya U80.
Keebmat is having a 25% discount sale for 1 hour today 6 Nov from 10 am EST
Discount code: EDITIONS2024
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KeebsForAll has been doing a bit of a refresh to address some ongoing concerns (many of which have been discussed here regarding communication, shipping times, and customer service). Remains to be seen if the issues will actually be fixed, but I’m taking that as a good sign.
Along those lines, they have all switches on sale until Friday for 50% off with some really good deals like Gateron Mini i switches for $0.30/switch.
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One for the wood enjoyers.
I’m no expert on the subject, but “thermally modified” is another phrase used alongside “torrefied”, which I’m familiar with from guitar manufacturing - and the only reason I know that is because I’ve looked into buying treated wood sheets meant for guitar bodies to cut plates from. A musician friend of mine recommended it for both its acoustic properties and its higher stability over time compared to untreated wood.
Interested to see how these keebs do over the years compared with some of the other wood projects out there.
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Blacksimon saids:
I think it really is wood.
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So looking into this a bit, it seems like the wood is heated quite high in a kiln in a non-oxygen environment, which changes the structure a good bit. It sounds like a bit like the first step towards charcoal making, LOL.
Seems like you get increased density, reduced natural movement due to moisture and temperature, and increased hardness. You also get altered color which may or may not improve the look, and you get increased brittleness. For keyboards in particular, wood movement seems to have been more of a problem than breaking upon twisting or bending, so this could work well, particularly for a CNC case.
Speaking of that, One thing I don’t understand is the community’s insistence on CNC for wooden cases. You’re just inviting a split or warp when you make a tray-mount (or a structural cousin) from a piece of natural hardwood. Traditional joinery techniques for frames and doors (and other panels) exist specifically to mitigate the issue of wood movement and can be quite beautiful. My garage “shop” is actually set up for woodworking first and foremost, and it’s been a while since I did a proper woodworking project. This might be a good excuse to tune up the machines and use up some offcuts to move a lesser-used board into a joined wooden case.
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Gateron Mini i finally affordable! I hope they have cheap shipping to Canada!
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I reached out to vendors again for some hard data on best-selling switches. Here are the results with October’s community-favorite switch models:
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for Wooden
You called? On a serious note, I have personally made a Wooden board for myself and have actually done exactly what you described. Took some scrap pieces of wood and joined them together (not in any sort of fancy joint way as I just used good ol elbow grease and wood glue), and I was pretty happy with how it turned out especially given the fact that it was my first ever serious wood-working project.
After doing that project I always wondered why I didn’t see many people undertake wooden board projects/GB, and over time that’s when I discovered that many projects doing so had warping/shrinkage issues. Idk if it is because of the (pretty much necessary) overkill I went with clamps and wood glue but my board still seems to be holding up two years later. Maybe I gotta give it more time though.
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I think local climate and degree of climate control in your home are also factors; if you live in a dry place without a lot of temperature variation I don’t think the wood will change as quickly, but someplace with lots of variance in temperature and humidity will accelerate the process.
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I have taken the board out in the elements many many times for various reasons, and I live in a environment that can get very humid and vary greatly in temperature all throughout the year. I get your point though, hopefully no issues pop up in the future but only time will tell.
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CannonKeys BF/CM sale preview looks fantastic. A $99 Brutal v2 65% is a eye-popping. I keep coming back to that keyboard.
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Wood movement is a funny thing, but the worst thing for it is a single wide, thin board. Unfortunately, when you take a lovely piece of 3/4 or 4/4 lumber (I.e. 18-25mm thick before working the surface) and put it through a CNC to get the types of designs we often see, the bottom can end up pretty thin. If they’re China-sourced and relatively inexpensive, there’s also a decent chance the species wasn’t chosen for stability and/or it wasn’t dried properly. Nice wood is expensive.
Plywood, thermal modification, bracing, epoxy, etc., all help avoid the movement one way or another. The classic way is just to use narrower boards, as movement comes from individual fibers changing size, mostly width. Fewer fibers means fewer 0.01 millimeters of movement adding up. Things like panels and breadboard ends all contain or constrain the movement, sometimes in extremely clever ways.
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Ahhh I see I see, yea I believe the majority of the wood used on my board was apparently random pieces of poplar wood I found and then a janky thin piece of plywood for the bottom.
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Mkeu bankruptcy inventory auctions are up, kind of mind blowing to see
https://www.online-auctions.be/auction/3793
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I saw chatter about this on Prototypist’s Discord. Jae was warning folks off buying from it, since it’s apparently questionable stock that vendors have passed over already for various reasons.
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Buying from this auction is truly foolish indeed. It is really interesting though. I’ve often wondered how it looks when things get sold off in failed group buys where you know the boards were actually manufactured like the E8-v1, lynx50, weaven, and (hopefully not) the hubble65.
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