I have developed a good relationship with a PVD vendor here in the US who is doing some really impressive work on the (all-steel) Heavy-6 Monoliths, so I’m ready to explore the oft-requested prospect of making upgrade/replacement backplates for the Norbaforce. These plates should be compatible both with the existing Norbaforces and also any subsequent revision I may produce. The only difference is material and finish.
I’m doing and IC because I’m not sure how much interest there will be given the high cost of these two processes. These will likely be offered in a matte black at around $175 (the cost of stainless steel machining and of PVD finishing are inherently very high). The advantage of these plates is greatly increased weight and greater sound dampening. PVD coating is a high-end coating process used on luxury watches and is among the most durable finishing processes available for metal. The finishing will all happen here in California to the highest possible cosmetic standard.
Any potential options on plate material? I believe the standard Realforce plate is steel, so it could be awesome to see options such as aluminum or brass, just to shake things up a bit and perhaps add a bit of cost savings?
Well, these are explicitly upgrade plates, so I don’t think aluminum makes much sense, but depending on interest level, I may offer a second color. Brass doesn’t make a lot of sense for PVD because you have to chrome-plate it first, which defeats any advantage of brass. The chrome-plating approximately doubles the finishing cost and has generally negative environmental impacts too (for those concerned with such matters). Stainless really is the way to go if you want weight and a PVD finish.
The Heavy-6 by definition includes a steel back-plate. Only the Monoliths come with PVD coating on the steel, however, since it is crazy expensive.
Polished is always more prone to showing any scratches, so I’ve been inclined to think it’s not necessarily an ideal finish for a back-plate. I agree with you aesthetically though.
OK, guys. Please keep voting if interested and haven’t yet so I can get a proper sense of numbers, but I’m happy to confirm that this is happening. I’m going down to the PVD workshop on Monday to try to hammer out a finishing price and process for these (it’s a bit of a challenge because of the unusually large amount of space they take up on the rack). The PVD back-plates on the Monoliths are done and they look absolutely perfect—and my tests suggest that the finish is insanely durable compared to what I’m used to (anodizing).
I finally got some samples I’m happy with, so these are ready to roll! I’ll be running this brief group buy for a couple of weeks. Perhaps needless to say, the cost is related to the expense of the stainless material itself, the difficulty of machining stainless, and the considerable cost of PVD finishing. But I will say: they are quite nice.
These are compatible both with the original Norbaforce and its forthcoming Mark II version. I decided to treat this and the Mark II project separately to reduce fulfillment complexity and get these shipping earlier to Mark I owners.
