类型: GB
作者: norbauer
发布时间: 2019-09-26 15:12:28
更新时间:
2019-09-26 15:12:28
原链接:
https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=102635.0
Im happy to report that
the Norbaforce Mark II is now available for custom
pre-order, through October 26th. It is my after-market upgrade
housing for the venerable Realforce family of keyboards,
manufactured in Japan by Topre. The Norbaforce Mark II
expands support from the 87U family of Realforce keyboards
to the R2 family of TKLs as well. The Mark I version was
launched here on GeekHack
back in 2017 and has been enormously
well-received.
This ground-up internal redesign of the Mark II has
the same retro-futuristic exterior design of the Mark I but
includes a number of enhancements, not least of which is the
fact that this is my first keyboard housing that is fully
Made in the USA, affording me unprecedented in-person
control over quality and the opportunity to work personally
with some amazingly skilled (and equally obsessive)
artisans.
Addition of support for the R2 family of
Realforces means we can now easily obtain
Topre keyboards that support Cherry MX keycaps
and use them in a Norbaforce. Ive also switched the breakout
port to USB Mini for greater support of popular enthusiast
cables and less confusion around USB-C cable capability.
Another
upgrade, inspired by the
Heavy-6
(aftermarket housing for the Leopold FC660C), is the switch
to a powder-coated galvanized steel rear cover plate, which
non-trivially adds to the weight of the housing: over 5½
pounds (2.5kg) with an 87U installed.
Cost, manufacturing, and margins
Moving manufacturing to the United States has
resulted in an enormous jump in quality and consistency but
also a modest increase in the prices I must charge. However,
the least expensive finish Im offering in this batch (K2) is
actually only $5 more expensive than my last offering of
in-stock powder coated Norbaforces, which is now sold out.
Even for the other more expensive powder finishes, moving
production entirely to the USA caused only a 13% retail
price increase over parts made in China. And in my tests and
pre-production runs, Ive already empirically observed a much
better than 13% increase in quality. There are other less
quantifiable (and more philosophical) benefits to moving
production, which incidentally have nothing to do with
tariffs. My thoughts on this subject have been evolving
considerably of late and I shall likely have more to say at
some point, but for the moment I shall leave the specifics
for the reader to surmise.
For whatever its worth, Im
also partly eating the higher costs Im paying for USA
production by assigning a lower margin to this batch than
any other product run Ive done before. This is because I
believe in this new local manufacturing model and want to
see it succeed. I also believe the resulting better quality
control will help constrain the unexpected costs Ive had to
deal with in the past, which means I should be able to get
away with a decreased financial safety buffer to account for
scrapped parts.
Incidentally, the reason Im offering
the K2 finish at a lower price is because it can be batched
with the much larger set of rear cover plates that are being
coated in the same finish. It also has the lowest observed
reject rate among the finishes, meaning less costs
associated with rework.
To be sure, anodizing on the
Mark II (the Tactical finish) is non-trivially more
expensive than on the Mark I, and thank goodness. It means
Ive finally found a vendor whom I can actually pay more for
good and reliable cosmetic results. As Ive extensively
bemoaned in almost every interview Ive ever done, serious
cosmetic defect rates on China anodizing can often be as
high as 50% or more, a phenomenon with which almost any
community group buy participant is familiar. Even after
hiring on-the-ground consultants and inspectors and trying
easily 20 different vendors in China, Ive never gotten
consistently good results, even after pro-actively trying to
pay more to persuade the finishing vendors to actually care
about QC. The low prices on my last run of the Norbaforce
were simply a mirage, a gross miscalculation, and a
disastrous money-losing proposition for me, given how many I
had simply to scrap in order to keep to my cosmetic
standardsmeaning I had to cancel a fair number of orders
around shipment time, which always makes me feel awful
because I hate disappointing people, and which Im keen to
avoid on this new round. This new pricing for hard-anodized
housings simply reflects what it actually costs to get the
job done right.
Also, as an aside, my experiments have revealed that
the Tactical finish takes nicely to hand-waxing, if youre
into that.
**Veracity Steel: maintainable, and heavy
AF
**I learned quite a few lessons from the Heavy-6
project, but one of them was the astonishing community
demand for extremely heavy housings with unusual materials
and finishes, even if those desires come at some
considerable manufacturing/materials cost. Also, as a result
of the hand-waxed finish on the black Monolith and how well
it was received, Ive learned that there is an appreciation
among my clients for materials and finishes that are
maintainable over time.
As a result of these two
observations, Ive increasingly become interested in what I
call Veracity finishes, which is to say materials that dont
disguise themselves with a thin finishing layer on top of
their true underlying nature. This is with the understanding
that, while the finish may be more susceptible to wear from
everyday use, it can be also be more easily maintained and
polished back to its original lookunlike, say, a Type II
anodized part that scratches very easily and then is nearly
impossible to restore back to its original appearance.
One
sees this philosophy commonly in the luxury watch and
leather goods world, where living materials are rightly
valued and restoration and maintenance are part of the
expected lifetime of an object that can be regarded as
heirloom-worthy. It is generally understood, for example,
that stainless watch cases worn regularly will need to be
polished to remove minor everyday scratches and abrasion.
This inherent maintainability is prized among watch
collectors, and its something Im embracing with the Veracity
Steel option on the Mark II, which offers naked stainless
steel, painstakingly hand-polished to a mirror finish.
Also,
incidentally: with the keyboard installed, it weighs over 9
pounds. I hereby disavow any responsibility for your desk
collapsing under its weight.
**Be sure to add a breakout PCB to your order
**
These
are being
sold separately, so you can get the PCB that works with the type of
keyboard youll want to use with your Norbaforce.
Bundle offer
Later today, Ill be sending out a private offer to my
newsletter list
to get a discounted Keybrief or Keyring (both of which are
based around the Norbaforce) with the order a Mark II, so if
interested make sure youre on the list.
International shipping
I am
now offering the ability to pay for calculated duties and
taxes in advance with your order rather than having to sort
it out with your customs authorities on delivery. This is a
trial of a new service, and well see how it goes. But it
allows me to maintain direct relationships with clients
rather than dealing with a complex network of proxies. This
should makes things much easier when it comes to sorting out
delivery issues or any other problems that may arise on
arrival.
Any questions?
Finish
details, specs, pricing, timelines, etc., are all in the
group buy page on my site, but Ill post some teaser photos
below. Any questions or concerns, please post them here or
reach out to me directly at
shop@norbauer.com. I am, as always, at your disposal.
Many thanks, as
always, to everyone in the community for your enthusiastic
support of my work. This one has been a long time coming and
represents a totally new way of making stuff for me. I hope
youll consider supporting it.
