[IC] Custom planck and preonic compatible parts.

[baetheus]

Hello all,

http://goo.gl/forms/i0sxxdG8dRsyMuSY2

This is an interest check for planck-compatible custom milled parts and services. It's my first post here, but I was advised to get your feedback from someone on reddit. I have a ton of time this summer and cheap access to manual and cnc mills, so I thought I would use my time and effort to return a little something to the community.

I will be milling acrylic cases that will be compatible with the official planck pcb throughout the summer. I'll also be playing with other materials like hardwoods, copper, and brass in late July and early August. I have also noticed that there are a few people interested in planck and preonic keyboards who don't want to invest in a soldering iron and build time. Thus, I want to put together a group buy that addresses all of these things. Here are the material combinations I plan to work with for myself:

• Acrylic milled bottom with acrylic top plates and RGB underglow.
  Birdseye maple milled bottom with acrylic, steel, brass or copper top plate and bottom etching.
  Oxidized copper or brass milled bottoms and tops.

Here is the current timeline (subject to change dependent on interest check and material availability). I would need to limit each phase group buy to 50 units, with the exception of the last one in order to maintain fast turnaround:

Phase 1: Milled Acrylic Plancks
By July 5th have an acrylic prototype planck built
Start phase 1 group buy
Complete phase 1 group buy
Design and build custom preonic case

Phase 2: Milled Hardwood Plancks and Preonics
By Late July (approx. 24th) have hardwood prototypes for both planck and preonic
Start phase 2 group buy
Complete phase 2 group buy
Complete testing of milled copper bottoms for planck and preonic

Phase 3: Oxidized Copper
By mid August have prototypes of oxidized milled copper cases for the planck and preonic ready.
Start phase 3 group buy for all previous materials
Complete phase 3 group buy
Go to the beach

Anyway, the whole point is that I'll be at the shop playing with mills and laser cutters all summer anyway, so there is no reason you shouldn't benefit from my time there.

Update 1: I've lined up acrylic stock from two suppliers, one has cast acrylic and the other has extruded. I expect them to arrive this week. I'll be running a couple tests from Sunday through Tuesday on how each handles the heat from milling at various settings. I'll build one of the nicer runs as a prototype and take some pictures, hopefully before the 1st.

[Wodan]

How about some 60%-75% designs?
Copper and brass sound fantastic, will matching plates be available?

Looking at your time frame, maybe add WhiteFox milled bottoms to the scope? They will hit the market hard soon and in numbers. Get in touch with matt3o, maybe he can help with design files.

Very excited about copper!!!

[baetheus]

I'm sticking to at most three designs over the coming months in order to document and gauge the optimal speed and feed rates for each material using the machines I have access to. I'm not saying I won't be working on other designs later, but for now it's more important for me to keep the number of variables low while I work on materials. As for plates, I do plan on making matching plates for each material (acrylic, copper, and brass) but I won't be cutting hardwood plates because they tend to chip out when you get down to 1.54mm thick pieces.

Anyway, yes I do plan on doing other size designs at some point. I'll probably throw up another interest check to narrow it down later on (maybe as early as November) as I don't have any personal preference for staggered 60%-75% designs.