HMKB V1

Heavy Metal Keyboard www.heavymetalkeyboards.com

Specifications

• material and finish: steel (powder coated) or V2A stainless steel (bead blasted)
• top mount construction
• high profile case, caps sink in very deep
• plate fully isolated via grommets
• adjustable typing angle: 6, 8, 10 and 12°
• very low first/lowest key row
• weights, see on the product page
• dimensions 40, 60, 65, 75, 80, 95
• additional info in the shop

Colors

• Classic Beige (RAL 1013), Feinstruktur
• Dolch Gray (RAL 7039), Feinstruktur
• Black (RAL 9005), Feinstruktur
• Yellow (RAL 1023), Feinstruktur
• Natural/bare, stainless steel, bead blasted

Included

• keyboard enclosure (top, bottom, mono-foot)
• switch plate (steel or brass)
• PCB (designed by Maartenwut, high quality, QMK)
• accessories (grommets, bolts, standoffs, nuts)

Updates

Sep 14, 2022 - Inox plate as option instead of problematic brass plate

The pace of packing has increased since the start of April and it is at a good pace now. However, there is one issue that is still slowing down the shipping process significantly. Initially, when all the metal parts had arrived, I grabbed one plate from steel and one from brass and was relieved and happy to see that the switch fit is perfect. HOWEVER - it turned out that one plate was not representative for all plates. The steel plates are all perfect but after some time I noticed that the tolerances of the brass plates are off on some plates, resulting in a too tight switch fit. I generally aimed for a tight fit, but some are simply too tight. This means that I must test every brass plate before packing it. This may not sound too bad, but the tolerance varies not just from plate to plate but even per cutout within a single plate. That means determining if one particular brass plate is ok or not takes an awful lot of time. This process is taking too much time and that is why I will offer an alternative for all who ordered a brass plate from now on.

New brass plates aren't an option since the production cost went up and the additional steps of bead blasting and galvanization would take way too much time and effort. What I will offer as an alternative is a 304 stainless steel plate, blank and with a more complex contour cut. This cut is usually called a "leaf spring" design but I prefer to call it serpentine cut, since an actual leaf spring design is something else. I had shown this type way back during the IC phase, but settled on a simpler design because the serpentine cut can lead to a high production error rate. However, after several prototypes, I'm more comfortable with this now, many are already manufactured and ready to ship.