F104+SSK+122+62+77+50+Ergo orders now open! New Kishsaver+Industrial Model F Keyboards

[mike52787]

Today I packed the first Brand New Model F production parts for shipment! F107 and F122 foam are going out tomorrow.

If you want F107 or F122 foam please order soon. I have only 4 left of the F122/F107 foam and that will be it for early shipping (the rest will ship later this year).

Yes enrique it is OK to order extra springs and flippers. They will ship later this year.

Yes after four long years the project will be ending after the final round later this year. The molds will be likely discarded, not sold.

sad. All this work for nothing. Very disappointed in this. Not a good attitude to have if you want to better the community.

[xxhellfirexx]

I am still waiting for a model F in a modern layout.

[E3E]

I'm not even invested in this group buy, and I have to admit that it's very disappointed that, after all this work, the molds are just going to be discarded and everything will cease. After all the delays, fine-tuning, and so on, just this run and then done, never produced again?

[samuelcable]

Today I packed the first Brand New Model F production parts for shipment! F107 and F122 foam are going out tomorrow.

If you want F107 or F122 foam please order soon. I have only 4 left of the F122/F107 foam and that will be it for early shipping (the rest will ship later this year).

Yes enrique it is OK to order extra springs and flippers. They will ship later this year.

Yes after four long years the project will be ending after the final round later this year. The molds will be likely discarded, not sold.

May i ask why? this project has been going on for so long, and i think the project has a great potential to go on, so it doesn't make sense for either side of this to discard the molds. if you have a legit reason for discarding them then im willing to listen but from my side it looks like you are trying to make them a rarity for no reason - heck the main reason why i would wanna join this is to get the rare layouts of the model f for much easier. discarding the molds and stopping at later this year makes this entire project seem worthless to me. sorry if i came off rude but i wish you would rethink this

[Aer Fixus]

Just gonna quickly chime in and say that Ellipse went through all this effort and is putting on a fantastic project. What he chooses to do with the materials afterwards is his decision to make. It's a ton of work putting on something this big and I can almost guarantee that there'd be some sort of commotion over who the molds would get sold to or the quality of product made with them. If someone got the case molds but none of the Model F internal bits right, you'd have a keyboard that looks like a Kishsaver but just has *shudders* Cherry switches...

Anyway, bugging Ellipse to change his mind isn't going to help anything. That kind of talk just makes someone wonder why they put in such effort in the first place, only to be criticized in the end after everything is said and done. It's exclusive because it's not feasible to produce them for any length of time. And by the time everything is said and done, we'll have had 5 years to buy one. I'd say that's a pretty good window. That's a longer window than most products have these days.

[mike52787]

keyboard that looks like a Kishsaver but just has *shudders* Cherry switches...

sorry to take things off topic, but this exists. a few years back there was a kishsaver replica case made. Pretty badass if you ask me.

[wcass]

Molds are only good for so many uses and then they wear out. The data for making the molds is what is valuable here. That said, anyone could send some of the original parts to a capable manufacturer and get reproductions. It just requires time and money. There will be more new capacitive buckling spring keyboards as long as there is a community of folks willing to pay for new capacitve buckling spring keyboards.

[Myoth]

sad. All this work for nothing. Very disappointed in this. Not a good attitude to have if you want to better the community.

oh it's like a kustom group buy

[green-squid]

I respect your descision, ellipse, though you may want to consider putting the molds up on Taobao if there are no contracts holding you back. And then they'll figure the rest out, you know how chinese companies are.

OR contact/get someone to contact one(UncleFan?) of the chinese keyboard forums, and I'm pretty sure you can find someone who knows someone who owns a factory who can continue producing them, and you can also make a buck

Again, only IF there are no contracts holding you back.

[Mattr567]

Molds are only good for so many uses and then they wear out. The data for making the molds is what is valuable here. That said, anyone could send some of the original parts to a capable manufacturer and get reproductions. It just requires time and money. There will be more new capacitive buckling spring keyboards as long as there is a community of folks willing to pay for new capacitve buckling spring keyboards.

Who said he will give all the 'data'?

I'm sure the molds will last much much longer than just 1 round lol just look at Unicomp. Now if only they could get their legends right

You do realize how much work that would be, 4 years down the drain. It's stupid. He can sell off the tooling, probably make some money back, and give back to the community even more.

Just throwing it all away seems like a giant waste to me. So much effort given into things like keycap texture, just trashed

[andrea-i]

For as much as I'm sure this is not a marketing operation orchestrated by Ellipse, this whole "made once then molds are thrown away" thing is pushing me inevitably towards that buy-it button : D

What happened to the springs though? I went through the updates yesterday and no mention was ever made of the springs after Ellipse said he was waiting for the samples.

As I said before in another thread though, I'd have already bought into this project if rather than exact replicas, these new model-fs were made as modern classics, with slight differences (like the damn springs : ), something about the exact replica idea just doesn't buckle-click with me.

[Myoth]

you may want to consider putting the molds up on Taobao

what does a Chinese eBay have to do with this ?

[codemonkeymike]

I could understand why someone would not want to sell molds. They have a limited life and I assume Ellipse didn't spring for the "Make it last for as long as possible" option when creating the molds. As well as having new keyboards coming out of poor quality. I don't think this should apply to barrels or flippers though, just plates an cases.

[green-squid]

you may want to consider putting the molds up on Taobao

what does a Chinese eBay have to do with this ?

Okay, that wasn't the best thought, but the second part makes more sense.

[green-squid]

I could understand why someone would not want to sell molds. They have a limited life and I assume Ellipse didn't spring for the "Make it last for as long as possible" option when creating the molds. As well as having new keyboards coming out of poor quality. I don't think this should apply to barrels or flippers though, just plates an cases.

In case someone in China does buy the molds (if you can, PLEASE) they'll probably fix them up and cheap out on the case and no metal plate, but Capacitive buckling spring for a good price is a plus in my book!

[Myoth]

molds don't degrade that easily .... i don't understand why you guys are saying that they're going to be ...

Cherry produced millions and millions of MX switches before changing the molds ...

[green-squid]

miscommented, see reply below

[green-squid]

molds don't degrade that easily .... i don't understand why you guys are saying that they're going to be ...

Cherry produced millions and millions of MX switches before changing the molds ...

got em!

Ellipse, please don't let years of hard work go the scrap heap!

[webwit]

molds don't degrade that easily .... i don't understand why you guys are saying that they're going to be ...

Cherry produced millions and millions of MX switches before changing the molds ...

You can't compare an industrial production line set up to make millions of items, to a custom run for a small fraction of that.

[green-squid]

molds don't degrade that easily .... i don't understand why you guys are saying that they're going to be ...

Cherry produced millions and millions of MX switches before changing the molds ...

You can't compare an industrial production line set up to make millions of items, to a custom run for a small fraction of that.

I know you can't, but I think it would be better for people on a budget (and the keyboard community) to have a 'mass production-quality' F to have more people experience the Model F without the insane costs on eBay, with USB, complete customization and pretty good (not ellipse level, but still, pretty good) quality. I think it would be a hit!

[kekstee]

Calm down you guys. I would prefer not throwing away perfectly fine molds as the supply of good keycaps and barrels/flippers isn't great (imagine barrel frames like the MF which needs parts). But we don't even know what they're made of, there's no way to judge their longevity and feasibility of continued production in terms of sales volume.

And why even worry about this when we haven't even seen R1 being done.

[scottc]

The molds will be likely discarded, not sold.

Not even surprised.

[Myoth]

molds don't degrade that easily .... i don't understand why you guys are saying that they're going to be ...

Cherry produced millions and millions of MX switches before changing the molds ...

You can't compare an industrial production line set up to make millions of items, to a custom run for a small fraction of that.

for sure but I don't think molds can be this bad, it's not they're complex or anything either, I don't really see how making 4 years worth of work and end it by saying that the 250 boards that were (or going to in that case (ha get it ?)) made, used all the molds up.

I just have a hard time fathoming the motives behind such a move, both from a economical and community point of view ...

[green-squid]

Calm down you guys. I would prefer not throwing away perfectly fine molds as the supply of good keycaps and barrels/flippers isn't great (imagine barrel frames like the MF which needs parts). But we don't even know what they're made of, there's no way to judge their longevity and feasibility of continued production in terms of sales volume.

And why even worry about this when we haven't even seen R1 being done.

Yeah! Stop encouraging him to throw them away, guys! It wouldn't be a good move.


And I'm worrying about this because by the time these rounds are all done, it may be too late to change his mind!

[y11971alex]

Sell to unicomp

[green-squid]

Sell to unicomp

Fuck, just ANYONE who's willing to continue doing this. It would be a better option to sell it in China to save on shipping costs, but Unicomp may also want to consider it.
However, I do smell something.. Ellipse may have seen my question and thought 'this is the perfect opportunity to sell some boards!' and tricked you guys to order more because 'it's going away now!', just like those 'going out of buisness, everything must go' over-hyped sales that some stores do in the USA!

BUT: Ellipse seems like an honest person. I don't think he would do something so sinister. But I hope he listens to the feedback he got!

[Myoth]

to save on shipping costs

as adorable as this is I don't think people like this would actually care for shipping costs plus I'm doubting the fact that you can ship moulds

Unicomp may also want to consider it.

I don't think it'll ever happen, Unicomp are sitting on SSK moulds, if they wanted to do something about smaller keyboard (and enthusiast orientated keyboards in general) they would have done it a long time ago :/

over-hyped sales that some stores do in the USA!

hmmm ...

modelfkeyboards.com

MORE THAN $400K IN SALES !!!

BRAND NEW MODEL F !!

EARLY BIRD ROUND !!!!

THE BEST KEYBOARDS THERE IS ON EARTH !!!

EVEN MARS HAVEN'T GOT THESE !!

sounds like the same to me

[DustGod]

Sell to unicomp

Based on the attitude of the company, sell to anyone but Unicomp.

[green-squid]

Update: contacted someone in china, and there may be a future for the molds! Waiting for Ellipse's response.

Staying the fuck tuned.

[hansichen]

Are you alright?