Best Case for 60% keyboard and where to buy?

[Quarzer]

Hey guys,

I want to make my one 60% keyboard. But I'm not sure about the case. Which Material do u think is the best? Which vendor could be the best?

I'm interested maybe in a wood-case. But is this good? What is about the sound? Different materials different sounds? I want to make it with MX Clears.
And maybe floating keys? That would be awesome!

And plz excuse my english

Thx a lot
Q

[Findecanor]

FalbaTech has wood cases. However, to me it looks like they have been machined from pieces of wood that have been glued together, perhaps from bench tops.
FalbaTech is in Poland, so no import-tax to Germany. They also have plastic cases.

I read somewhere that wood would be louder than plastic. I have no first-hand experience.

[Stabilized]

Completely depends on what you want. All the cases give different keyfeel and it depends on what plate, switches, and keycaps you also use. I like acrylic cases the best, as they look cool with underglow and give a nice deep sound to the keyboard. I find that an all metal case with plate feels a bit stiff for my liking, but I have not tried a wooden case.

You might want to ask DanielT about cases, he has a lot of experience with 60% boards and is a really nice and helpful guy

[Quarzer]

Thx guys,

i wrote daniel a PN. I thinkt wood can be a nice material cause its warm and maybe not that loud. But i really dont know. I thought acryl is better then steel, too. But was not sure. Steel oder aluminium seems to be cold and hard.

[face]

Why steel? Will be very expensive to shape - aluminium is much easier to get.

I do like alu. Very sturdy, don't feels cold (feels certainly better than plastic!), looks like your keyboard is good quality, but is also heavy. Not the choice if you want to carry your keyboard around! Don't know about wood cases though... thats certainly also a style thing.

[Wodan]

I am a big fan of this 60% case:
https://www.massdrop.com/buy/lambo-60-a ... guest_open

Funny thing it's currently dropping. It's a rather high case though but heavy and stable. Build quality is outstanding.

[Quarzer]

Hey,

steel was wrong. I ment Alu So I thought Alu could be cold at the wrists or for the fingers or so. And what is quieter? Acryl or Alu?

Would be nice to hear some experiences about wood.

I saw the case on massdrop. But I dont like the angle of it and I cant change it. So its out for me. Pretty bad, cause I liked the design.

[face]

You can buy vortex alu cases. It is not cold since your fingers only touch the keycaps, never the alu!

[Wodan]

Is this the same case the Pok3r is shipped with? That's a real beauty! But this case requires a good plate because the plate is very exposed in the Pok3r cases.

Where can I buy them anyway?

[DanielT]

@Quarzer: Sent you a PM with more details Let me know if you have other questions. There are so many options ...

@Wodan: Pok3r cases can be bought in the classifieds, there is no direct source at this moment. There is a slight difference between Vortex cases and stock Pok3r cases.
As for the plate, you don't really need one, I use my Pok3r case without a plate, not a big fan of plate mounted switches. there is really no problem. No risk of damage, no flex, no nothing. And those cases are really sturdy while still light.

[czarek]

FalbaTech has wood cases. However, to me it looks like they have been machined from pieces of wood that have been glued together, perhaps from bench tops.
FalbaTech is in Poland, so no import-tax to Germany. They also have plastic cases.

I read somewhere that wood would be louder than plastic. I have no first-hand experience.

Our wood cases are machined from one piece of wood, the only thing that is glued is the small bar over the USB port because there is no way to machine that otherwise (unless you have a 5 axis CNC).

[Wodan]

Well are those really solid pieces of wood or glued together pieces of the same wood ?

In the pictures you can see zig-zack lines where parts where glued together.

[czarek]

Ahhh that's what you mean. Well you can't make it out of just one solid piece of wood because when machined to pretty thin (2-4 mm in thinnest parts) case it would flex and bend and even PCB and steel plate would not help. It took us long months of testing and working with experienced woodworkers to find a solution to that problem.

So our solution is to use pre-glued wooden blocks (like used for tabletops or shelves for example - single block would warp the top and they wouldn't be flat) which we source from local woodworkers. We then cut them into smaller blocks, about 20mm wider and longer than actual case, and such block is getting through the machining.
After process is complete it's time for manual work. We glue the small portion above the USB cutout, then do the sanding, cleaning, oiling.
Oiling is the most time taking. We use 3-4 layers of oil (depending on colour) and we wait around 4 days between each layer + 2 weeks after final layer so everything is nice and dry before it goes on the store.

By no means I'm not saying that we make the best 60% case out there. Myself I don't really like wooden cases and I'm using aluminium and plastic. I actually quite like poker 2 case for that matter. But I know people who swear by the cases we make and they're now their favourites Just check out what my friend took with him for a holiday:

Spoiler:

SkypePhoto_20160621_14_49_28.jpg (195.07 KiB) Viewed 13701 times

[shreebles]

I am a bit late and regret having missed this thread. This topic has been extremely relevant to me lately.

Currently I am suffering from RSI in my left wrist and for this reason I need to change all angled cases to flat or negative incline. I already have an acrylic case with negative incline and it is helping a lot.

Quarzer, if you are interested in buying a full alu 60% case, I have a white and a black Pok3r case that I need to sell. They are too high and too steeply angled for my wrists.

Czarek, can you tell me more about the wood cases? Are dimensions available online? Is it possible to attach the feet myself so I can change the angle on the case or make it flat?

[cookie]

FalbaTech is not my cup of tea... 60 bugs for that is way too much imho.
I got 2 wrist rests from Royal Glam, one out of massive black Wallnut and one made of Mexican Golden Sandalwood.
Very hard wood types with awesome color/grain and made out of one piece! No bending so far, which means the wood dried out properly. Both for under 40 EUR.

They don't even mention the wood type... "Wooden case with oil finish" but what wood? It looks like it were carved out of a "Bierbank" which is made of very cheap wood



The hole for the USB connector could have been processed in a second step instead of gluing the bar on top, or leave it to the buyer to cut it out.

I'd wait till they've improved wood quality and machining.

[shreebles]

I'd wait till they've improved wood quality and machining.

You know, I would wait too but I had 2 plastic and 2 alu cases and none of them I could use because they are mostly all the same shape - too tall, angle is too steep.
The acrylic case is the only one I can use at the moment, it's completely flat and I used feet to tilt it backwards.

I also think the light wood finish of falbatech case looks slightly cheap, but the darker ones aren't that bad. You can see it was oiled and it's slightly uneven but it looks a lot more "handmade" that way.
Lastly, the price. I don't think it's a steal but we're talking about a made in EU product here.

I don't know any alternatives. The only other flat easily available wood case is from China, and a lot more expensive:

http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product ... 58719.html

As for the wrist rests, yes, I also got a beautiful wooden wrist rest from China for 20€, but a wrist rest is not as complicated nor as essential as a keyboard case.
I have not found much better or cheaper options for 60% cases.

Edit: Oh, there's also the walnut case from the states, not cheap either (shipping, taxes) and looks a lot worse than the polska one IMO: http://techkeys.us/collections/accessor ... alnut-case

This is also a great price, but not wood:

http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product ... 26035.html

I am still considering Alu cases but would prefer wood because I want something light and slightly flexible, for a soft PCB mount setup that helps with my RSI.

[cookie]

The best thing I can recommend you is to grab a dead flat case (no matter what material) and add feet to rise it to the height you like.

Something like this here: https://www.massdrop.com/buy/sentraq-al ... board-case
I mean come on 60 EUR mediocre wood case vs 71 EUR perfectly CNC'd aluminium... It's a No-Brainer for me

I also don't like too steep keyboards, totally understand you there.

I personally like the Royal Glam over the FalbaTec.
The Chinese cases are a different league imho, even though I don't like the fat bezel of the Datamancer case I still think it is very nice what they did there, the quality seems very high, but I don't trust those pictures... you could end up with shit in the end

[shreebles]

The best thing I can recommend you is to grab a dead flat case (no matter what material) and add feet to rise it to the height you like.

Something like this here: https://www.massdrop.com/buy/sentraq-al ... board-case
I mean come on 60 EUR mediocre wood case vs 71 EUR perfectly CNC'd aluminium... It's a No-Brainer for me

I also don't like too steep keyboards, totally understand you there.

Yeah that's a nice case, hadn't seen that one. I think I'm in love with the teal colored one
But it's 71€ before shipping and taxes... 90€ shipped, and we don't know what Der Taxmann will have to say about it.
Ships late August so it won't be here before September (if they manage it without delays).
So yeah, it looks good, but definitely not a no-brainer for me.

I personally like the Royal Glam over the FalbaTec.
The Chinese cases are a different league imho, even though I don't like the fat bezel of the Datamancer case I still think it is very nice what they did there, the quality seems very high, but I don't trust those pictures... you could end up with shit in the end

Well the plastic ones from that seller are 100% WYSIWYG. I got a clear plastic case from him for 17€ shipped.
If the wood cases from Ali were cheaper I'd jump in, but at that price from China it's Alu or nothing for me.

[cookie]

Ohh I did not know you are in hurry.
I'd probably wait anyway for the aluminium case.

An US proxy which will send you the case as gift would be awesome, that way you could avoid the Taxman