Some timeline updates from the factory – we still have quite a bit of assembly time ahead of us:

The next batch of spring samples should arrive next week – hopefully the spring attacher machines 2 and 3 are assembling everything to spec!  So far the factory has spent several months trying to get machines 2 and 3 right.  Machine 1 has been producing good spring/flipper assemblies.

Then they are going to start doing some test assemblies of a few full keyboards and testing the different configuration options.

Then in late January they start their long break for the new year.

After that assembly is expected to ramp up. Depending on assembly quality and speed I may have them assemble a few hundred and send them over right away instead of waiting for all 1500 or so to be assembled – not sure just yet if this is feasible.

Meanwhile this year I have been consulting with dye sublimation industry experts and an original IBM Model F keyboard production manager and ordering parts to design and build my dye sub system for the keys. Progress has been slower than expected.  I had someone help me by building a temporary jig but the results were not to spec, and based on my conversations I decided I needed to build the real rig and then continue iterating from there.