A major project milestone – Brand New Model F keyboard production has finished!
The production of the keyboard parts finished last week, but there is still time left to customize and order your Brand New Model F Keyboard if you have not done so already!
The keys and springs were the last needed parts for the keyboards, and they are now all done. Now we just have the assembly, dye sub, and packaging to complete.
The factory produced about 200,000 springs and 200,000 keys in recent months.
We also just reached the $600,000 order mark! Thanks to everyone for their patience with the factory on the journey towards brand new Model F keyboards made to IBM’s standards.
The other keyboard parts all finished production a while back and are awaiting assembly.
The web site was down over the weekend due to a major issue with the web host that has since been resolved. No orders have been lost or need to be placed again. Orders are now being accepted once more.
Regarding the compact cases – I have received the final production case design and it is excellent. The sample cases from last year were very good but the bottom plate was a little too thin and the factory had to add more screws to ensure a tight assembly. The blue cases came out a beautiful deep blue color that I like, but they are not a match to the Carolina Blue we specified so I’m requesting they make additional cases with the correct Carolina Blue color for the final round. The regular/silver/light gray compact cases are also a match to the approved samples. I would describe the color as a little lighter than a 2013 MacBook Pro. If anyone wants the darker blue cases that look great (see photo below) please message me. A few Carolina Blue cases have not yet sold out in case anyone’s interested.
The F122 (also for F107/PC AT) production foam arrived and I have shipped out many of them – I mailed out all orders last week for those who wanted the foam to ship separately. Please message me if you’d like your Model F foam order shipped now. I have extras beyond the number ordered so feel free to place another order this week if you’d like.
Production photos: Check the recent prior updates for some photos of the keys, springs, P clip production, and cases. Also watch some videos of the first time I ever typed on a Model F Keyboard, at age 1 (!), the custom built pneumatic spring-flipper attacher, and an original IBM Model F Keyboard assembly video that someone posted on YouTube a while back.
Brand New Model F Keyboards at the meetups: in recent months people got to try out the Brand New Model F Keyboards at meetups in the Bay Area, Washington, D.C., and New Jersey. Below in one of the July updates is a great video put together by YouTuber and keyboard reviewer Nathan at the Model F NorCal meetup.
Model F Kickstarter Campaign Video? As noted earlier I am planning on a Kickstarter campaign as part of the final production run. In the coming months (after the early bird orders are shipped to everyone) I’ll be making a video about the Model F’s including clips of people using the keyboards in NYC. If anyone wants to be in the video, or can help by volunteering a nice looking venue for filming (or if you have any recommendations), please let me know.
New First Aid Kits: If you have not done so already I strongly recommend the new First Aid Kits for decades from now when production has long ended. The more parts out there, the greater number of these keyboards will be up and running in the decades to come. You can order additional inner foam mats and other accessories (or even full keyboards) and they will ship together with your earliest Model F order.
Questions for you: For those who signed up to the mailing list, I am wondering: how did you learn about the project? Why do you like Model F keyboards?
If anyone has any advice or recommendations please let me know. And feel free to follow the production updates on the web site blog.
A reminder on pricing changes: free US shipping now built into item prices; same overall cost though. I have been getting many questions on shipping, so to make things easier I have changed shipping to be free in the US and increased pricing by the amount of the original shipping charge ($21). I’ve also disclosed shipping costs for each region on the store page and each Brand New Model F keyboard page. International shipping has also been discounted to reflect the $21 pricing increase so that the out of pocket is the same with this change. The accessory key sets have gone up $4 to help cover prototyping overages. Please note that existing orders will not have to change to reflect the new pricing. Shipping Rates — US: Free. Canada: $39.92. Europe/Asia/South America: $49.30. Australia/New Zealand: $69.59.