Model 01 Kickstarter Day 7: synHAK in Akron & not getting our keyboards confiscated at the border

Hello from Hamilton, Ontario.

Today, we started off somewhere outside Cincinnati and made our way to synHAK in Akron. The drive there was largely uneventful, though we made it with only a few minutes to spare.

synHAK is a neat space that's a lot bigger than it looks from the street. It just goes back a long way. (And we didn't even get to see their basement.)

Clockwise from upper right: synHak’s craft lab full of sewing and fiber tools; parts for video editing station; 3D printer collection; “Hack Pile: Make, Repair, or Destroy”
Clockwise from upper right: synHak’s craft lab full of sewing and fiber tools; parts for video editing station; 3D printer collection; “Hack Pile: Make, Repair, or Destroy”

Highlights of the space included a fairly well kitted out bicycle repair and hacking workshop and a professional video editing workstation intended to help teach video production.

Today's Q&A after the dog and pony show focused a lot on the software packages we used to design the Model 01 as well as the wide variety of construction techniques that go into even the prototypes.

The wood enclosures are: • CNC Milled • Machine-sanded • Hand-sanded • Hand-polyurethaned (or oiled and waxed)

The keycaps are: • Vacuum-molded • Painted black • Laser engraved

The aluminum plate that holds the keyswitches in place is: • Laser cut • Painted black • Manually fitted with the PEM fasteners that hold it in place

The bottom plate of the keyboard is: • Laser cut or CNC milled • Silver anodized • Manually fitted with the PEM fasteners that hold it in place

The aluminum interconnect bar is: • Laser cut or CNC milled • Possibly bent into shape (in case of the tented center bar) • CNC milled to add the keyhole fasteners • Bead-blasted • Laser-engraved with the keyboardio logo

And that doesn't even begin to talk about the assembly process or the electronics.

During Q&A, someone pointed out that the Kickstarter campaign had crossed $300,000 while we were talking. Nicely done. Thank you!

At some point during the talk, we mentioned that we didn't have a design for the keyboard's feet that we were happy with yet. After Q&A, Devin Wolfe handed me a mechanical drawing of a very nice design for the feet that might just work.

After Akron, we hit the road, stopping in Erie, Pennsylvania for dinner. We crossed into Canada from Buffalo, New York and had an...interesting interaction with the Canadian border guard. He didn't quite believe that we were coming to meet a bunch of keyboard enthusiasts and became increasingly skeptical when we admitted that we had prototype keyboards in the car. We had to promise that we wouldn't leave any of our keyboards in Canada before he let us go.

Tomorrow evening's meetup is at Matias' world headquarters in Aurora, ON. We hope to see you there!

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/meet-the-keyboardio-model-01-toronto-tickets-17315523196

Tuesday, we're back in the States. If you're anywhere near Ann Arbor, come visit us at Maker Works.

 https://www.eventbrite.com/e/meet-the-keyboardio-model-01-ann-arbor-tickets-17315539244

As of this writing, 987 of you have pledged $303,350 Today, we drove 510 miles, bringing the road trip total to 1945 miles.

<3 j+k



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