Thanks, folks. I'm glad you like it.
Tyro/Smaggers: The keys were made using a combination of scrapbooking alphabet charms, transfer lettering, and aluminum slugs or blanks that I punched out with a deep-throated hole punch. After transferring the lettering onto the slugs, I covered everything with a THICK coat of clear spraypaint. (as an interesting side-effect, when I glopped on the clear, it gave the metal an almost amber hue which made them match the coloring of the "pewter" charms even more closely).
Bizarro: I'll keep that in mind, thanks. I do plan on making my own key sheets eventually and can do all of my own vector art which can be fed to a cnc machine and converted to cut-paths rather easily, so that's definitely a route I'm considering.
T.I.T (teehee): I don't mind if you attempt one of your own, but thanks for asking. If you decided one day, "hey I think I'll make a whole bunch of these things and make my living by selling them!", I might get a little defensive, just due to the niche nature of this industry, but the occasional one-off and personal mod doesn't bother me at all.
J.W./Hikaro/Jake: Originally I was going to use filament bulbs and run them with heavy resistance so they would glow very subtly and you could see the filament itself, but once I started looking around, I couldn't find the right balance of bulb size and operating voltage and didn't have time to try squeezing a voltage double circuit in there or anything. Plus, I was going to build small cages around the lights and decided that it would be easier to use LEDs so the bulbs wouldn't have to be changed all the time....but then I ditched the cage idea too, haha. I'm just very pressed for time right now and had to cut some corners. I tried some amber LEDs in there too, but they were way too yellow and didn't fit the color theme of the keyboard so I went with the whites.
Platt: See above.
I started building this keyboard a while ago, before I had gotten around to buying a roll of braided steel sleeving (as seen on the Polished Aviator and Carbon Fiber Aviator) and didn't have the time to go back and take the keyboard apart again to add it. You're right though, it would look great on this keyboard, and I wish I had the time to do it, but I've got to get this thing out the door. I had to settle for smearing a little black paint on the cord.
Thanks for the help with the typewriter keys on the Carbon Fiber Aviator. You saved my butt on that one!
I have a whole new page of keyboards coming out in a few days, and I'm also busting my ass to finish up the laptop for the "official" launch of it on the site (finally). I've added some new stuff to the laptop too, so hopefully even those of you who are tired of seeing it already will have something to look forward to.
-~D~-
