r.works/zenith
Keyboard: ION Zenith KURO
Plate: 1.5mm Aluminium, isolation mount
Keycaps: GMK White on Black
Switches: Gateron Black Inks lubed with GHv4
Stabilizers: Durock
Ship records show the next port call is set to arrive in Melbourne on the 26th of June with our container of U80’s onboard!
All M6-C editions are enroute also to our warehouse for immediate packing and shipping once they arrive. This includes the RWxRW edition!
Here’s a video of the M65-B ICED with our Heavy Industry keyset + LEDs on.
youtu.be/SkIlTayKC5k
We have extra units of the M65-B available on our website as part of the pre-order allocations in our manufacturing. These are in limited numbers and will no longer be available once exhausted.
ramaworks.store
The contents of our container of M60-A units are arriving at our warehouse this Thursday or Friday - we’ll post an update when it does!
The machining for the U80 will finish this month! It will then move onto finish treatment; this includes: polishing, bead-blasting + surface treatment (Anodising / PVD). As each piece needs to be polished before it’s either bead-blasted or coated, it will take some time. We estimate it to finish production by the middle of February. Packaging & Logistics will also take a considerable amount of time given the number of units.
We estimate the THERMAL units to finish production at the end of February. Again, it will have to go considerable packaging and logistics before they ship. For both the U80 & THERMAL we estimate it will ship in Q1 of 2020.
NEMO will be completed machining this month, it will then move to the final processing. Note that this does not include the RW01 which will finish in Q1 of 2020. We will be shipping both NEMO and RW01 in Q1 - we’re working on some special packaging to include with each unit!
These should be shipping in February! They have finished manufacturing and will be assembled & packed when they arrive in our warehouse.
The M6-C enclosures have arrived, we have everything in stock except for the GRID caps & the M6-C Silicone bases. We expect these to all arrive this month though! Then all units will be shipped out if everything in the order is in stock.
We have approved the latest batch of M6-C bases for production; several improvements were made since the initial design. On the left is the first production sample, but given the density of the material, it would cave in too much, so we made some adjustments so that it sits more flush around the PCB.
We’ve received the production polycarbonate colour samples of the GRID keycaps and have begun production on them! We’re looking forward to seeing these on keyboards and shipping them with our M6-C units.
PRODUCTION IS DUE TO COMPLETE BY 1st OF NOVEMBER
We have limited extra stock allocations from manufacturing available through our webstore.
Inventory 2 Aluminium & Titanium have arrived and will be packed early next week for immediate shipping - the brass units will be sent to us early next week to receive before next weekend.
As with the Inventory, we’ve received the Aluminium trays in our warehouse and expect the brass ones to arrive early next week. They will be assembled with the silicone feet then packaged for shipping!
The U80 production is well underway! All the plates have been completed and have been mirror-polished and are now in PVD coating. A majority of the brass underweights have been machined and are off to mirror-polishing. The bases have mostly been completed - machining will soon begin for the top housings. We will also soon start production on the PCB’s.
The M60-A SEQ2’s are all complete! We are waiting for the ZEIT editions to complete before they’re all sea-freighted to our warehouse for final packing and shipping! That is expected to be this upcoming week.
All Aluminium variants of the KOYU have been completed and are now going through final inspection and packaging.
Raw brass is very susceptible to scratches and resulted in a high-scratch rate during the PVD plating. It’s a challenging process when dealing with a mirror-finish as it’s unforgiving, making the surface untouchable while mounting the fixtures. All units which do not pass are then re-finished and then sent for re-plating, we’re doing this at a rate of several a day and should be complete this week. See below the beautiful mirror-polished, raw brass KOYU.
Here is how the KOYU TANK looks after being PVD plated. It is inconceivably heavy, I hope all that were lucky enough to secure one make some stability upgrades to their desks!
We’ve added an oil coating to the base of the TANK editions. Bead-blasted PVD is incredibly absorbent to any oils, making it a fingerprint magnet. We’ve added an oil finish to the brass base to make it less-porous and not attract fingerprints which results in a much cleaner finish. It also made the colour darker than normal which matches more nicely with the top enclosure.
We will have extras of the KOYU available around JULY. This will include TANK editions. Time/Date for the extras will be posted to our social media and mailing list: https://rama.link/mail
The M60-A SEQ2’s are well into the machining process, there are a significant number of units to go through with many machining operations. This is the longest process in the production chain.
We’ve begun production on the mould for our new Low-Profile keycaps. We’ve made these available in 9 different colour options and in a set of 60x1U + 2x2U so that they can be used on various ortholinear boards. They will be moulded from Polycarbonate for its exceptional optical clarity when creating our ICED variation of the cap (PC allows up to 90% of light transmission). The keycap has a polished finish on the outer surfaces for a retro look/feel, and the inside of the cap has a frosted finish to help disperse light when used with LEDs and the ICED cap. The first tool samples should be ready by Mid-June. You can pre-order them now at: https://rama.link/rwlp
The U80-A will be launching before the end of May. We have already started prototyping and commenced production on parts of the assembly. Our custom fasteners & spacers for the countersunk screws in the plate and MUTE mount have been produced in mass and received in our warehouse. The custom feet have also been produced in mass. The MUTE mount and U80-A enclosure prototype are in production and should be received in JUNE. The prototype PCB’s have also arrived and are being evaluated.
The U80-A will launch on the 31st of May at 8.00 PM (EST) at $420 USD
