THERMAL + M65-B Arrival

The Rama Works team hopes everyone has had a happy and safe holidays and Happy New Year! We’re super excited to show off our new projects, lots to look forward to 🤗

We’re also catching up on our backlog of orders for in-stock items, this includes orders from mid-late December. Keep an eye out for shipping confirmations!

THERMAL + M65-B

The rest of the Thermal units and the M65-B (minus ICED) units have finally arrived at our warehouse!

The timing is a little awkward as we’re expecting delivery of hardware (packing benches, shelving etc.) and installation of pallet racking this coming week.

Access to the workspace will likely be interrupted during this process. The safety of our fulfilment team is important to us and as such, we are aiming to begin shipping the remaining Thermal units the week starting 18th of January, and the M65-B units shortly afterwards.

A message from Wilba, designer of the Thermal:

Thermal features leaf spring plate mount, an innovative plate mount design utilizing thin strips of the plate to act as a leaf spring between the plate and the case. Due to how this design works, some of the Thermal keyboards from this production have a different sound signature to the pre-production samples. There is some resonance that occurs when typing on some keys. In order to remedy this, I added some small foam pads between the ends of the leaf spring and the top part of the case. These effectively shorten the length of the leaf springs and make them slightly stiffer. Even though this change came about from fixing a problem, I think it is an improvement to the typing feel and sound of Thermal, which is why I decided it was important to make it available now.

The foam pads will be included in all Thermal orders yet to ship. If you have already received your Thermal order without the foam pads, you can contact RAMA WORKS support to arrange shipping the foam pads to you free of charge.

Stay tuned for more updates on our other projects soon!

THERMAL + M65-B + Final days for KARA

THERMAL + M65-B

After being delayed further up the coast, we can finally confirm that the container is landing in Melbourne today. As soon as they clear customs and we receive the units, we’re prepared and they’ll be processed immediately for shipping.

M60-A OLIVIA + LNY20

The M60-A units are now in final assembly to be prepped and packed for shipping!

KARA

There are now less than 8 days left to pre-order KARA, our first injection-moulded keyboard. If you haven’t already, check out the reviews and our typing videos:

Apiary Keyboards

alexotos

Manofinterests

LightningKeyboards

Oziii Obsessions

Rockleena

Taekeyboards

TaehaTypes

Typing videos

As always, we thank you for your continued patience and hope everyone is staying safe and having a happy holidays 💛

Project Updates - December 2020

KARA

The KARA review units have now been sent out and should make their way into your favourite reviewers’ hands as soon as possible!

You can check out the build video here: rama.link/karabuild

KATE Keycaps

We’re anticipating to have KATE keycap prototypes towards the start of next year. We really look forward to sending these out to reviewers and are hoping they love them as much as we do 🥰

THERMAL + M65-B

The container of the remaining THERMAL and M65-B units is scheduled to be docking in the next few days! Our fingers are crossed for a fast customs clearance process 🤞

However, given the busy time of the year and the continual delays at all ports in Australia this year due to the pandemic, we are expecting it to take some time.

The M65-B ICED units are taking some extra time as the process for the frosted finish requires additional processing — they will be shipped as soon as they’re finished!

If you have an order for an outstanding THERMAL or an M65-B, please make sure your address is up to date! You can view your orders by logging in on our store. If you need to update your address, please: reply to you order confirmation, email us at support@rama.works, or submit a ticket at our support portal to change it (remember to quote your order number!).

The cut-off for this is the 18th of December.

M50-A

The M50-A units are currently progressing through QC and inspection. Once cleared, they’ll be next up for shipping to our warehouse.

M60-A OLIVIA/LNY2020

The M60-A OLIVIA and LNY20 EDITIONS are also progressing through QC and inspection, with some units still anodising. We’re expecting to be able to get them shipped together with M50-A.

Jules

Jules is very close behind with anodising well underway and moving onto QC and inspection as well.

Zenith

Zenith is well into the machining stage currently!

Canvas 2

Almost all of the Canvas 2 deskmat orders that are shippable (i.e. ordered by themselves or with in-stock items) have been shipped now! If your order hasn’t shipped, please get in contact with us.

We will be looking to offer extras as in-stock once we stock take them :)

TRAY

The TRAYs have just arrived and will be processed in the next couple of weeks for shipping!

GRID KEYCAPS

The NOCT GRID keycaps stock has been exhausted and they are currently on backorder. Extras have also been ordered!

U80-A Replacement ROSE bottom weights

For the people affected by the U80-A ROSE Bottom Weight issue, almost all of the replacements have been made now and are being shipped over to our warehouse in small batches currently. Once your replacement ships, you will receive a shipping confirmation.

We want to thank everyone for their understanding and patience regarding this issue! 💛

Heavy industry Spacebar

KBDfans/ePBT are currently producing remoulded spacebars that fix the sticking issue some Heavy Industry sets experience. If you are affected by this issue, please contact us if you haven’t done so already!

NEMO DECOMmission 2 + RW01 NIGHT EDITION

NEMO Decommission 2 and the RW01 NIGHT EDITION car are currently in machining and expected to complete by the end of this month. They’ll then move on to anodisation!

U80-A SEQ2

Pre-production for U80-A SEQ2 is well underway - We’re waiting on ordered material and will begin machining soon.

CHESS SET

We’re working on the latest revisions of our upcoming chess set. We’re super excited and can’t wait to show more ♟

We're moving! + M65/M60/M50/THERMAL/TRAY/CANVAS

As of this week, we have secured a new warehousing and office facility! Currently, fulfilment is operating out of shared premises, so this new facility will help us improve our efficiency by providing much needed additional space.

Once the move is complete, support and fulfilment will happen in a centralised location, allowing support requests/tickets to directly liaise with warehousing as required. Design will still operate from our main office.

For now, our old facility will still fulfil orders as we begin to migrate everything across. Due to the extent of set up and organisation required for moving to the new location, the fulfilment of in-stock items may experience some delays. However, we will work to get through it as quickly as possible. Thank you for your understanding and patience!

THERMAL + M65-B

We know many of you are keen to hear some updates for the remaining THERMAL units and M65-B.

There were some delays due to a supply issue with the packaging but this has since been rectified. The good news is they’re now packed, ready to go and the container to ship them over has been booked! Shipping is scheduled for next week and should take approximately 2-3 weeks to arrive in port.

Accounting for time spent clearing customs and additional logistics, we can expect to receive them by early December. Once arrived, they’ll be processed immediately for fulfilment!

M60-A OLIVIA/LNY20 + M50-A

The M60-A OLIVIA and LNY20 editions plus the M50-A are close behind! Once we have more specific information, we’ll make a new blog post 😊

CANVAS

The CANVAS 2 deskmats have finished packaging and are scheduled to arrive in port on the 15th of November. There are still ongoing delays at all major ports so we’re expecting at least another week or two past this date before we receive them at our warehouse. Tentatively, fulfilment could begin around late November/early December at this stage.

TRAY

The TRAYs have finished up surface treatment, so we may be able to squeeze them onto the next shipment as well — we will confirm in a later blog post!

Manufacturing and updates

While we’re here, we’d like to take this opportunity to elaborate on the manufacturing process and how it can be very difficult to give updates, such as definitively communicating that x keyboard is in y stage and will complete on z date.

Each stage of the manufacturing process is not discrete, every single unit of x keyboard is not machined first and then moved onto the next stage. For example, throughout the manufacturing lifecycle of a product, 70% of the units could still be in the machining stage, while the 30% that have already completed machining will have moved onto surface treatment and so on and so forth.

To further complicate matters, any particular unit can also move backwards in the manufacturing process. For example, if a lighter colour anodisation does not meet our QC standards, it will be re-anodised to a darker colour or e-coated.

Sometimes, we’re also working with partial and/or periodic information from our manufacturer, especially during holiday/vacation periods. We do our best to predict and extrapolate that information into tangible updates!

We’re also happy to announce that we have added another stage of QC to our post-production process. Having 2 separate stages of QC means we can more consistently ensure our high-quality standards are met and further reduce the chance of any blemished units slipping through. Additionally, we’re expanding our machining facilities again, with 20 more machines! Moving forward, this will mean faster project timelines, which will enable greater capacity to handle multiple projects and/or large quantities simultaneously.

Support

As the volume of support tickets increase, we’ve onboarded additional staff to increase our support capacity. It’s super important to us to be able to solve any issues that arise in a timely manner, as recently, our response times have been longer than we’d like. That said, we are still a small team, so as always, your patience is appreciated! 💛

Likewise, starting today, we’ll be closing our Instagram DMs. The business suite/tools provided by Facebook for Instagram DMs are horrendously unreliable. Search is finicky and accidentally losing track of a message chain has happened far too often.

While we love chatting about what new switches you’re excited to try in your M60-A and what keyset you’re matching with your U80-A, closing the DMs will allow us to better focus and track support requests with made-for-purpose software that also connects to our online store. Similar benefits were experienced after closing our Facebook messages.

Please continue to tag us @ramaworks in posts and stories as we love seeing how everyone makes their keyboard their own!

For any issues, questions, order adjustments, or concerns in general, please lodge a ticket through: https://support.rama.care

Sending an email through to support@rama.care or replying to your order confirmation email is also completely fine!

THERMAL + KARA + U80-A SEQ1 Extra's

THERMAL

As of today, we’ve shipped around half of the THERMAL orders out to customers. Similar to the U80-A, the shipments for THERMAL from our supplier is being shipped in batches. The second and final batch will be shipped this month and will arrive next month with the M65-B units. The THERMAL units are quick to ship so we can expect to get them out first as soon as they come in. Apologies to all those who are waiting, we’re excited to see this unique board out on desks with new keycaps loaded on!

KARA

We're on our way to signing off the final production samples in all our release colours; once we sign this off we can open up the pre-order! We appreciate everyone's patience with this product, and we're super excited to show all the colours we've selected for this special board. 💛

U80-A SEQ1 Extras

We have a VERY SMALL amount of extra U80-A units available on October 10th at 10:00 PM PDT. It will be available at https://ramaworks.store/products/u80-a. LIMITED TO ONE PER CUSTOMER.

Project Updates - September 2020

THERMAL

The THERMAL units have arrived at our warehouse. Preparation for shipping begins this Monday! There will be extras once all of the pre-orders are shipped.

U80-A SEQ1 EXTRAS

Fulfilment for SEQ1 is more or less complete! We’ll be performing a stock count on Monday to confirm the numbers. Expect to see the sale shortly after - date and time will be announced!

JULES

Jules is now heavily in the machining stage - they’re expected to complete by the end of October/early November currently.

M65-B

M65-B is currently being packaged at the factory - they’ll be shipped to our warehouse once complete. The PCBs are due to be complete at the end of the month and sent to us for early October arrival. The MUTE mounts have already arrived at our warehouse.

M60-A LNY/OLIVIA

Similar to Jules, these are heavily in machining, they’re expected to complete by the end of October/early November.

M50-A + GRID SET B Keycaps

The M50-A units are also in machining currently and are expected to complete by the end of October/early November. The GRID SET B Keycaps are in stock and ready to ship.
KEYCAPS STORE

ZENITH

Production has officially begun for Zenith and they’re currently in the early stages of machining.

CANVAS

The Canvas deskmats are scheduled to ship from our manufacturer to our box supplier at the end of the month for packing - then shipped to our warehouse for fulfilment. Expect another month for sea-freight.

TRAY

The TRAYs are currently in production. We’ll post a further update once we receive an ETA from our manufacturer. UPDATE: Expected to complete around the end of October/Early November.

KATE

The double-shot mould production for the KATE keycaps has begun! We've finalised the placement of the legends for the tooling and progress is being made! We're working on the packaging in the meantime and can't wait to show more.

KARA

The surface finish is now being added to the mould and the master colour batches are being mixed to our specified colours. We are expecting to receive these in the following weeks. Once these are inspected, tested and signed off - we can begin the pre-order! We were really hoping KARA would be ready by the end of this month but as we mentioned in previous updates, we want to get this product exactly right as it’s our favourite to date - we cannot wait for people to try these out for themselves! We’re working on a line of accessories for the KARA series as well.

NEMO Decommission 2

The pre-order for NEMO Decommission 2 closes on the 30th of September. Production will start immediately afterwards.
NEMO PRE-ORDER

COLLABORATION CAPS

We've added the new RWxNK WAVE SEQ2 cap to our store! This cap is machined from Stainless Steel and features a unique chromatic Blue/Purple PVD. This coating is tough to produce as it requires multiple PVD coatings to achieve the multi-colour finish.
KEYCAPS STORE

FOUNDRY (THERMAL + JULES) / U80-A REMAINDER / M65 / M60 EDITIONS / M50 Updates

FOUNDRY THERMAL + U80-A REMAINDER

The container for the THERMAL and remaining U80-A’s are scheduled to dock at port on the 9th of September! It will take some time to clear the goods and unpack then get to our warehouse - we’re hoping by the week after or so. We’ll post an update when they arrive and ship everything out promptly! The U80-A’s are ready to be packed as soon as they arrive in our warehouse. Once the remaining U80-A’s are shipped, we can inventory and offer the extra’s up for purchase, we’ll post a date when they will be available when we know!

M65-B / M60 EDITIONS

These are in the final stages of production; we expect that we may be able to have them freighted to our warehouse by the end of this month! Will post updates closer to the date.

FOUNDRY JULES

The JULES keyboard is heavily in the machining stage with some of the units completed - they are being stockpiled and will go off to surface finishing once they’re all machined.

M50-A

The M50-A units are currently in anodising, with the rest awaiting powder coating!

KATE Keyset

We’ve added a preview site for our upcoming doubleshot keyset at: rama.works/kate-preview

U80-A Remaining Orders / PORT Replacements / THERMAL / M10 / ZENITH Final Days

U80-A Remaining Orders

We will be shipping the remainder of the U80-A orders as we were waiting on a stabiliser restock which had arrived today for the starter kits. We apologise for the delay and will quickly pack and get these units out!

THERMAL

All the THERMAL units are assembled and packed at our manufacturer. We are now in the process of ordering the container and getting it to our Australian warehouse. Will keep everyone updated to what the ETA for arrival is. As soon as it lands we will begin packing and shipping the orders out as quickly as possible.

M10-C

The M10-C’s are now all packed and we will be shipping out the units over the next few weeks!

ZENITH

The RAMA WORKS FOUNDRY ZENITH pre-order closes at the end of this month and we will then begin production. More can be read about it here: https://r.works/zenith

PORT PVD Replacements

We are still waiting on collating all the numbers for the replacement units of the PVD Rose Gold weights which were affected. Only a single batch of the PORT units was affected - we expect to collate all numbers within the next two weeks - we can then start to manufacture the replacements and ship them out as soon as possible!

NEMO!

Incredibly thrilled to see NEMO’s arriving in the wild - it’s been exciting to see which numbers everyone receives and hope they all love their new home 🥰

Here is an unboxing video from one of the lucky recipients:

TEAM CAPS SEQ2

We’re currently manufacturing the next season release of the RAMA WORKS TEAM Caps! Once they’re in our warehouse they’ll be available for immediate purchase!

M6-C / LNY Inventory 2 arrival / M10-C PCB

M6-C ICED / YOLK / RWxRW

The ICED / YOLK M6’s have arrived, and they are by far our favourite editions we’ve done to date! The top housings for the RWxRW edition was also included in this, but the bases are still to arrive.

Inventory 2 LNY Aluminium / Titanium

The Inventory 2 LNY editions have arrived! We’re packing them now and they’ll go out as soon as they’re ready! We’re stoked with how the Titanium came out and the machining lines on it, we’re excited to see these filled with cards!

M10-C

The M10-C PCB’s have been received in our warehouse and will be shipping out to those who ordered the PCB’s individually!

THERMAL

Will be ready to pack and ship in a container next week 🚢!

M65/M60 EDITIONS/THERMAL

U80-A
Has arrived in the port of Melbourne and is in customs clearance, we should expect to receive it soon in our warehouse - will post an update once it does!

M65-B

Aluminium units have finished machining and are in polishing. After this they will go onto further surface treatment and anodising.

M60 EDITIONS (Olivia / LNY)

Machining will finish in July then go through surface treatment and anodising

THERMAL

Thermal will be shipped with the remaining batch of U80-A units

KARA

We have something VERY exciting for KARA coming up, we cannot wait to reveal.

ZENITH Typing Video / M6-C / U80-A Port Call

ZENITH Typing Video

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

U80-A

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!

M6-C

All M6-C editions are enroute also to our warehouse for immediate packing and shipping once they arrive. This includes the RWxRW edition!

U80 / THERMAL / CANVAS 2 XL

All U80/THERMAL units have completed manufacturing since late last month - and, unfortunately, been delayed with its packaging with expanding our manufacturing facilities and moving office. In the interest of processing these orders quickly, we will be shipping sea-freight in batches of colour. We want to get these out to everyone as soon as we can.

The CANVAS 2 XL is now in our warehouse and ready for shipping!

We will post updates as each batch ships and what to expect for each. If orders have more than one colour, we will partially ship the colour that we have in the warehouse, and the other when it arrives. We do appreciate everyone’s patience as we organise, pack and ship these orders as quickly as we can. We will be expanding the packing team and help alongside to get each batch packed and shipped in a few days as each shipment arrives.

This upcoming week we’re expecting more products of our other runs to arrive into the warehouse to assemble and ship. Updates will be posted as they land.

To provide more insight of the process and time it’s taking - after anodizing/PVD; the boards go through inspection to ensure there are no defects - if there are any defects this batch then goes back into finishing again - we will then remove anodizing and redo the boards until the batch is good to go. This process has been slower than usual because of production times of our entire supply chain, with our factory moving to a larger facility and other factors. Regarding the update, this means that some colors have completed the QC/re-finishing process to meet our standards and are being packed to ship to us next week. The other colors will ship to us as soon as they complete. At our warehouse, we will send them in batches of colors out to customers (as we typically do), so it is more efficient to have everything come in stages - rather than wait a few more weeks for the entire lot to be finished before sea shipment to us. To us, quality is most important as we want the best product possible to arrive to our customers, as expected. 

In more enlightening news, as our factories have expanded its machining capacity - this means that we can produce products quicker and assign machines to specific tasks. Also, introducing new keyboards that use different, more efficient processes - like KARA. We can aim to deliver products in a much tighter timeline - which are looking forward to providing to our customers. Again, we thank everyone for their patience as at the end of the day - we all, together, want the same thing - which is to have these keyboards put to good use on your desk, being productive. We will continue to keep everyone updated as milestones happen in the following weeks with what's arriving and what will be going out.

Free wallpapers can be downloaded here: files.rama.supply/T5HPCfe

Jules - Final days to pre-order / Updates

The core Jules feature is simplicity, going back to the essential elements of bespoke keyboards. A clean, beautifully functional design that makes the best with the least. An outstanding match for your desk space.

Manufactured and distributed by RAMA WORKS® FOUNDRY

We've sent the Jules prototype to Zambumon and he has created new typing videos. Our first typing video yielded unsatisfactory results from the ad-hoc setup; we will be re-evaluating our recording setup in future videos. Listening through headphones is recommended.

Project Updates

Alongside GMK Nautilus 2, we have our Aluminium Enter Key available. Finished with an enamel fill, it can be purchased alongside the set with each vendor who offers it.

Most of our products scheduled to ship early this month are completed, but due to reduced air-transit lanes, it has pushed us back a bit - we will pack and ship as soon as products arrive at our warehouse. These include the Film Accessories / LNY Keycaps / LNY Inventory 2's. We expect them to arrive this week or next. 

GRID SET A caps have started shipping out since last week, and we will complete the rest of the orders this upcoming week! Thanks to all who ordered one during our bushfire relief fund period, we were able to donate $10,000!

Heavy Industry SEQ3 + CANVAS XL

Heavy Industry is on the way to our warehouse! As soon as it arrives, we'll promptly pack and ship each set out.

We also expect the CANVAS XL to arrive in about 2-3 weeks. This will also ship when it lands in the warehouse.

M50-A

Shown above is the M50-A with Cherry Profile keycaps, you can also dress it up with our GRID keycaps - shown below in our new RACE colourway.

The M50-A is available to pre-order until May 15th.

U80-A / THERMAL PCB's inbound! + GRID keycaps

U80-A / THERMAL

The THERMAL and U80-A PCB’s are inbound from our manufacturer, and we will have it in our warehouse within the month. Orders which have the U80-A or THERMAL PCB by itself will be shipped out once they’ve arrived!

We’ll post a further update when they land in our warehouse.

JULES

In other news, we’ll be launching our latest offering through the RAMA WORKS® Foundry, Jules. A board designed by Zambumon.

GRID Keycaps

We also expect our GRID keycaps from our January re-run to support the bushfires to arrive by the end of month and ship within April as they are packed. Thanks to all that supported through this pre-order and to those that donated directly 💛

We also expect to ship Heavy Industry SEQ3 sets next month!

Extra stock of the GRID caps are available to purchase through our store.

Film Accessories

We will be shipping the Film accessories in 2/3 weeks - we'll be including extra goodies with each order!

We're also increasing our CNC machining capabilities this month to speed up our machining times across all our product lines 🏭

M50-A GRID / U80-A + THERMAL Updates / CANVAS XL

RAMA WORKS® M50-A GRID

In the following weeks, we’ll be releasing our latest keyboard, the M50-A GRID. It will be available as a complete kit with switches, stabilisers and our GRID keycaps in a new retro cream colourway. It will be available in a powder-coated finish along with a few other variants we’re excited to show!

U80-A + THERMAL Updates

As the anodizing factories return back to work after the extended LNY we can complete the final stages of production and anticipate the boards to be finished in March, both for the U80-A and THERMAL. They will then be packed and sea-freighted to our main warehouse for shipment. At this stage we expect to be shipping in April / May!

Ready-To-Ship Items

Our wear items are in stock and ready to ship, this includes the TEAM SHIRT / SWEATER & TEAM CAP. You can see all our ready-to-ship items at: rama.link/stock

CANVAS XL

Due to popular demand, we've brought the Canvas XL back! Production begins at the end of the month for the Canvas XL pre-order - limited stock when production starts.
Preorder at: ramaworks.store/products/canvas-2-deskmat

M65-B LEDs / Project Updates [M60/U80/THERMAL/NEMO/MK Accessories]

M65-B LED Video

Here’s a video of the M65-B ICED with our Heavy Industry keyset + LEDs on.
youtu.be/SkIlTayKC5k

EXTRA UNITS

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

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PROJECT UPDATES

M60-A SEQ2

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!

U80-A

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.

THERMAL

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

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!

Camera Accessories

These should be shipping in February! They have finished manufacturing and will be assembled & packed when they arrive in our warehouse.