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Can a 3D printed keyboard last three years?

danwilkerson.com

1–10 of 26 posts

Re: Can a 3D printed keyboard last three years?

#2
I use a Dactyl Manuform every day, mounted to the arms of my chair like OP, and it’s been one of the better investments I’ve made in my setup in a long time. I can sit typing a lot longer than I used to be able to without back/wrist pain, and it’s so much more comfortable than sitting upright at a desk that I’d never go back.

Re: Can a 3D printed keyboard last three years?

#4
Would love to build one one day. I started building a custom KB, but moved house, packed away the 3d printer, etc, and never got back to it. Settled on a Kinesis Freestyle Edge in the meantime and it's.. ok. I'm not in love with it. The config software is ghastly, too. Though it's hard to find split mech KBs that haven't dropped a lot of keys in favour of layers, or haven't moved keys like [] away from their original locations. I would still buy a second though, rather than carting one to and from work. Guy must love that thing.

Re: Can a 3D printed keyboard last three years?

#5

Would love to build one one day. I started building a custom KB, but moved house, packed away the 3d printer, etc, and never got back to it. Settled on a Kinesis Freestyle Edge in the meantime and it's.. ok. I'm not in love with it. The config software is ghastly, too. Though it's hard to find split mech KBs that haven't dropped a lot of keys in favour of layers, or haven't moved keys like [] away from their original…

> it's hard to find split mech KBs that haven't dropped a lot of keys in favour of layers, or haven't moved keys like [] away from their original locations.

I think once a keyboard design strays from the 'traditional' layout, it becomes harder to justify features like having a big spacebar, having an asymmetric layout, having a row-stagger.

Especially with a focus towards ergonomics, it's nicer to reduce hand movement and hand stretching; and reduce usage of the pinky fingers in favour of allowing the thumb to be used more. -- Albeit, yeah, layers do trade that reduced hand movement for additional complexity.

I see many designs retain the number row. It's very rare to see designs which retain a row stagger, but clearly intend for the thumb to have 2-3 keys within reach.

Re: Can a 3D printed keyboard last three years?

#6
I built a Dactyl Manuform about 2.5 years ago, and it's holding up well, there hasn't been any degradation (even with it shuffling back and forth between office and home daily). I would recommend it to anyone, really. After a couple of weeks of "adaptation time", it's the best keyboard I've ever used for work (I still use a regular keyboard for gaming, when I do game)

Re: Can a 3D printed keyboard last three years?

#7

Would love to build one one day. I started building a custom KB, but moved house, packed away the 3d printer, etc, and never got back to it. Settled on a Kinesis Freestyle Edge in the meantime and it's.. ok. I'm not in love with it. The config software is ghastly, too. Though it's hard to find split mech KBs that haven't dropped a lot of keys in favour of layers, or haven't moved keys like [] away from their original…

The layers do take a bit of time to get used to, but they become transparent, after a while. As for punctuation locations, I've exploited that to my advantage, I have brackets and braces (which I use a lot of, for Clojure) just next to my left ring and middle finger, and parenthesis are also trivially reachable, of course. (all this on a Dactyl Manuform, with 46 keys total)

Re: Can a 3D printed keyboard last three years?

#8
post #3

> I also pack it up every single day and bike it to work For three years !? Why not make another one and leave it at the office? I lasted less than a week after buying a split, ergonomic keyboards before I bought a second for the office.

Some of us don't have permanent desks at work (not saying that is what is going on here), but there can be many reasons to 'pack up and bring home' work stuff.

Re: Can a 3D printed keyboard last three years?

#10
post #3

> I also pack it up every single day and bike it to work For three years !? Why not make another one and leave it at the office? I lasted less than a week after buying a split, ergonomic keyboards before I bought a second for the office.

Some of us don't have permanent desks at work (not saying that is what is going on here), but there can be many reasons to 'pack up and bring home' work stuff.

Not even a permanent drawer?
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