Keyboard Builders' Digest / Projects
Metal Boston
Pylon open-sourced the metal version of his Boston, a "compact 120% battleship".
Published March 20, 2022
I mentioned Boston, a relatively compact 120% keyboard, last summer with regards of a sound test.
For those who are not familiar with the design, Boston is a "compact battleship" with an extra F-row – 18 additional programmable keys to be exact. What's even better, all this comes in a footprint 2u narrower than a full-size, and only about 1.5u wider than a 96%.
The PCB was open-sourced last May but Pylon continued working on his design and reached out to me to announce he recently published the CAD files for the metal version.
In this GitHub repo you can find not just the CAD source files and STEP files necessary to manufacture the metal case but also a very detailed ordering guide. If you haven't yet ordered anything from a CNC manufacturer (but you intend to) you definitely should bookmark this awesome guide.
I did the CAD in Alibre Atom3D, which costs around $150 for a perpetual license, but which does offer a 1-month long free trial – bluepylons.
Boston has a two piece case, consisting of the top and the bottom.
There are two versions of the bottom case - the alternate version being the first prototype with some sharp edges.
A STEP file assembly (which can be opened by almost any 3D CAD program) is in the main Metal Version directory.
STEP files for just the case top and bottom (for sending to a machine shop for ordering) are in the Case > STEP directory.
Published on Sun 20th Mar 2022. Featured in KBD #70.
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