[duped]

The bulk of it is the custom keycaps (a keycap run is seriously expensive, especially if you're using weird key sizes), the enclosure, and the switches. They're probably being hosed by their suppliers too, since I can't imagine they have the money to invest in serious volume.

That said the board looks seriously under-engineered. It's a bit ridiculous to invest so much in high quality switches and an enclosure built like a tank without spending any time on designing the board to withstand any forces, passing the buck onto their customers to make sure everything is soldered correctly...

I'd be confident the enclosure survives a fall and lasts a lifetime but certainly not anything inside it.

[chevill]

>They're probably being hosed by their suppliers too, since I can't imagine they have the money to invest in serious volume.

There are no suppliers IIRC. He spends like 2 weeks making a set of keycaps by hand and that's why its so expensive.

He also manufactures the cases himself.

[duped]

If that's what he's doing it sounds awfully cheap!

[xondono]

I’m not that sure. Nowadays you can get runs on the cheap, that’s why group buys are even possible in the DIY community.

The fully machined aluminum case probably plays a part in there too.

[duped]

The fact you need group buys at all is evidence to how expensive it is. There really aren't that many places you can go for quality either.

[xondono]

I think you and I have different bars for what “expensive” means.

Manufacturing things is expensive because of the fixed costs. To make it cheaper you need to make enough sets to dilute the fixed cost among N buyers. If at N=20 the price is already something people will pay, that’s not expensive IMO.

The problem is that the case doesn’t work that way, because the costs of machined aluminium are pretty much linear with N.