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YanboWu
8490
Collaborations
Feb 9, 2018
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Aiai97I think PBT been the ultimate best thing ever is a pretty interesting "fact" a lot of keyboard enthusiasts learn early on in the hobby. It actually reminds me of the fitness community pushing Starting Strength on everyone that's new to weightlifting.
There is definitely merit there - there are many properties that make PBT pretty desirable as a material for keycaps much like Starting Strength is an awesome starting point for someone that's getting into fitness.
However, there are things that make GMK ABS Doubleshot unique and the favorite keycaps for many of us that are pretty deep into this hobby. Much like there is place for many different lifting programs beyond squats and oats.
For GMK keycaps I love em because They are very thick and satisfying. GMK ABS looks awesome. The keycaps themselves are created from original Cherry tooling. GMK is probably one of the best most careful vendors I've ever worked with. Their products are well QC'd and their standards are very high. ABS allows for a much more vivid set of colors - making more options available when it comes to sets. ABS as a whole is also a much more common plastic in manufacturing - meaning there is way more data on manufacturing with ABS and how to manipulate the material to do what you want. PBT is also a very hard plastic to work with in injection - in fact, I'm not entirely sure there are true PBT + PBT doubleshot keycaps. Most of the PBT doubleshot keycaps you see uses a different material for the legends so the keycap can actually be made.
I'm a huge fan of both materials - there are many sets out there that really take advantage of the various materials and manufacturing method to make awesome art with keycaps.
There is definitely merit there - there are many properties that make PBT pretty desirable as a material for keycaps much like Starting Strength is an awesome starting point for someone that's getting into fitness.
However, there are things that make GMK ABS Doubleshot unique and the favorite keycaps for many of us that are pretty deep into this hobby. Much like there is place for many different lifting programs beyond squats and oats.
For GMK keycaps I love em because They are very thick and satisfying. GMK ABS looks awesome. The keycaps themselves are created from original Cherry tooling. GMK is probably one of the best most careful vendors I've ever worked with. Their products are well QC'd and their standards are very high. ABS allows for a much more vivid set of colors - making more options available when it comes to sets. ABS as a whole is also a much more common plastic in manufacturing - meaning there is way more data on manufacturing with ABS and how to manipulate the material to do what you want. PBT is also a very hard plastic to work with in injection - in fact, I'm not entirely sure there are true PBT + PBT doubleshot keycaps. Most of the PBT doubleshot keycaps you see uses a different material for the legends so the keycap can actually be made.
I'm a huge fan of both materials - there are many sets out there that really take advantage of the various materials and manufacturing method to make awesome art with keycaps.
Vigrith
4081
Feb 9, 2018
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YanboWuThe actual problem here lies therein the fact that some people don't really see what this hobby for what it is - we're all buying little pieces of plastic because they look cool. We're not buying them because we want them to last 10 years without shine any more, the keyset side of this hobby is 99% not about functionality, it's about superficiality and looks. Aesthetic. PBT is nice for some sets thematically speaking but it'll never bring out the colours and amazing look of GMK/SP ABS. We're not buying $750 customs because they're better than a $300 custom, we're paying for something we deem valuable and that, for the most part, tends to relate to looks and quality (=/= durability) rather than actual purpose.
That's factual, just as their "PBT is a better (aka more durable) material" also is factual. Different strokes for different folks, as tends to be with most anything.
That's factual, just as their "PBT is a better (aka more durable) material" also is factual. Different strokes for different folks, as tends to be with most anything.
longtran1568
180
Feb 9, 2018
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GennDoubleshot PBT can be done and has been done for a while....check Leopold keyboards, they use PBT doubleshot keycaps as stock...also on Aliexpress there are many sets made with PBT doubleshot
TanvirK175
1101
Feb 9, 2018
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longtran1568They're doubleshot, yes, but as Yanbo said, they're not pbt+pbt doubleshot. PBT is usually doubleshot with POM.
TanvirK175
1101
Feb 9, 2018
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VigrithTo be fair, when you're a newbie and just join the community, this information is what you're told by a good amount of people.
When I first started getting into mechs, all o saw was PBT > ABS for one reason or another. So when I saw GMK Nautilus not too long after joining, I thought people were crazy for paying that much for ABS.
You slowly learn the things about the hobby as you go on though.
c_r_z
863
Feb 9, 2018
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TanvirK175Nautilus was the cheapest GMK set I'm aware of, It was a pretty good deal. Almost 2000 people bought it and it dropped to $99.
TanvirK175
1101
Feb 9, 2018
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c_r_zYeah, I agree now. Back when I was first joining though, it seemed ridiculous to spend more than your keyboard on keycaps. I had yet to see customs at that time though haha.
Vigrith
4081
Feb 11, 2018
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CakirramaAs of right now PBT is limited because the companies that are most competent at it only do dye-sub - dye sub is limited to dark legends on lighter base; some have tried to start working with reverse subbing but it isn't perfected by any means yet.
If someone figures out a way to properly doubleshot PBT and use colours of the level of GMK's ones then that'd be what I'd wanna see, though for the time being that seems fairly utopic.
If someone figures out a way to properly doubleshot PBT and use colours of the level of GMK's ones then that'd be what I'd wanna see, though for the time being that seems fairly utopic.
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