Make Your Own Keyboard
by Mark Ontkush, Boston, Massachusetts, USA 
on 10. 5.07
File this one under the Keatsian department of "a thing of beauty is a joy forever." Much like these wondrous Russian computer cases, Hacoa is now soon-to-be-offering a do-it-yourself keyboard kit to the masses. The kit allows the purchaser to cut the keys from a plank of wood and assemble the pieces themselves; it's $300.
Till now, Hacoa has typically crafted each keyboard by hand, churning out the sum total of one keyboard per day. But in an effort to lighten the company’s labor load, boost production, and probably increase profits, they are going to let the purchaser do some of the cutting and assembling at home. The kits come in maple or walnut, and include a USB keyboard base, a wooden plank with the beginnings of keys hard-carved into it, connectors for attaching the finished keys to the keyboard base, a saw, sandpaper and other tools.
Available online around October 18. Much like the bamboo mice and monitors, we are talking statement here; get it, build it, and pop it in your place of business, along with (of course) a framed plaque detailing the process: Pink Tentacle
Follow @TreeHugger on Twitter & get our headlines with @TH_rss!
Neato! And if you spill coffee on it, a little sandpaper makes it good as new?
Of course, you'll sand off the letters eventually, but there are a lot of power-geeks otu there with blank keyboards. It's a geekchismo thing.