The Fall of Alchemy CNC - AL.6 Keyboard Review
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- čas přidán 14. 03. 2024
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Keyboard: AL.6
Board insulation: None
Plate: Aluminum, Polycarbonate
Keycaps: GMK Olive, GMK Mictlan
Switches: Dotnick Pine, Gateron CJ
Stabilizers: TX AP Stabilizers
Let me know what you think of the review in the comment section below!
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You don’t use no ridge wallet bro 😂
BRO I DO, DID YOU THINK I BOUGHT A SECOND ONE AND ROUGHED IT UP TO PRETEND I DID?
BELIEVE MEEEE
@@AndyVNguyenThe story checks out. You’ve earned yourself a customer 🤝
This kind of stuff makes me appreciate the GBs that do go relatively smooth. I feel sorry for everyone that had a bad experience here
i always clench a little for every group buy.
I’m the unlucky guy who hasn’t got his board yet. Yeffy eventually replied after my third attempt to dm him on discord. According to him his shop was closed so he didn’t see my dm. He claimed there was some issue printing out my shipping label for my address in China. Damn, I was pretty excited until I watched this video. I might give an update after I receive mine. Shout out to Andy for speaking up for me. It’s a shame these things still happen in this hobby.
Oh hey dat me. Almost entered this GB, glad I didn't. Feels bad for those who got all the scuffs :(
Dodged a bullet… me too. I’d feel so bad if I reviewed this early and missed all these scuffs
Looking good Andy! Hope the knee is getting better each day!
thank you! DUDE my ankle can touch my butt now it's a huge milestone
That mark along the front lip is a tooling mismatch from the cnc machine. Really simple fix but if what you're saying this is their first endeavor with machining they wouldn't know to even look for it. Been running machines and in the manufacturing space for about 15 years now.
oh wow thanks for sharing your insights!
they did do 27 prototypes.. should that have noticed that machining flaw?
@@AndyVNguyen yes and no. That type of a mismatch can happen because of 2 (usual) reasons, reason 1. Tooling breaks down as you use them to remove material, that breakdown will cause the tool to get smaller, machines need to be adjusted accordingly to compensate. This will not be caught in prototyping. Reason 2. The actual CNC program is incorrect with either incorrectly defined geometry or inexperienced manufacturing techniques, prototyping would catch this. Regardless of "root cause" this boils down to poor quality control.
Loved the vid Andy and the beard looking fire, about 2 months ago I got a Typ60SL and tbh it sounds and feels great with cf, not sure if it would dethrone the corn but sure gives it a run for the money
Typ60 is pretty fire so I’m sure SL also fire
I bulid my own AL6- board yesterday but the RAlt-Key does not seem to work. When I use VIA there is no response even though I soldered it correctly. Speaking of VIA: is there any way to configurate the different keys of the AL6? VIA does not seem to be supported. When I plug in the board and startup VIA no device is found. Can you help me with these issues?
I learnt that in this hobby made in china >>> made in usa
In a lot of situations, I think so. So far all the made in USA products have been kinda bunk
Your video is spot on. I have exactly all the issues you addressed LOL. Consider it copium but I still like how it looks and sounds, and the ano marks don't really bother me as you cant really tell from the top. USB C port definite an L there, I think I tried pushing my cable in too hard so some part of the weight got scratched near the port. Out of all the cables I finally found one that could fit so now I'm just sticking to that cable for my set up.
It’s a great sounding board and comes with the locked layout alu plate so it def has mod sounds! I finally found my one cable that has shrinkwrap end that works lmao
Nice video as always!
I'm glad I did not join the groupbuy, was thinking about it after I missed out on another o-ring 60% board... luckily I got my Uni though lol
feels like the story for a lot of people. it dropped during holidays so it was exp for a lot of people. glad you dodged lol
Everything you mentioned here is the same for my AL.6. I bought some usbc extender adaptor which fits the tiny hole, and I filed down the plate for the enter stab. Really surprised that all the units havent gone out. i havent recieved any replies to my support requests. all in all despite its flaws i do really love the battle hardened finish on mine, and i built it with new nixies on the battle hardened alu plate. its one of my favorite sounding boards.
fellow al.6 owner here, could u let me know which usbc extender u found that fits? thanks
@@dewmeisterCellularize USB C Extender Adapter on amazon i cant post a link on here i guess
amzn.to/4afWXv3 this?
@@AndyVNguyen yes
can you tell me how you filed the plate ? thanks
My AL6 came around 6 months ago. Sounds and feels phenomenal to type on, and Ive basically been dailying it since I built it. Unfortunately the pcb and plate don’t sit perfectly flush so the top left sits slightly higher than the right side. I don’t have the issue with the usb c cutout but I also use a home made usb with 1 layer of heat shrink. There’s also a fair bit of patina on the toblerone weight which I’m not sure was intended 😅. I think I got lucky with my unit but I’m curious how other people’s weights & assembly’s turned out after seeing this video. Cannot unsee that scratch in the front lip any more 😢
I had the same cable fit issue with my Angel65 keyboard. The slimmest cable I found that wasnt tight was the one from my ipad...
bruh that's super scuffed. and you kinda need the cable for your ipad.. for your ipad lol
Paid well under retail for mine, generally quite happy with it as I like the side profile/ front lip much more than other drop in o ring boards. Happy I got the Battle Hardened as well since any issues with scuffs, ano , machining just kind of leans into that worn aesthetic. Its my beater board for sure. Very glad I didn't pay retail and the USB cutout is absolutely too small lol, just got lucky where my single cable happened to fit.
now that's a W. Getting it after GB under retail relieves a lot of the stress. Just feels bad for whoever entered the GB based off of the build streams
I messaged Yeffy about it and he said that it was designed for "keyboard style" cables and that there wasn't any issue that they had with their cables they didn't have the issue. There were also scuffs on the inside where you could clearly see the metal
wtf are “keyboard style” cables lmao. I used a printer style cable!
i just got the mobula 80, i didn’t know it fell off HARD, please make a vid about it
that 4 inch cable is huge wym? i bet its got a great personality as well
Probably has a great sense of humor
I'm planning on buying one of these after market since I found it for a bit less than the price as part of the GB so it feels worth, even if the board is somewhat flawed. Is it pretty easy to tell you'll need to file the plate before soldering the board if you know what you're looking for? Filing it down sounds pretty straightforward if you know in advance you might have to do it, but are there any hidden pitfalls?
filing a PC plate is totaly doable. filing CF/fr4 is where it's sus and filing aluminum is hell no.
i'd still wear a mask anyway to make sure you don't breathe anything in. do it outside also.
@@AndyVNguyen Is figuring out if I need to do any filing as easy as just installing stabs and then putting on the plate and seeing if it's really tight?
put the switches in before soldering, put keycaps on, and see if the stabs return fully
I guess I mostly lucked out with my AL.6. Mine has that front lip error like they all seem to. Also, my blackened toblerone weight has a splotch mark on it, but at least that's on the back. The pink anno is otherwise decent and I don't seem to have the usb issue with any of my cables, but maybe I don't overcompensate and just have small cables.
Oh I didn’t know my random cable from Amazon was overcompensation
Apparently Alchemy think so if their response is just get a smaller cable. I tried some other random cables I had and all fit, so seems like at least some of the boards have the right USB cutout.
If I remember correctly, the battle-hardened ones had a limited amount, but the rest of the GB was unlimited. Kinda crazy in retrospect to run a large unlimited GB machining a board for the first time. I think a lot of these problem GBs in the last few years have really been runners biting off way more than they can chew and running into some issues they can't recover from. Sure seems to be the case with this.
bro that cable thing how do you mess up that bad its a bakeneko 😭
i'm still in disbelief
Andy Nguyen, Man of the people, or the keeb enthusiasts :- )
Damn Andy be rocking with that beard
just sendin it
IN KESTER WE TRUST
Kester #1
The Neo ano for the unit I ordered was pretty much perfect and I waited less than 2 weeks for the board direct from QK to the US.
I'm going to continue voting with my wallet. If it's a premium board $$$, certainly you should not have to put up with any of those issues especially when scuffed budget/mid-range hoarders like me are getting better QC on our products.
Yeah and there are expensive boards that don't have issues, like the GSK and GAF 910s. They're just .. really expensive lol because there's a clout brand attached. The AL.6 was a way to get quality similar to those boards, from a newer manufacturer, that we were assuming would do a better job
How long it it take for the rogaine to work on your face?
this is all natty
which is why it looks the way it does lmao
it looks good mate ngl@@AndyVNguyen
shee ty leon for the motivation lol
Hi Andy. What keyboard stand do you use on your shelf
not sure if link will go thru but google "prusa trashistand" . it's a 3d print
www.printables.com/model/58259-trashistand-mechanical-keyboard-stand
@@AndyVNguyen thanks. I appreciate it
Yeah I am debating on what to do with the unit I got it...not very satisfied with the board.
sell asap..
Currently waiting on a January ($275 before shipping) and a one off of the open sourced Halineko ($350 from DDS including the design work but before shipping), obviously yet to have the products in hand, but for hundreds more, you’d think you’d expect better. I’ve received regular updates from the Artemis Design folks and my Dadesin rep, sorry to hear about folks having these issues!!
Did you buy through KFA? Are they doing QC?
I did buy through KFA, cases are in QC, and apparently PCBs are on the way. hopefully folks will get their boards in the next month or so. As you said in the vid, not surprised by delays given my past GB experience, but Artemis has been faithful with the monthly updates.
Hopefully they QC better than they di FreebirdTKL
@@AndyVNguyenhere's to hoping! For whatever it's worth, the prototypes that were in the hands of content creators were touted as looking great (thinking of Alexotos and NearLucid's boards), will be keeping my fingers crossed!
i wish you the best of luck!
When your friend gives you the answers for the upcoming exam, but still fail it.
amazing
Luxe was doing a poor job on the cerakote, then refusing to refund/fix the issue. Just a birdy passing by :)
Thanks for sharing
So many red flags:
-Touting country of origin as a selling point
-Group buy of items they don't normally make
-First large run of larger items done mostly in-house that they again don't have experience making
-Bought our first CNC machine! (uh oh)
-We sent off the parts to get cerakoted and they just shipped them back! (I'm sure there's more to this story)
-We're gonna coat them ourselves instead! (oh ffs)
When I saw the cable didn't even plug in I had to stop the video. What a total disaster.
We should have all known better when they were bragging about 27 prototypes. That's actually not a good sign.
I remember being so sad I had to miss out on the GB due to finances. Sad to see that even a 'simple' GB can go so wrong, especially when they made such a selling point about CNC'd in the USA.
they also made a point to tell you they made 26 prototypes
@@AndyVNguyen umm hack-chu-ally it was 27.
alchemy dipping harrrrrrrrrrrd
i'd hope not.. never happy to see ppl pay money and not get their product
I don't think they even did a proper QC since most of the stuff aren't directly visualized... the plate is probably cnc setting as well...
The plate issue was such a silly thing to mess up lmao
Everything is fine meme 🔥
just use your keyboard in the dark, don't use the pc plate, buy a spacecables usb cable,... it'll all be fine
I was literally seconds from caving and getting this board. However, this was just a bit out my price point but I wanted that hot pink model so bad. It’s too bad this was a flop
i mean you could buy it aftermarket for maybe $400.. get a specific cable for it.. and file down the pc plate
but yes that's a lot of hoops for a keyboard
@@AndyVNguyen true true! I’m going through the hoops right now with another keyboard. Don’t know if I could do it again lol.
Hope ur feeling better
I got through the worst of it!
bro beard looks great on you
BRO STOP LYINNNN
With all the in stock sales now, GB really isn't worth the risk anymore... IMO
i'd agree
when I voiced my doubts in the GB days about the price of this board being definitely too high for a bakeneko reskin, way too much of a markup for a designer with no board track record, plus the collab with that luxe scammer didn't smell right, I was met with a shitstorm of downvotes and snarky comments about how this board was 100% worth it, being usa-made and... "recommended" by notable keyboard influencers or should I say salesmen. unsurprisingly turns out I was right all along. never buy into the hype, go for trusted makers/designers, there's plenty of them, even if they screw up they will do whatever in their power to provide a fix, instead of shrugging it off like it's your skill issue.
Alot of vendors just got in over their heads. Alot of them started out with good intentions, but when they decided they were going to be cnc operators and start doing the work themselves, many of them found out the hardway that there is more to machining, or even cerakote in the case of Luxe. Eventually alot of these guys end up in the red, especially when the economy took a dump and the covid money that was flowing like wine ran out.
Ultimately they were in the position where they couldnt afford employees, the shops they rented out, the equipment costs, and with no where to turn, shut down and went dark.
It can happen with any buys that arent readily available for purchase if something goes wrong. Just gotta use your wits.
I cant even count anymore how many guys that same thing happened to. Those same guys were clowning the guys who ran off with peoples money before them, and the cycle continues. Its been this way for a long time.
That Neo80 for example is a hell of a board for the price, its in stock and you dont have to worry about anything. Thats really what people wanted to pull off but didnt have the infrastructure or capital to chance it.
@@CryoftheProphet uh ok, I know, I watched it happen.
Dang, I almost joined this one, glad I didn't. It looked so pretty, the battle hardened, the pink, all of it. AND it sounds good. But man it still somehow missed even with my two most important criteria. I feel like I lucked out not joining lol.
battle hardened look great! i was really excited to get hands on it.
But ya def dodged a bullet
It sounds like KBDfans budget keyboard to be honest
There's a lot of valid issues here but the plate issue is completely negligible. It happens a lot with plastic plates in many GBs, and even in small commissions. I've commissioned POM plates from a guy who is very trustrworthy, but you can't always guarantee that the material won't shrink on itself or warp after laser-cutting and result in those issues. And the fix is relatively easy, you just file away until you don't have the problem anymore. It's not the end of the world even though it sucks. It's just something that you can't always prevent from happening, especially with finnicky plastics. Trying to frame it as "Alchemy screwed up a standard plate file design!" is incredibly misleading and shows a lack of understanding about the logistics behind plastics and their interactions with different temperatures and how they can deform. You can cut the most stellar plate in the world and the plate can STILL warp simply because that's hwo it can be. There are ways to prevent it but not everyone is clued in to them
Thanks for sharing! Good to know for the future
Damn seems like they skipped on the prototyping phase big time! Yikes!
Ironically they told ppl they made 26 protos to dial it in
American quality is a thing of the past, Tesla, Boeing, this keyboard, politicians…You name it.
Bazinga
An "oof" of the not so good kind
huge oof
Still doesnt change the fact you cant do a burpee
I have a doctors note that says I’m not allowed to
This is why I never get into group buys. Too many risks involved.
I think every GB I've been in was delayed. But I ended up getting my products as advertised
Luckily for me I haven't gotten scuffed anything. A lot of risks tho for sure. I don't enter GBs anymore
@@AndyVNguyenI´ve never entered group buys because I have heard too many stories of people never getting the keyboard or getting it a year or two late. Not to mention situations like the one you presented in the video. $400+ Dollars is not chump change. Sadly, I know I may miss out on some cool keyboards by not entering group buys, but you just don´t know who to trust. Thanks for making the video BTW!
dang groups buys that take over a year past estimate date...I wonder if they just want you to forget about it.
@@elasmojonesShady companies would like people to do that. The problem is how to know who is shady and who is on the up and up.
so....kbdfans?
You paid how much for a glorified bakeneko 0_o
But bro it has TWO brass weights
Buy a used trombone and put it in a drill press. Andy will buy 2!
@@AndyVNguyen two weights, twice the price 💪😎
handsum moustache
it's the only thing that's really growing lmao
Cutie patootie
aw shuckz
andy looks kms a true viet haha
lol what is kms
Unikorn "killer"....Korn may look "boring" but you don't ever have to worry about any of this nonsense ever. Consistency in quality wins every time, especially at the premium level. And customer service + communication will always win. Can't excuse the dipping.
That front lip line is egregious. I don't care if you can't see it while typing - doesn't change that it's there.
It's crazy how it looks like it's even in the battle hardened product photo.. but NO ONE noticed it from review units?
Lol when this and xondat is what you get when you support long term grassroots designers no wonder the hobby is tanking. Sucks for the customers but this is why group buys are shit
tbf xondat ghosted HELLA GBs, I think Alchemy just .. didn't wrap up maybe the last 10% of this one. Which still sucks if you're part of that last %.
instock hella guud. I just responded to a comment on someone saying my razer video was me selling out.. well you can go to the store and grab a razer blackwidow and go home with it, no one can scam you outta that lmao
What a waste, this was even a foamless board
The design almost looks like a ripoff of Geons F2.
I don’t think so, it just has elements from a few other boards. But afaik that lip design is new
Good luck getting shipments from china in te future tho lol
why's that?
Do you realize just how many of these custom boards WILL NOT FIT those usb C housings on traditional cables? That's not uncommon at all..... Just noobs realizing suddenly that these huge ass plastic housings don't fit in their boards suddenly. They basically fit the heat shrinked USB cables and nothing else. Straight up all your cables just have fat ass noob housings..... I don't get it. Stop buying cablemod for christ sake. You buy normy cables for normies and try to use on a niche bespoke keyboard.... This has been a KNOWN thing in the hobby for fucking YEARS.
Oh I’ve used cablemod for 2 years and have gone through and over a hundred keyboards and none of them didn’t fit lmao. A handful of times it required an extra push to secure. I didn’t know cables had a skill issue where they’d be considered noob.
Now how about the other handful of cables I grabbed from my house that weren’t cablemod?
Ladies and gentlemen, this is what gaslighting looks like.
dam dude let me sell it first before you destroy the value even more
F im sorry
for the same price, you could have gotten 2 kkrons
yeah but we don't support clones/straight rip offs here.