Hello,
I have pre-ordered my FW16 and I am a bit stressing about the spacers. I saw many times that the spacers were not completely flush with the rest of the deck. My question is, what is the main problem causing this? Is it the problem with the spacer itself where tolerances cannot be met or rather the input deck is an issue? If the spacer itself is the problem, I am not worried too much because I have already seen some printed versions that seem to fit much better: Printables (better fit even confirmed by the developer: Touchpad Spacers FW16 - #20 by Erik_Isakson). However, if the input deck is the root cause, this can be a but of an issue…
In some cases, it’s because the midplate hasn’t been seated properly. In other cases, it’s due to a spacer defect. There isn’t a need to be concerned about it. If you have a defective spacer, just contact Support and they will arrange replacements for you. They even do cross-shipping.
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They aren’t talking about defects, just in general the consensus seems to be that the spacers fit pretty poorly,it bothers some, it doesn’t bother others, but the fact that people can 3d print them with better results is concerning imo in regards to their efforts to provide a premium finish of the device
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In that case, the slight gaps are necessary to prevent metal on metal contact and the creation of metal dust which can short components.
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That would be the fairest approach.
Of course, but the deck should be level. For example, what Elevated systems had in the first batch was unacceptable.
I dont think thats it, but I could see that being the logic, but that could be completely avoided by just having them more firmly affixed rather than loose enough to slide around, after all, metal dust can only happen from friction, if they are tight, they cant have friction, but I dont even care about the gap so much as the not sitting flush, which is not a contact thing, and the sliding around, which is going to cause metal dust negating the supposed fix of them not touching
I received this info from Framework staff.
Complex, expensive, and environmentally costly to achieve with the current implementation. I don’t see any other way they could achieve this.
I mean, I have received lots of bogus info from manufacturers, and if metal dust was what they were avoiding, having them loose and sliding around is what is going to cause it. My mouse comes apart into pieces that just click together with a single magnet and don’t slide around, sure, with the EXACT implementation they picked it might be difficult, my point is its obviously not the right implementation.
Either way, I plan on modifying it as many others have done, and thus fixing the issue.
Then the question arises: Why using a metal?
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Cheap aluminum extrusion. If they used plastic, people would say it’s cheaply made. Using aluminium on the surface still keeps costs down while not being plastic. Personally I would love genuine carbon fiber spacers, but those would probably be much harder to manufacture
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Carbon would be super nice but expensive.
But I still believe that the finish looks cheaper when there are big gaps and sharp edges compared to plastic spacers…
At least on my laptop, the trackpad spacers are both ever-so-slightly raised above the trackpad deck. Enough that I can feel it with my fingers, but not enough to be annoying for me. I assume this is because the trackpad spacers have a foam pad underneath them, which pushes up on the spacer. If I press down on the spacer, I can make it compress and be flush with the trackpad deck.
Personally, I’m not bothered by this. There aren’t any big gaps - the gaps look totally fine.
Let’s put it this way, the touchpad spacers are effectively thin pieces of metal glued to some slightly thicker plastic. You’re not going to get anywhere close to machined tolerances out of that sort of production method. The other thing is, because they’re thin pieces of metal, they’re quite easy to deform, and while I wouldn’t recommend making frequent or major adjustments to them (though you can probably get some replacements if you do happen to break them) you can make a few small adjustments to improve the fit of the pieces. As for the gaps, I don’t think they make it feel cheap, but that’s very much a personal preference type thing.
I saw some videos and pictutes regarding this topic and many fits were quite okay but some were true unacceptable. For example the one I saw at Elevated Systems was frankly unacceptable for 2k machine.
Yea, if I have a similar situation, I will be happy.
Hey I mean, that just means it’s easy to take off the metal and glue a piece of scrap carbon fiber onto it xD DIY FTW
inb4 leather spacers