Excerpt from an Unreleased Print Issue Article
Many people, however, were already beginning to grow tired of HMX, as they seemed capable of only reproducing the same switch over and over. Though whispers of an future HMX tactile went about in the Unikeys discord server, the only truly unique offering that began to take hold of switch enjoyers was the HMX Snow Crash, a full-length, rail bottom-out switch with a brand new mold from HMX. Commissioned by Keebscape, the HMX Snow Crash put HMX’s manufacturing capabilities to the test. Having been thoroughly impressed thus far by HMX, Jacob, from Keebscape, felt that it “was a bit of a no-brainer” to collaborate with them. “I had developed a great relationship with the owner of Unikeys,” he said, with his upcoming keyboards planned to be sold in-stock by Unikeys. It was because of this that he had no issues acquiring the contact info of Mr. Wu, a co-owner of HMX. ”Once I decided on using HMX as my manufacturer, the goal very quickly became to have them produce a rail bottom-out, full travel switch, with a POM stem and PA66 nylon housings.” Jacob admits to the design being very inspired by Cherry. “I wanted to see HMX’s take on this seminal switch design.” Especially considering how saturated the market has been with long poles, Jacob noted the lack of any recent rail-bottom out switches. “It was [also] something that genuinely interested me as a consumer. Right place at the right time sort of thing, I suppose.” Mr. Wu also expressed great gratitude for Jacob’s continual videos on his Youtube channel promoting and showing sound tests of switches such as the HMX Cheese. “He has also been very willing to answer most of my questions, concerns, and even solicited advice on how to improve certain aspects of their switches in general.”
In spite of HMX’s previous achievements as a manufacturer, lubing these rail-bottom out switches proved to be a difficulty, with the “first batch of 100,000 [switches were] overlubed to the point where excess lubricant was dampening the bottom-out collissions between the stems and bottom housings.” Thankfully, HMX ended up being more than willing to redo all of the switches, at no extra cost. “I am lucky to have had both an understanding manufacturer and an understanding customer base on this one,” Jacob said.
He and I continued to chat when we met up at Keeb Life, the annual keyboard meetup in Los Angeles. We shared a vendor table, which led to my telling him of my previous conversations with Dashan, and the apparent connection between KTT and HMX, which, to my surprise, Jacob quickly dismissed. He was told, by Mr. Wu, “that HMX has no connection to KTT whatsoever. One of the two owners used to work for Kailh, and the other owner worked as an engineer at an injection molding company.” The only connection between the two lay in the unnamed third-party that KTT and HMX acquire some of their molds from. As a budding switch collector, this somewhat shook me to my core. I felt I had unraveled a secret that perhaps was not meant for my ears. Previously, I also had no knowledge of manufacturers sourcing molds from other people. It made me reconsider the ways in which we connect switches to manufacturers purely based on the molds used. Perhaps this method is only done by newer manufacturers, but considering also the history the owners had in both switches and injection molding, it may be done more commonly than we know. It was after this as well that I learned that Dashan had publicly rescinded his statements saying that someone at HMX previously worked at KTT, and he apologized as well for causing the rumors to grow.
