Model F Keyboards Ships First Round of Beam Spring Reproductions to Backers

Just 300 Round 1 beam-spring keyboards were ever manufactured: 150 in B104 full-size and 150 in BSSK compact layout. The remaining units from Model F Keyboards are shipping with a 2-4 week lead time at an end-of-production price of $260, reduced from the original $549. When they're gone, production closes on this design permanently.

The Beam Spring Round 1 project is organized by Ellipse at Model F Labs LLC, based in Garden City, New York. Shipping on the Round 1 run first began in March 2023 and is part of a broader effort that has now delivered more than 6,000 new Model F and Beam Spring keyboards since 2019. Community threads on Deskthority and geekhack saw a surge of activity in late March, with forum posts covering assembly videos, sound samples, and support questions about module handling and shipping damage.

That activity reflects the reality of what arrives in the box. Beam-spring keyboards are not drop-in replacements for MX boards. Each unit requires testing every key on arrival and inspecting the beam-spring modules for anything broken in transit. Every Round 1 keyboard ships with a four-module first-aid kit for exactly that scenario, but the project team recommends adding the Deluxe First Aid Beam Spring Kit at checkout, which brings the total to 12 spare modules. Modules won't be sold or restocked after the project closes, so the window to stock up is the same window as the keyboards themselves.

The Round 1 design is ANSI-only and that limitation is fixed. No ISO variant exists, and there is no option for split backspace or split shift. Those customizations are reserved for Round 2, which expands to four form factors: B104, BSSK, B122, and B62, with both ANSI and ISO options across all of them. Round 2 is still in production. As of January 2025, the factory had completed assembly of 80,000 Round 2 beam-spring modules, with case bending and assembly underway through early 2026. A tariff situation that had briefly climbed to 145% on production costs has since dropped to 20%. Wait times for Round 2 will exceed one month after the container arrives, and the project team has been explicit that individual queue positions cannot be estimated.

On the controller front, Round 1 boards ship with the xwhatsit ATmega-based controller. Beginning in 2025, newer Round 2 units in B104 and B122 configurations are shipping with the Leyden Jar, an RP2040-based USB-C controller designed by forum member Rico. The Leyden Jar runs Vial-QMK firmware and is open-source, with plans to extend compatibility to all existing Model F and beam-spring boards.

For anyone who ordered Round 1 and is tracking their shipment: test every key on arrival, swap dead modules from the included kit, and order the 12-module Deluxe kit separately if it wasn't added at checkout. The Deskthority project thread has step-by-step assembly videos for module replacement. If the order was placed recently through the current in-stock listing, the 2-4 week shipping estimate applies immediately with no queue complications.

At $260, Round 1 is the cheapest entry the beam-spring reproduction project has ever had. It is also its last one.