Post Your Keyboard "Recipes"

Learning and discussion Custom keyboards
#1

There’s a lot of new people joining the hobby and it’s sometimes daunting to know what you want to make first. There’s a lot of people who have been in the hobby a while, and it’s a bit frustrating thinking about what you want to build next.

This thread is dedicated to getting some inspiration by posting a board you either plan on making or have made as well as total build cost (at time of your writing) and purpose of the build besides the obvious answer of “to type with”. Also, if it is a board you have built, let us know what you think of it.

I’ll go first:

Build: Plastic Fantastic

Cost of parts without shipping and tax: $157.29

Purpose of build: Want a cheap build that is incredibly light with a deeper sound because of the hollow plastic construction. Also wanted the board to be hot-swappable because I don’t feel like soldering too much lately. Added a couple of extra switches to have as extras.

Parts List:

Build Status: Future planned build

8 Likes
#2

Build: Hints of Pink

Costs of parts: $352

Purpose: My first better keyboard. Wanted to experience for myself, a heavier case, better switches, better caps, better stabilizers. To have a clean and themed visual experience. Black and pink keyboard, with a black and pink mouse, black deskmat, black screens black speakers. It all ties in quite nicely (to me), and I really like the way a 75% looks for some reason, it draws me in. I have no soldering experience or equipment to do it myself, yet, so went down the fully assembled route.

Parts:

Build Status: Completed

Issues along the way:

  • Had originally order JTK Orange on black, (which is why PoB is labeled at OoB price) and got sent the wrong set. I had to make many accommodations to receive an order from zFrontier, as they do not ship to Beirut. So I had to use a friends proxy in the States, have it sent to Saudi, pay for that shipping also, and then wait for him to come to Beirut on vacation in order to finally receive the set. After a little back and forth with zFrontier, explaining all I had to do and my extra charges, they rectified the situation by sending Orange on black free of charge (except the extra shipping I had to pay to get my order from the States to me). I won’t have the set till Christmas, but that’s okay.

  • Put my order in with KBDfans on Sep 13, and did not receive till early Nov. Was waiting for sold out GMK screw-in stabs to come back in stock. After a long wait, I just really wanted to get my hands on this board, so I took the Cherry stabilizers offered by Wei instead, and got sent some linear switch testers to make up the difference.

Mail day

KBD75_5
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Gripes

  • Older JTK sets don’t have excellent compatibility for a 75% layout. No tab row Pg Up, no 1u ctrl or alt. Otherwise okay.

  • Not very happy with a lot of the spacing, not sure if intended by design, or can be fixed with better alignment. (Would love some feedback from anyone with some knowledge on this)

  • Should have ordered a black plate, don’t know what I was thinking. Or should potentially be on offer with the package.

KBD75_002
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KBD75_001
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Positives:

  • Other than all the waiting this was a good experience. zFrontier are very nice, apologized and fixed their mistake. Wei is super approachable, friendly and willing to help.

  • Tealios are awesome. So smooth.

  • Quiet and lubed stabs are excellent, and really help give that higher quality feel.

  • Once the board was actually shipped, it got here in about a week.

  • Love the overall look and feel. Well worth my money, and makes me want to be a better typist.

KBD75_9
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KBD75_8
KBD75_8.jpg1080×819 453 KB

4 Likes
#3

Welp, had a keyboard die on me somehow today… looks like plastic fantastic will be happening soon.

#4

Oof, that sucks bud, sorry to hear that! What board & what happened? Do you think it’s completely bricked?

#5

Well, now I’m thoroughly confused. I plugged the keyboard into my Surface Pro at home, and it’s working again. Tried different cables and everything on my work computer and no luck.

Technology is weird.

1 Like
#6

Is it possible that your work computer is having some sort of driver issue that doesn’t recognize the keyboard? Or that your USB controller on your motherboard got messed up? Do other USB products work in those ports?

#7

Strange thing is that I’ve used it with this computer before and my WhiteFox is running off the same cable in the same port as I tried the Tina with. Going to probably bring it with me to work tomorrow to try it again.

#8

Underped myself finally. Realized the reason it didn’t work was the cable was USB c to USB c and the dz60 wants USB a to USB c.

#9

That’s still kind of weird, I’ve used my phone’s USB C to USB C cable to connect the DZ60 to my tablet and phone in the past.

#10

Recipe:

Shaken, not Stirred

Prep Time Cook Time Total Time
10-30 mins 5-20 Mins 15-50 Mins

This recipe is a classic take for quick, smooth, and consistent stems or springs to meet needs of your busy lifestyle. This recipe works with both springs and stems!

Author: Manofinterests
Difficulty: Easy
Serves: 1 to ∞ switches

 

Ingredients & Equipment:

Mechanical Switch of your Choice
Thin, Low Viscosity Lubricant

  • VPF 1514 Lubricant (Recommended)

Plastic Bag or plastic bin (Must be able to be sealed)
Switch Opening Tool (recommended)
Tweezers

Directions

Shaken, not Stirred

  1. Disassemble your switches using your preferred Switch Opening Tool.
  2. Sort your switch components into 4 bins, Switch tops, switch bottoms, stems, and springs
  3. Pour some of your lube into your plastic bag.
  4. Gently add springs to plastic bag
  5. If used in a plastic bag, it is recommended air is added to the bag.
  6. Seal bag firmly
  7. Shake bag for 1-5 minutes rotating and flipping often.
  8. Open bag; now your springs are ready for your build! Use tweezers to extract springs. If there are any springs that are twisted, use an additional pair of tweezers in your other hand. Do not pull hard to separate the springs, simply hold a spring per tweezers and twist gently to separate them.
  9. Assemble your switches and enjoy.
8 Likes