Trying to build my first custom keyboard

Hi everyone! New to the forum and new to the custom keeb world. I am very new to this world, though. So I’m looking for guidance as I do my first build. How do people make custom keycaps? And how do I make sure that everything fits together and that the keycaps are the right size and everything? I also don’t want to solder anything, can anyone guide me?

People usually dont make their own custom ieycaps per say, unless you mean artisans which usually is just resin molds or clay. You can find some decent custom sets on places like divinikey and keebsforall, along with some cheaper non-solder build kits like the freebird60 and kbd67 lite.

I would take a look at: https://www.keyboard.university

It is a pretty good entry document. I can provide you advice, but I would need to ask you some questions first. Such as, what layout are you interested in? Do you want to experiment with switches or do you want something more one and done?

I think the link above provides you with a good idea of what kind of questions you should start asking yourself to narrow down what you really want.

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I appreciate the help! So far, I think I want something more small, like something between a 65 and 75. I am interested in experimenting with switches for sure. I already picked out some keycaps (Milkshakes) and I was wondering how to mix and match keycaps while still making the layout uniform (correct sizes and depth and such). I guess that would be the keycaps’ profile?

Im going to assume you mean using a different key layout like dovorak or workman, you would have to either use special kitting for non-uniform-profiles like cherry milkshake, or you could use DSA milkshake and since it is uniform-profile and use multiple layouts.