What did you order or think about ordering?

I might have a pretty good idea what you ordered last month. :slight_smile: Here are the best-selling switches of May 2025, based on data provided by 17 shops (about 1 million switches sold):

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I bought GMK Space Cadet II off MM. Don’t know why but feeling suddenly excited about the grey and blue.
But now I’m looking for the 40s and Symbols kits. :sob:
… if anyone has either for sale HMU lol

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I just grabbed a “silver” Tofu case off MM myself for your PCB. Also grabbed some Gateron Pro 2.0 Blacks off Amazon, because I want some linears, but even the JWK 65g are a bit lighter than I’d like. I did grab complete no-name stabs, so we’ll see how that works out for me. Figured I need at least one CNC aluminum rectangle, even if I’m 8 years behind the curve. :rofl:

Switchwise, all I had in sufficient quantities were reds pulled from budget pre-builts and some Box Pale Blue I have other plans for. I have caps here, maybe NovelKeys R2-D2 (tempting with the case), maybe one of several cheapo sets that happen to have a 2.75u space, or…

I have some pastel unicorn-barf PBT SA blanks I could laser some custom legends onto, then either use a spare Enter, an inverted shift key, or a 2.25 or 2.75u space from some Akko SA laying around.

First, though, I need to laser out an anniversary gift and then finish the woodworking for my Alps build.

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Haha I’m curious to see your build! Love a good Tofu.
My fingers get tired with 60g or more. I think Alexotos mentioned a client build with 150g springs or something crazy. Can’t remember what springs lol

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I’ve been eyeing this ca1992 terminal board assembly on eBay, at least to make a lowball offer. The PCB makes me think its definitely mechanical and neither membrane nor capacitive, and it may even have per-key diodes, but the pin spacing on those switches eludes me. The central post makes me think cherry, but the placement seems wrong for MX or ML, and it’s harder to find MY teardowns, but I don’t think they’d look like normal conductive switches on the underside anyway. The Taiwan build should imply Alps or clones, but that looks wrong too. Anybody got any ideas?


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No idea. It would sure be handy if wiki wasn’t dead and gone, taking 20 years of answers along with it. :sob:

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Somebody threw up a mirror of how it was in January of 2024, which is nice, but not quite perfect. I suppose there’s also the Wayback Machine, but man using that is a beatdown.

EDIT: …and maybe this is it. If so, they’re a variety of low-profile Alps, the same ones used on the Apple Adjustable Keyboard. While I think we take Thomas’s word as gospel at our own peril, I do find he’s not so far off from me on vintage typing feel. He very much does NOT like the AAK.

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Yep you got it bud, those are definitely ALPS SKFR/S switches under there. Here’s a pic from a ALPS Num/touch pad I got that uses SKFS yellows (switches on right side).

Edit: The stem in the keycaps for SKFR/S switches will fit SKCM/L ALPS & vice versa. They should also be really nice thin doubleshot caps if this was made by ALPS themselves. I’d say it would be worth the pick up if the price is right.

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I’m currently sitting on the idea of buying some new domes for my HHKB just to give it a shot…and I am also debating picking up another one to keep at home (or another Topre board, why not mix things up), since I leave this one at work for the days where I’m in the office.

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Ugh it hurts the wallet but threw down for the 21XX, with my girlfriend convincing me to go with the blue. Now just to figure out what the hell keycaps I’m gonna use.

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I saw one in person at KeyCon last weekend and it was quite nice though I’m completely blanking on which color CannonKeys had out on their display table. Neither my wallet nor my desk have room for the 21XX, but I think you’ll like it!

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Caved in and ordered an aluminum plate for my Altair-X. I am happy with the polycarbonate plate, but I keep feeling like I’ll be forever wondering. Should arrive tomorrow.

By the way, where do people get plates cut in the States these days? I have Hype and SendCutSend bookmarked, though I know PCB assemblers can also cut a FR4 plate. Have people had good experiences with SendCutSend for switch plates? I saw one Reddit post showing something pretty rough that, to their credit, SendCutSend refunded them.

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I haven’t ordered from SendCutSend in a year or more. Never had problems with aluminum switch plates - I have a few from them. But for acrylic pieces to make a stacked board, they were awful. Supposedly identical pieces wound up off by several mm in different directions, and none of the screw holes lined up. I’d avoid them at all costs for anything plastic.

Curiously, when I went back recently to try to order a duplicate aluminum plate to one I had previously bought, the site now flags the DXF and throws a warning that they can’t produce it without an additional fee for manual correction. Ponoko and other services happily accept it, and say it’s fine. So I don’t know what that’s about, but something has changed - the plate file was saved on SendCutSend’s site from the last time I had it cut, and they didn’t complain about it or charge a fee then.

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I’ve only had switchplates sent out once, and I just took my chances with 5052 aluminum from Xometry, which is more of a matchmaker with random machine shops than a true vendor, as I understand it.

They were quite snug on the switches and the plate-mount stabs, but these were for hand-wires, so that worked well for me, and otherwise quality was fine for my needs, which is to say they didn’t mess anything up and did some basic deburring.

I would recommend a bit of kerf allowance if you use swill’s and Xometry, but it certainly can work out. I think it’s always a bit of a crapshoot with one-off hobbyist/maker fabrication.

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@Piperaceae I forgot about Ponoko!

@wjrii Xometry is new to me.

Thanks!

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Laserboost is another vendor I used for plates in the past. I use CNCMadness for all carbon fiber stuff I have cut, but I think they do other materials as well. Both have been amazing every time I used them.

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LaserBoost never disappointed me.

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Long time now since I bought a new board (at least feels like it) and very very long time since I joined my last GB. Now with the OG40 and the El Chibre coming up, Im quite tempted to go in for both of them. If I have to choose, favour goes to the El Chibre, I always thought about getting a Libra Mini and this would be the perfect “replacement” for that fomo.

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After seeing @d3L7r0n’s post (What did you get in the mail today? (Part 2) - #1226 by d3L7r0n), decided it was time to try a full EC conversion. Went with a KBD8X mk3 for the case and Hype Keyboards for the plate. First time mashing up plate files in LibreCAD, so we’ll see how it goes!

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Bit the bullet & finally ordered a PP plate for my F1 from Hype. Found the plate files for the V3 plate & uploaded them as I much prefer the leaf springs being unbroken all the way across the top & bottom. The v1.1 plates have that funky split on the top leaf springs which kinda bothers me & I see as a liability on a plastic plate. Also order another 110 Keygeek Y2s from Unikeys, probably should’ve ordered more since I like them so much, but I am waiting for Keybay to restock on Keygeek Blue Cheese V2 which are also supposed to be super deep sounding switches.
Edit: Found the Blue Cheese v2 switches on sale at Aliexpress & ordered up 110 of them cheaper than anywhere else actually!

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