Most Hiney H87s have ALPS support & fit a ton of TKL cases, Hiney TKL PCB Compatibility Chart. Although like Pixel said ALPS really do feel & sound a good bit better in an OG cavernous plastic case with a stiff steel plate. I think the NCR80 rd.2 or rd.3 had ALPS support on the solder PCB also. That case would most likely serve very well as a ALPS board. I’d love to see the Classic TKL get ALPS support, it might be possible with a H87nu or any H87 that has a place to solder on a JST header (you can dremel the USB C tab off & use them with JST, I confirmed this with Hiney himself). Although I still haven’t grabbed a Classic so I can’t say for sure if it is compatible with H87s or not.
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The closest thing to a classic case sound for my Alps build is the BBox 60 from Buger Works. Unfortunately, the long Alps pins often short on one of the many metal standoffs. Probably easily fixed with a layer of tape, but I took the Alps out of the case.
Honestly it was great for sound, but wasn’t classy enough for expensive Alps switches anyway.
The TKC1800 was plastic and Alps compatible, but has long since gone the way of the dodo. I also imagine sourcing Alps keys for an 1800 to be a nightmare.
Somebody find out who makes those new NCR cases and tell them to get onto making an Alps PCB for it…
EDIT: there is already an Alps PCB for it just found it on Aliexpress.
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Speaking of Alps, here’s a tinny sound test of my wooden board with white Alps and ABS bottom plate. I got the iPhone off the main desk to avoid the worst of the echoes, but the sound quality is pretty rough. I may be flattering myself, but I think it sounds better IRL.
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Yep. And here’s a plate. No steel
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Swapped DCX SKIIDATA onto my grey Classic-TKL - it doesn’t sound quite as good as the GMK CYL that was there before, but I do love how this colorway looks with the case.
Low-exposure to show the matching LED strip
It’s got Gateron Baby Kangaroos. I like them, but might opt for something that sounds better with these keys if I stick with them.
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That looks sooooo good. I’m always a sucker for Skiidata. The old GMK set was what really got me into keycaps.
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Got my black PBS keycaps in the mail yesterday, and I am using them for the home row. Really completed the look of the board for me. I also put the silent reds back in here because I think the silent blacks may have been causing hand pain on this board. Will need to play with them more eventually.
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Another configuration for the Classic-TKL:
- Beige case this time
- JWK Bluey linears
- GSA Retro-High Light keycaps by WinMix Production
I’m not sure if this is the right board for this keyset or not, but I’ve been meaning to give it a try as a daily driver for a while, so here we are. I love the aesthetics, but I’m not sure I can get down with the homing dots 
Beautiful set, though - so it might end up on a display keeb.
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Nothing special as a product for the hobby, I guess, but I finally set out one of my Fathers’ Day gifts. Go Gators. I’m not actually the biggest partisan, but I am a fan and I do like our colors. Big fella, though, and definitely an upgrade over the thin black one I’ve been using.
And yeah, I rotate a lot, but this board with Box Navies keeps resurfacing as a favorite. TBH, I think I just like Box Navy in anything spherical.
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You use a magnetic cable)
Cool.
But you still have regular ones on your desk for some reason.
I only have two USB.
It’s just that one has a round plug and the other is flat. Because keyboards like to have a recess inside and the round one doesn’t fit in there.
And so I made the mice and all 8 keyboards and macro pads all magnetic.
Minimum cables.
Quick connection and disconnection.
And you don’t ruin the USB connector on the keyboard)
It’s been 4 years, no static shocks, burnout, breakage, or whatever else they’re afraid of.
Oh, it’s a MESS under there. Two regular USB, the magnetic for boards that are either micro-USB or are older hand-wires with “load bearing” circuitry, the space mouse, and the actual mouse. Some of the speaker wire is out of frame but easy to find too.
I have dual monitors but I actually have one semi-permanently connected to my work laptop and haven’t actually run dual on either PC in years. The work laptop has its own mess.
Combine it all with my affection for clickies, and it may be a few days until my wife comes in and notices the gift has pride of place, so I’ll probably need to tell her. 
As for the magnetic, I haven’t pushed it hard with anything requiring high voltage or fast speed, but it’s been perfectly fine for me.
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This is a Classic-TKL. Same colour as you’ve seen in recent posts.
It was inspired by some builds I saw on the internet using MX1A and MX2A Browns. I wanted something where you could hear the Hyperglides, but not exaggerated too much.
So this build uses:
-gasket socks
-stock PC plate
-Plate and PCB Foams.
-Zeal PCB-mount stabilizers
-no case foam.
You can see in the above image that I was testing the board with different switches. The board was well-suited to 58 G [Spirit] Durock Medium Tactiles, and also the new OUTEMU Wuhai Purple Jelly silents.
However, the most interesting were the “Butter Browns,” which are MX1A Hyperglides with 640,000 actuations.
So, I populated the board with MX1A Hyperglides:
Below, you can see it with GMK Honeywell R1. I decided to go with more of an ‘MSX-inspired’ look, so I used three of the four accent colours in that regard.
Specifications for the Butter Browns:
Genuine Cherry MX “Butter Browns” from RNDKBD.
-MX1A Hyperglide
-640,000+ machine-actuations
-lightly-lubed with 3203
-filmed
-58 G Spirit Supreme linear springs
The 58 G Spirit springs, as advertised by RNDKBD, are fairly close to stock Cherry springs. Maybe a little bit lighter, as you would expect.
Overall, this combination definitely sounds like Hyperglides. However, the plate and PCB foams are absorbing and deepening some of the sound. So it is not as exaggerated and echoey as it could be. It is more restrained.
If I wanted to, I could find a copper plate for this Classic-TKL, and really bring out the sound. However, that sounds expensive, and I prefer to type on PC.
The Classic-TKL is actually fairly stiff, as compared with other budget boards. The KBDFans Tiger Lite (new) can be built flexy, almost too flexy. And the Transition Lite, with its 1.2mm PCB and selection of dampening options, can be built somewhat soft. But the Classic-TKL doesn’t give a lot of “give,” in my opinion. It might make a stable platform for silent-tactiles, when foamed up.
ABOVE: The inspiration for the colour scheme.
This board is also surprisingly heavy, even without the case foam. The Tiger Lite is much lighter, as expected. The Transition Lite gets heavy, with all the foams. I’d say it and the Classic-TKL are fairly weighty, when fully-built. Inserting and removing hotswap switches is a fairly easy and graceful process on the Classic-TKL, which is not always the case on entry-level boards. It has a rigid and clean build.
I very-much appreciate the accent LED below the nav. cluster. Many new boards have something similar, and it is preferable to the switch-lighting for me. I can’t seem to control the intensity when CAPS LOCK or similar are activated, however, as it goes fullbright. The light is currently set to a golden-yellow, which generally goes well with Honeywell. I’m grateful also that the PCB allows for stepped CAPS LOCK, which the Tiger Lite does not.
*And yes, I know that the quote and semi-colon keycaps are swapped in the outdoors image. This has been corrected, the wooden-desk image is the most recent. Also, I used the tenkey nav keys from GMK Oblivion Mono above the nav. cluster, because I could not find the Honeywell keycaps at the time. Then, after finding the keycaps, I decided I liked the Oblivion modifiers there at present.
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Love this. MSX systems are an underutilized source of interesting layout and colorway options, IMHO. The arrow cluster on Yamaha (and few other) MSX computers is even functionally equivalent to an inverted T, assuming decent stabs.
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No kidding!
I even looked at a few videos showcasing different models of MSX, and virtually all of them looked like the inspiration for one or another SA / GMK colourway.
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Geist Totem is back on the desk.
I spring swapped the Ambient Chocs to 50g springs a while ago (before the Ambient Bokeh were announced), and I keep forgetting how much I like these switches. If it isn’t my favorite overall switch, it is definitely top 3.
Also, I know I’ve mentioned this before, but the LDSA thumbs + LDSA keycaps on the home row + DDC keycaps everywhere else is easily my favorite keycaps setup. Haven’t found a setup on MX that I like as much.
Come to think of it… favorite switches… favorite keycaps… favorite layout… I guess this is my favorite keyboard…? I guess it’s time to fully give in and accept that this might overthrow my years of KA2 being my favorite.
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Adjusted the bottom row of my @skwrl Minila Tofu today to get it closer to what I’ve been using on my own designs; the novelty is backspace, “menu” is Page Up, and the middle space does tap-hold duty as the layer key. I’ve been using it a lot more with the changes and a little more discipline with the 1u shift is the only thing standing between me and my usual (glacial) speed. At some point I should probably dig up something nicer for the caps, but the QXSA with XDA blanks is working well.
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Been using my F1 with TypePlus x Alexotos Granites since I got them in & I have to say the Granites are a pleasure to type on! I’m still debating whether I want to swap springs for something lighter (they have 22mm dual stage 55g springs stock which is just a bit much for me), but that is literally the only complaint I have with them. Which is a me thing, not something actually wrong with the switch. I’m also planning on grabbing a unlubed batch when they release just to see how these perform after hand lubing. Honestly though the factory lubing is on point so no need to do that unless you actually want to.
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Gators! Grew up and went to college there. First time seeing UF merch and keyboards together haha. Going to be back in town in August actually. Maybe I’ll say hi to Albert.
The keeb matches strangely well 
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How ‘bout that. I grew up just south of Jacksonville and graduated from UF, class of mumblemumbledon’tworryaboutit. Took going to law school one state to the north for me to realize that all my high minded notions of rooting for underdogs and just wanting to see good games meant nothing. I was a Gator whether I’d intended to be or not!
We definitely have the best orange though. 
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