I too killed an M65-A back in the day. I think you’re right about it being a poor pcb design. I think it was a Winkeyless.kr pcb so I’m surprised it died so easily.
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I actually talked to Hiney about designing a replacement PCB, and even sent him my extra. However, he’s gotten too busy and no longer seems interested in making it. I talked to him just this week, and we agreed he would send it back. RIP
There have to be more than a handful of people out there willing to buy a replacement for it. I don’t want to Dremel the case to fit a USB-C board.
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If I had dimensions I could design a replacement PCB and open source it.
And maybe find components available at JLCPCB so that anyone could order one assembled.
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Here’s the original open source project. The J65 PCB was known to have lots of static deaths. Don’t know if it was the nylon bottom of the case, poor design, or both.
I always disliked the Swiss cheese plate too. But someone could surely design one without the cheese. Heck, you could even do a 1/2
Plate and make the board feel different.
I’d personally just stick to a 7u bottom row full plate.
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I will have a look into it , thank you!
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Trying out a pile of new… (see here
I wanted to improve the sound of the Keychron Q1, and out of the new selection, thanks liked the Black Sesame best, with the Jwick Semi Silent a close second. I might change it to the Gecko Silents though, as, regardless what I do, the board feels quite metallic loud. I guess that’s the steel plate - I’ll try to get a POM plate as PC is sold out almost everywhere.
But then I stuck a couple Black Sesame’s in the Ginkgo65 with the Gazzew Linear Thocks which I’ve been quite enjoying and was perfectly happy with. And hot damn, it sounds even better with the Black Sesames 
So, on with the Geckos on the Keychron, and the Black Sesames onto the Ginkgo65 (if I have enough time today, as there’s a 1 1/2 year old about to descend onto the house 
)
Photos
All the switches get a chance…
Black Sesame and Jwick Semi-Silents mixed, plus a lone Silent Gecko to tame that space bar
Lastly, I got a few mystery switches extra, presumably as a switch tester set, but no idea what they are - does anyone know? The two orange ones are TTC…something…?
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I chose which new switches to put to evaluate the test. Chose chosfox dd.
The body is very tight. Film is not needed.
The wobble stem is also weak. Stem keeps himself in the top. When disassembled.
If laziness, then you can not even re-lubricate, but straight out of the box.
But I love stock ONLY gateron oil king.
While other switches are out of the box to suit me, no.
Pressing is very light, smooth, fast.
At some rhythm of typing letters, you can get the effect of pebbles knocking.
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Interesting. I usually find that stems that tight bind on off-center presses. Is that the case?
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Sorry. Can you please use a little simpler language. My translator translates your question strangely.
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When you press the switch on the edge (not center) Is there rubbing or binding?
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I thought about another.)) No. there is no such. The effect when it sticks when pressed is if the full is the same material.
I have a switch EMT and it is a full pom. there is such an effect.
There is also a bsun panda blue, she is also a full pom. There is also this effect.
I also made a franc, a full pom corpus from a panda and a stem pom from an acco. It’s also a sticky effect.
And there is also an effect when, when you press the top of the keycap, everything is normal, and if you press the bottom edge of the keycap, then the ringing.
This is almost everywhere where stem from P3. For example epsilons. And others. I have many switches with P3 stem.
I first thought about it. DD switch is also a P3 stem, but there is no such thing here. Lucky.
There is also a pom bottom bottom case and it is soft. Other switches where the bottom pom is not so soft.
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Had a free evening to tinker yesterday, so I swapped the PC plate on the Ginkgo65 for a POM plate and put in the Invokey Black Sesame switches (instead of the Gazzew Linear Thock), and boy does this rock! Love it - feels good and sounds good!
Since I’d “stolen” the Black Sesames from the Keychron Q1, I tried a couple of options there, but that steel plate is hard to tame, so I popped in the Tropical Water switches, which sound great but are way to loud for my liking. Same thing but quieter would be lovely.
And finally I swapped out the stock stabs for the Dygma Raise with some lubed Chosfox Arctic Fox stabs I bought on a whim, and it is so much nicer! Even just on the wire the XHT-BDZ was too heavy, but Krytox 205g0 did the trick.
All in all, a very satisfying and enjoyable tinkering session! 
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Recently I returned to past project, making the NK65EE a real top mount without destroying the original bottom case, which meant designing a new plate and a new bottom case that doesn’t attach to the plate.
Plate is straightforward, I made it a bit smaller, I guess less contact with the top part = less vibrations? I also added holes for the original bottom part just in case.
The bottom case was tricky, NK_ didn’t make it easy, some design choices of the MK65EE are odd (but I digress)…
The PCB is quite big leaving very narrow clearance for anything around it so I had to improvise.
I used the side holes meant for the plate to attach the bottom case, with a plastic part protruding into the gap within the top case to allow it to be more securely attached, due ot the narrow space the plastic is not thick enough to go around the screw hole, (plus 3D printer limits) but it works fine.
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very inspiring, thank you for sharing.
May I aaske how you merged/fused the parts together?
I received a truckload of foam a couple of days ago…mostly poron case and pcb foam as well as pe and poron switch pcb stick-on foam as I wanted to experiment with sound shaping especially with my Dygma Raise (photos for reference, I forgot to take pics during the modding…
). The Raise has an integrated alu plate, and while I’ve successfully quietened it down with the help of butyl sound deadened, I wanted to find a way to make it sound more…pleasing. Less metallic and more…marbly? Soft and low pitch? Not sure what to call it. I’ve got Gateron Oil Kings in there paired with an XDA keycap set.
So, I popped in the pcb switch stickers, some pe, some poron (not much difference that I can tell) and the pcb foam. Together they make the keyboard slightly sound dampened (quieter, I guess), but higher pitched - definitely did not want that! In the Ginkgo65 it had the opposite effect - the more foam o stuck in, the lower it got, so I am mightily confused…where am I going wrong?
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All remaining Leyden Jar PCBs flash chip and buttons soldered, including a change of some 402 resistors on the board.
They are all tested and work fine 
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The parts aren’t fused yet (lack of time sadly), I’m going to “weld” them with a solder Iron, it’s surprisingly easy and effective.
I used to glue them together with some shapes to hold them together (forgot the name for that).
Nowdays I “weld” the parts with 3D print waste of the same color, and sand it lightly, it’s much stronger and cleaner.
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Thank you for your prompt response. I see you are using “dove tails” to interlock the parts of the bottom housing, very nice. How about the plate?
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Yes dove tail is the name, thanks! I remembered something with “dove” but all google found was well, doves, haha.
I don’t use dove tails anymore, but with the plate I just made a cut between the switch holes and glued them together before I started “welding” parts.
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