What's on your workbench today?

clicky bois

Japanese Omron D2F-01F switches from my Ducky mouse; great switches but they only last so long.

Kailh GM4.0 switches that I installed in place of the Omrons, just to try something different. Extra snappy! Maybe a little loud.

7 Likes

Are there any silent versions of these?

Cleaned my keeb (crumbs be gone) today and cleaned the keycaps

8 Likes

I don’t think so, but I haven’t looked into them too deeply. I saw a few different weightings and durability ratings, but that’s about it. Some are definitely more quiet than others but I didn’t see any explicitly silenced ones.

Edit: they aren’t the same form-factor but they do exist:

https://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=68891

4 Likes

My current setup; a co-opted kitchen table and a mix of specialized tools with re-purposed utensils.

Another view; some more stickers including another delightfully ridiculous commentary on the BOX v1’s from Qlavier.

The switches, caps, stabs, plate, foam, and cable are all queue’d up for my current project - a Final Fantasy themed fullsize keyboard. The Hexgears Impulse my friend chose as a base doesn’t sound too hot from the factory, but I think the foam and some modded stabs will go a long way.

The interesting bit here is that I’ll be attempting to wrap this plate with laminated vehicle wrap material; I’ll let you know how that goes. Could be scuff, could be rad - we’ll see.

13 Likes

Cut today for the new case and build.
All 316L stainless steel.

The PCB will be a LFK68, the switches Zealios V2 78g, but I’m not sure about the caps yet.

10 Likes

Ooo nice looking. What PCB will you use? How thick are those steel pieces? :eyes:

I’ll use a LFK68 pcb, from lfkeyboards.

The switch plate and the bottom plate are 1.5mm.
The plate with the opening for the usb connector is 10mm, and the top is 8mm.
So in total the case will be 21mm thick, and quite heavy :wink:

2 Likes

Oh, beautiful! I made a sandwich MF68 with steel bottom 1.5mm plate and a top 1.5mm plate and it’s heavy itself! I can only imagine how heavy yours will be! Keep me updated I would love to see it all put together! And of course the final weight whenever it’s built lol

I had some Gat Milky Yellow housings hanging around, so this is me today, making some Gat Milky switches with PE+ stems and 78g Progressive springs with some 3204. They have some stem wobble for sure, but they are smooooth, and I want to get a sense of them spring-weight-wise in a build.

5 Likes

I got a batch of Milky top/black bottom PE gats too & love them! I got 55g TX short springs in mine though. I do gotta get them back into a build sooner than later. I had them in my hotswap setup to test them out, but haven’t done anything with them since.

1 Like

Oh wow you must have gotten the LFK PCB a while ago because he’s been out of stock forever on everything except the ALPs LFK78.

Also am 8mm top is very deep. Tops are usually 6-6.5mm. The caps will set low, be sure to post a pic I’m curious how it will look.

Great project, indeed it will be heavy.

1 Like

Actually I bought the LFK pcb last year, right before christmas. I bought it from a fellow mech-nerd in Germany. He obviously bought two pcbs when they were sold, but he never used the one which I have now :wink:.

And you are right, 8mm is quite deep for a top.
I didn’t plan it that way.
I have two boards with 6mm which I find just a bit to shallow.
So I decided to use 7mm, but in the workshop I realized that we only had 6mm or 8mm on stock.
So I went for the 8mm, let’s see how it turns out…

Here is a first impression of the 8mm top plate, with a DSA keycap.

4 Likes

I have not weighed it yet, but I can already tell that it’s way heavier than my tofu65 with brass plate.

I am still considering switches…
Maybe go all in and make a “loud and heavy”-build, with Kailh Box Navy?
Heavy case, heavy clicky switches, no dampening in the case :wink:

Follow-up: Here is what these switches sound like in my Preonic. I’m very happy with them.

2 Likes

Silky. :ok_hand:

1 Like

I cut the threads and tried a quick test-assembly.
Still quite raw, but everything fits nicely so far.
I’m not sure about the finish yet… Silky-brushed but not high-gloss polish, or glass-bead-blasted?

Total weight of the case alone: 2.2kg

11 Likes

How did you cut it? Do you have a CNC machine?

No, but we have a water jet cutter at work, which we are allowed to use occasionally, as long as we don’t overdo it :wink:
We had som scrap stainless steel plates in the right dimensions and thicknesses, and the cutter was running anyway… So I just popped the dxf-files in.

6 Likes

wow, a lucky man.