deciding what exactly to build for this video took a lot of thought on the one
hand we didn't want to go too overboard but since the point was for some of the
enthusiasts here to share their passion for keyboard customization we also
didn't want to go too basic and miss out on presenting some of the more fun
options even if they aren't the most wallet friendly on that note when you're
making this decision for yourself the first consideration after your budget
set a budget should be your layout what's right for you a tiny little 40%
board with several function layers to jot down your Memoir or maybe you want a
fulls sized 104 keyboard for productivity and entering data and
spreadsheets maybe you'll land in between there are Endless Options with
new layouts coming out all the time but the most common are your 60 and 65% 75%
tkl or 10 keyless and 1800 there are also alternate layouts
like ortholinear and Alice and split for the ergonomic minded folks but I'm
boring so I've gone with the new tofu 65 2.0 from kbd fans the original tofu 60
and 65 are pretty common recommendations for an entrylevel but very Enthusiast
tier keyboard unfortunately in the few years since their release the classic
tray mounts that they used have fallen out of favor thankfully the new keyboard
kit that they sent over includes three mounting options top mount silicone
gasket or silicone Bowl which we are
going to be trying for the first time more on that later for now all you need
to know is that you can purchase your case PCB plate stabilizer switches and
anything else that you would like separately and build it fully custom but
you don't have to anymore many of them come in kits like this that include just
about everything that you need except for you know switches and key caps I
mean uh those are kind of critical first
a nice thing about the tofu 65 is the fact that it is hot swap which makes
trying out new switches or replacing defective ones much easier compared to
if everything is soldered in place now soldering does have a few advantages
like some added stability more layout options and no risk of your switches
popping out when you go to change your key caps but it's so convenient to be
able to just pop switches onto your board like this anytime you want that
this is absolutely what we' recommend for novice to intermediate Builders
especially those aren't 100% sure that they want to be married to the first
switches that they choose for those of you looking for a challenge by the way
you can convert a solder only PCB into a
hot swappable one but that's beyond the scope of today's video today's video
which needs a message from our sponsor build Redux build Redux builds fully
customizable gaming PCs for any budget see how your favorite games perform with
their online pc Builder so you dominate in war zone and not Candy Crush unless
you you want that head to build ru.com Linus and start your new rig today our
kit today is a bit more expensive than the 60% version but for our $190 we're
getting a lot we've got an aluminum case with a brass weight a plate in the
material of your choice both silicone gasket mounting options as well as
smaller screws for top mount laser cut pour on bottom and plate foam and Eva
switch pad a set of feet and Cherry screwing stabilizers moreon all of these
as we go and don't worry if this guy and
a set of switches and key caps are out of your budget don't sweat it you can
follow along with any of the still very good options that we've got linked down
below for as low as 40 bucks you'll probably be looking at a plastic chassis
maybe fewer plate options and no frills like bottom weights or added foam but
kits like these are a great way to both learn the basics and to get typing and
feel free to spend those savings by the way on our new circuit deskpad which is
a great fit for whatever keyboard you end up building let's start with our PCB
these can come anywhere from completely bare in which case you'll need to solder
on Parts like LEDs resistors or controllers yourself to fully populated
with hot swappable sockets so there is zero soldering involved sometimes
they're pretty rigid but it's becoming more and more common to see Flex Cuts
not only around the frro or other modifiers but also to break up the
alphas like this this contributes to to a less harsh bottoming out feeling but
without the mushiness associated with membranes and it might seem like a small
and insignificant detail partly because it is but this practically infinite
customizability is a huge part of what draws people into this hobby whether
it's the big factors like the actuation forces of your switches or fine ones
like the viscosity of your Lube or PCB Flex all of it is going to make a
difference in both sound and feel as you type or game so I guess what I'm trying
to say is speed holes are in fashion now but if you don't like them that is
totally 100% okay moving on failures are
rare but you should still always do a quick test of each socket on your PCB
before you build the fastest way to do this is to lay your PCB on something
non-conductive I'd recommend the box that came in plug it into your computer
open a keyboard testing site like via we're going to have a couple of those
linked down below then using a pair of conductive tweezers or a paperclip
Bridge each socket one by one and check to ensure that the key press registers
now it's time to actually build and step one is adding our stabilizers now most
of the keys on a board are a size of one U they won't need them but bigger Keys
like shift enter and tab will typically range anywhere from 1 and 1/2 to 2 and
1/2 u with the space bar generally being the biggest at around 6.25 U A good rule
thumb is that anything over to you needs a stabilizer to stay well stable to see
what what this looks like let's flip our space bar upside down here you can see
three mounting points one in the middle for the switch and then one on either
side for the stabilizers without these two side mounts pressing your space bar
anywhere other than right dead center is going to result in a sort of seesaw
lever action this will fix it but wait
if we screwed them into our PCB without Lube Well we'd be able to hear the wire
scratching and rattling around inside the stabs well I mean it wouldn't affect
the functionality right no no okay right
but but but but it would be awful right
yes and we can fix that in about 20 minutes if we care and we do there are a
few ways to do this but we are going to use some dialectric grease for the bars
and krytox 25g lube for the housing then
for bonus points we're going to be using Flush Cutters to clip off these little
raised sections here that can poke into the PCB awkwardly when they're pressed
down if your stabs don't have those little feet by the way don't start
randomly cutting things off many of the newer ones are starting to come pre-
clipped so you could end up screwing something up in either case the next
step is to lube our housing like so applying a light layer to the inside
once that's done you just pop the insert back in making sure to orient the side
with the hole here with the side that's open grease up the end of the
bar that's greased all right then insert the bar and click it into place
stable now before we move on I just want to quickly mention that there are more
than just Cherry screw stabilizers like we have today there are different
mounting Styles snap in screw in or plate mounted or you might even open up
your keyboard and find a different style of stabilizer all together co-star
stabilizers look like this and while they can be lubed up there's not much
else you can do with them so thankfully these are less common these days and
Optical stabilizers like you'd find in an optical keyboard well those can't be
modified at all at least at this time so
Cherry screws it is for us now at this point if you still hear a little bit of
rattle I guess I can kind of force it but this is certainly acceptable to me
anyway there are two more steps you can take one of them is a serious pain in
the butt it's called a holy mod and involves adding tiny strips of bandage
or other padding material to the inside surfaces of the insert some full kit
cases actually come with pre-cut strips like these ones but whatever you use the
idea is the same it's to stop the wire from making contact with the plastic
hamaji Neo actually has a great video on how to do this so feel free to go check
that out we're going to have it linked in the video description I am not that fussy
obviously so we're going to do the easier mod now the old way of doing this
one also involves cutting up bits of bandages but since it's more Common
Premium kits often come with little padded stickers either with or without
holes in the center since some folks don't like the actual insert hitting the
pad now our tofu kit didn't come with these but luckily we had some lying
around from another kit now for the record not Everyone likes adding these
and some finds that it makes certain stabilizers feel a tad mushy especially
before they're broken in but I was told
I had to do it so all you got to do then
is line up the smaller side with the smaller stabilizer screw hole and The
Wider side where the stabs hook into the PCB and stick it on some people actually
like to add a bit of lube to these before installing their stabilizers over
top of them but maybe you could try it without first and then see how you feel
about it once those are on we'll install the stabilizers by hooking them onto the
bigger opening then pushing both sides into place then you'll need the spacers
or washers that come with your stab kit we're just going to use these washers
that came with a different kit as long as you have a magnetic screwdriver LTD
store.com just take the washer put it on the screw
and screw it in from the back
side it's it's nice good job good job L one last trick
by the way if it's still not quiet enough for you you can take a syringe
and squeeze a little bit more Lube into the stabilizers after you've installed
them on the board wait why didn't we just do that in the first place that sounds way
easier it
doesn't we could just stick some lube at the edges here it would work its way in
and then we could just syringe some lube into there with a needle and what like
you just have to like type on it for a bit and then be fine but that's the
thing is you got to type on it for a while yeah that's fine oh my God that
would take like a tenth the amount of time any who now it's time to assemble
our p PB and get the rest of our keyboard ready for the case remember
those Foams that I mentioned early ah yes here they are adding any layer or
combination of layers of these is going to dampen or otherwise affect the sound
now some of the more popular materials include polyurethane poron that's this
one right here neoprene sorbothane and
Eva if your kit didn't come with foam but you want some anyway there are a few
websites out there that will do custom laser cut foam for specific cases in key
caps but realistically White Packing foam like this can be found for cheap or
free and does a pretty okay job the
question though is whether this should be done at all and that's not even just
me being all all of this is unnecessary
anyway many purists will argue that an expensive keyboard doesn't need foam and
should sound fantastic without it but
for more budget boards it can help a lot again it's all up to your personal
preference but since it's part part of our kit we're going to use all three
layers we're going to start with the top foam and Eva switch pad then once
they're aligned we're going to put the plate on top to sandwich the whole thing
together before we start popping in our switches but before we do that we have
to talk about our plate that's a good thing we didn't forget that the plate
stabilizes your key switches and adds some rigidity to the board but its main
role is to keep the stress off of the PCB when you're typing now like
everything else there are a ton of options for materials Each of which
affects the feel and especially the sound of the typing experience kbd fans
sent us polycarbonate aluminum and fr4
fiberglass to choose from they've also got a carbon fiber option but they
didn't send that over other popular choices for other boards include palm
and Brass we're going to go with the poly carb today for a lower pitch sound
and a little bit more flex but if you're looking for something stiffer and higher
pitched then aluminum would be a really good way to go for our switches we've
gone with Gaton blizzards these are five
pin 60 G tactile switches with pre-applied Lube which is going to save
us a couple of hours some enthusiasts would still apply their own Lube but
Factory pre- lubing has apparently gotten a lot better over the last couple
of years and I think it's fair to say that this is going to get us at least
90% of the way there that's not always true though we have both unlubed and
preed nixes from Cherry and we couldn't really feel a whole lot of difference
but then if we compare the unlubed one to a switch we lubed ourselves it's no
contest apparently okay I've got to feel this I assume this is the one that you
lubed the quieter one okay all right well it is better so fine if you have to
lube your own switches here's how you do it hop open your switch with a Handy
Switch opener these can also be Pride open with fingernails or other tools but
a switch opener makes it about 100 times easier then disassemble everything but
the pins you should be left with a top housing bottom housing stem and a spring
now don't just start start throwing Lube at it because this process can vary a
little bit depending on whether you're lubing linear switches tactiles or
clickies linear they're kind of hard to screw up since there's no bump there's
no feel for you to really worry about but with tactiles and clickies you've
got to be careful not to over Lube or you can end up removing a lot of the
feel and sound especially for clickies
so for linear take a small brush take your stem and brush a thin layer of
krytox 205g along just about anywhere
except except the stem now to be clear 205g is not the Beall and end all of
switch Lube it's just pretty common and we happen to have some on hand once
that's done take the bottom housing and apply another thin layer on the stem
rails particularly with linear you can coat a bit more of the bottom housing in
the leaves but it's not always necessary as for your Springs we're going to go
with the lazy container Lube method where you take all your Springs Chuck
them in a container with some krytox 105 and then shake them up until you've got
a nice thin coating on them you can absolutely Lube your Springs
individually for best results but wow
does it ever take forever so we are not going to be doing that today once each
component is lubed up just put it back together and you're done or at least
you're probably done at this point something we haven't mentioned yet is
switch film which is meant to fix flimsy wobbly housings by adding a small layer
of material to fill any gaps most modern switches don't need them but if yours do
you just add the film to the lower housing before pushing the switch back
together great good job now repeat the process between 70 and 110 more times
and you should be good to go can't say the same for your fingers but yeah now
since our PCB is hot swappable you can do this last if you'd prefer but as long
as you've got a soft surface to work on and you don't press too hard you'll be
all right we're going to put our switches on now just take your switch
line up the pins with the holes uh some sockets might require you to R rotate 90
or 180° so make sure you watch for that
then press it down one pro tip by the way is that if you do all the corners
first it helps keep everything in place while you install the rest of the
switches during this process it's possible that you will accidentally
smush one of the contact pins on your switch if that happens don't worry about
it too much first of all you can usually use some pliers to straighten them out
and try again and second switches generally come in packs of 10 so you'll
probably have a few extras anyway a quick visual inspection to make sure the
pins are poking through later and I think we're almost done we're almost
done right yeah I I swear we're almost done anyway we know we want to gasket
Mount today but the question is how gasket mounting involves sandwiching the
plate in between the top and bottom case with pieces of rubber or foam now for
the traditional gasket Mount we could attach these little sockies on our PCB
but these bowls are apparently the new hotness or something so we're going to
try those out to be clear gasket mounts are not the only way to mount the PCB
there's your tray Mount top mount bottom
mount sandwich Mount integrated plate
Mount gasket Mount Leaf Spring Mount
that's about it now we're going to put our bottom half to the side for this
part tweezers are your best friend you're going to take these little strips
of foam there and insert them into these
little recesses in the underside of the top plate
with these in place we're going to go back to our bottom case and add the
little bowls uh tweezers also appear to
be my friend here we went with the middle stiffness to start cuz we've
never really tried this Mount before but our kit came with three different
stiffnesses 50 60 and 70 before we
assemble we need to add our bottom foam layer an alternative to this is actually
painters tape though if you just lay strips of it across the bottom of the
PCB with cutouts for your reset switch uh resistors any onard board
microcontrollers or anything like that then you can just add as many layers as
you like as long as they still fit in the case to achieve the desired result
usually anywhere from 2 to four is enough another cheap and cheerful mod
that seems to work like magic is the force break mod this is kind of like
creating a gasket for our case which should help reduce Hollow and ping
particularly if you don't already have any other kind of foam layers installed
to achieve this one you take some more painters tape or electrical tape and add
tin strips on either side of the screw holes helping to reduce the metal
on-metal sounds of your closed case now
that that's done let's take our sandwich screw in the daughter board then lower
it slowly onto the bowls on the bottom
case good gravy lower it onto the
bowls I mean that seems like it's on the
bowls now we just put this
on and then ever so ever so
carefully who That's Heavy we flip the
whole thing over and screw it back
together now we put these on these are
really nice this my friends is how you
do a rubber foot okay no adhesive just a
nice little Groove and it sticks in the screw holes so getting at the screws
later is super easy but it still looks perfectly clean
woo that's something we're
done well sort of um I guess key caps
would make things a little bit more pleasant we've got a few different
options to show off here key caps are the most outwardly obvious way to show
off your style so obviously personal preference plays a major role here but
it's generally accepted that your average PBT key cap is better than your
average ABS key cap since PBT is a more durable plastic that tends to wear out
both more slowly and more pleasingly but
while the average ABS key cap will quickly turn into a shiny mess that
doesn't mean that all abs keycaps are bad gmk for instance uses higher quality
abs for their keyc cap sets though they are known for being quite pricey on that
note there are plenty of other materials that you could consider when you're
choosing keycaps um rubber wood ceramic
metal I mean people are constantly experimenting with both materials and
profiles you're probably used to the Cherry profile but what about sa XDA Kat
the keycaps profile is all about the shape do you want something that's more
flat and uniform or something that's tall and sculpted differently per Row
the only way to know what's right for you realistically is to just try them so
we'd highly recommend experimenting with some cheap keycap sets from your
favorite online retailer before you go with something fancy I've settled on
these clear purple key caps these are are clear 2048 for our build today but
there's a certain element of luck involved in picking a keycap set not
every set is available in every layout
is your kit NY is it ISO do you need a
stepped key cap is your space bar long at 7uu or is it on the shorter side for
a split or a condensed layout sometimes you can make an almost fit set work with
your board but you might end up with some empty space that exposes the plate
in PCB which isn't the greatest looking thing there are workarounds it's pretty
popular to have accent keys in different colors so you could just take that one
that doesn't fit and replace it with something else and put on some other
accent keys or you could fill some of the odd sizes that you didn't account
for with one of the many novelty custom key caps that come in various shapes
colors and sizes the only drawback with these aside from the uh cost is that you
might wait months or even a year to get them in some cases before we actually
try it something we already touched on in the last video is adding O-rings to
your key caps you could do every key or just your stabilizer Keys like the space
bar and enter but this again is personal
preference so you would just take your o-ring pop it over where the stem
inserts on the underside of the key cap and you're good to go depending on the
hardness and the thickness of your o-ring this could add undesirable mush
though so it's not for everyone it's just a fast and inexpensive mod that can
improve your sound when you're bottoming out your keys I swear to you this looks
a a lot better in person than it does on camera that helps a little but
um yeah really doesn't capture the right purple
tone well let's go ahead and plug it in now
we just fire up monkey type
and
oops h
well I can't type on it but it sounds really good why don't I try that
again all right sounds pretty good not
bad it does sound good now you can go a
step further and use via to map whatever function layers or key Bindings that you
would like at least you can if your keyboard has qmk firmware via won't work
with everything but the nice thing about 65% is that you've got basically
everything ready to go with the use of a function key for the missing frow and
that's it if there's anything you think we missed or didn't have time for leave
a comment down below where we'll have links for all the items that we use
today but we're done and all right all
right it's pretty cool I mean well like cool and like a you know you get it uh
the point is if you're not happy with yours you can change it an unlimited
number of times until you get the sound and feel that you like best because at
the end of the day it's your keyboard and at the end of the video it's my
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check out our last mechanical keyboard build we don't show off all the modern
Creature Comforts and the latest mods but it was still an interesting project
it was a different time it was very peac meal