Design and Fabrication of a Custom All-Metal Keyboard | banoa102

I design, code, fabricate and test an all-metal aluminum custom mechanical keyboard with a bespoke case, layout, PCB, and keycaps. An overview of the process is given for each aspect of the design, and I document the project through photos, videos, and memes. Approximately 800 hours were invested in the project, which I named the banoa102.

0:00 Intro
00:31 Making a Custom Mechanical Keyboard
01:12 PCB Design 1
02:32 Code Stuff
03:11 Interlude 1: Rambling
03:34 CAD
04:40 Simulation
05:10 PCB Design and Testing
06:21 Fabrication
08:07 Interlude 2: CNC Noises
08:25 Rambling and Fabrication
09:34 Wrapping Things Up
10:52 Side Quest: Keycap Machining
13:53 Showing Off Senior Capstone Project
14:21 More Keycap CNC Machining
15:09 Test Fitting Everything and Powering On
16:02 Anodizing Keycaps, Lubing Switches
16:36 Sound Test
17:09 Actually Wrapping Up
18:04 Photos Montage and Some Thoughts
18:56 Thank You
19:39 End

[cxob]

A lot of people laughed at me for building a keyboard with a numpad on the left. "Oh you put it on the wrong side"...
But even for right handers there is a good reason to put the num pad on the left.
I do a lot of CAD and my right hand is occupied with the mouse and i need to punch in number constantly. A left numpad makes this so much better!

[OGS_or_Z]

OMFG... This is a PhD thesis of custom keyboard. The results, as well as the work process, are insanely cool man.

[derrickmma]

Holy shit. As an owner of a few custom mechanical keyboards and a fellow incoming mechanical engineering grad student this has to be one of the most impressive and tedious projects I've seen. Love that you ran FEA on it just because you could.

[varazarael]

wow a genuine 1/1 custom keyboard. great job!

[HorizonMakes]

This is absolutely nuts, the sheer dedication needed to go into the machine shop day after day, week after week to toil away at fabricating all these keycaps is just insane to me. Props to your uni machine shop for letting you go through with it, too!

[TheBigYappa]

Before I looked at the view count I thought this video was made by a big shot, keep it up man.

[Firesoul]

I like epic quests, wacky humour, documentaries, art, technology, perfectionism, and metal. This had all of that rolled into one. Thank you.

[iatwiatw]

I am now extremely grateful that I can just buy even a crappy keyboard. Holy shit this was a journey. Thanks for sharing!

[pinch-of-salt]

okay first of all you are brilliant my guy, this video randomly showed up in my recommendation I was thinking it's going to be some person doing cad/pcb design and manufacturing from china like the others
but my god!!! I am blown away, you got access to crazy machinery, you have the skills to work on all that, you have amazing faculty/co-workers who supported you through all this and this video is perfectly documented as a sales pitch/thesis

[ivanheffner]

I’m glad I clicked on this. When I started, I just wanted to know where you got all-metal key caps, as they’re rather elusive. Then I realized you _made_ them yourself. In Awe. I have to settle for the ones I bought that almost, but don’t quite, work for the 1800 style keyboard I put together.

When you decide to up yourself, I have three words for you: split contoured ergo.

[lachlanlau]

as a first year mechanical engineering student i am incredibly impressed and horrified at what is to come.

[utilitarian]

This build has been crazy. I won’t lie, I have no idea about anything you talked about but thoroughly enjoyed you sharing it with us.

[tyalk_]

When someone says custom in relation to keyboards I don't expect that level of custom xD
Great video!

[AIShipped]

Amazing mix of memes, advanced yet easy to digest process, and creation. I love it! I look forward to more

[CoastTheTank]

This was a wonderful journey to watch, it looks great man, Im glad you're happy about it!

[TeknoMage]

I'm about to finish my degree in mechanical engineering as well. Watching your video has mage me feel like I missed out on a lot of stuff in the process. I used to be an IT guy and then became a a machinist before realizing I should have become an engineer in the first place. Seeing how well you're doing so early in your working life really highlights how much of my life I wasted. We all have our paths and I'm glad you found yours and the world will probably be a better place for it.

[Beefercow]

This is the best keyboard build on youtube. Amazing to see it all and hope you could somehow sell something like it in the future.

[imzaerb]

The keeb looks unreal bro AMAZING. Can’t believe this video doesn’t go viral yet. Good job you’re one living legend now🤙🏼🤙🏼

[Jwachter]

I gotta say, the most interesting part about this is that you spent much time to design and manufacture a key that was identical to standard keys.

[yykirli]

i love the thank you section at the end. People really underrate the influence of good teachers! Good for you, good for the teacher. You have a bright future, my friend!