Building my First Custom Keyboard!

I knew I was going to like this, but I don't think my wallet is prepared for how much. Today, I'm building my first custom mechanical keyboard, and HOLY $&%@ is this thing amazing!

But first... What am I drinking???

Another beer purchased specifically for the name and label, from Binary Brewing (Portland, OR) comes the HTTPale. How could I not pick this one up?

Some Highland Park Magnus also makes an appearance.

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Music:
Lobby Time by Kevin MacLeod

[EnvAdam]

"I need some cheaper hobbies" I felt that line, after building my first mech I decided to design my own and yeaaah this hobby is costly...

[black.phoenix.]

Wait until you want to lube the stabs, switches, foam or silicone the bottom of the case... Add a custom cable with a Aviator/LEMO connector and you are deep into the rabbit hole without a chance to get out!

Welcome to the Family!

[highvis_supply]

Well there are some good things and some bad things with this build.

The good:
You didn't go for the highly sought after 'thock'

The bad:
You didn't go for the highly sought after 'thock'.

Welcome to the rabbit hole!

[christopheragro]

One thing to note on the QMK layers is that the "Triangle" symbol on the keyboard layout which means "Transparent". Pressing the "layer modifiers" places the layer above the keys that are on that layer. Transparent keys, keep the keycodes of the keys on the layer below. This means you could have, rather than change the media keys, changed them to transparent, and they would have worked as you had originally programmed them on the layer below. QMK is an incredibly powerful layout tool, and you can program just about any macro onto the keyboard, even completely changing the layout from QWERTY to Dvorak and back with just a few keypresses.

[sammie]

First off I really enjoyed the vid and wish you a graceful descension into the rabbit hole.
Now then, I have a couple of recommendations:

1. Install via so you don't have to re-flash your keyboard every time you make a change, it sort of works like iCue 3. it also has a switch tester (caniusevia.com)
2. Gateron greens are very nice but Kailh box Navy's are even more tactile
3. get Durock v2 stabilizers and lube them (also put in the 2 you forgot at the numpad)

Hope you have a nice day man

[HayBayle]

One of us, one of us! Man, I had a similar experience with the stabs. After I had soldered all the switches on, the space bar wire has slipped out of its housing. Thankfully I managed to shimmy it in place! Built a KBD72V2 with lubed gateron blacks, with foam padding. Absolute pleasure to use! Lubing the switches took slightly more time than this build did though, heh! I may or may not have gone all in on this one... to my wallets duress. Oh well!

Got a bit spooked when you didn't test the pcb before building, but good to see it worked out great in the end! May it serve you well.

[hucklejoko]

Everytime a tech YouTuber discovers the wonders of custom mechanical keyboards I squeal of joy and stay amused throughout the video. This truly is a wonderful opportunity for everyone to learn about the wonders of the Clack and the Thock

[timreddington]

Cheers! Welcome to the hobby. If you like tactility look into Box Jades/Navys or any of the other Kailh clickbar switches. Alps (Mathias) also make some very tactile switches but boards lack hotswap/keycap compatibility.

3d printers for the next expensive hobby?

[whirledpeaz]

Steel screws in an Aluminum chassis mean greater potential for stripped threads in the expensive CNC chassis and galvanic corrosion.

[TheManicGeek]

LOL your genuine reactions to the keyboard case were classic! Glad you had a positive first-time experience with your board, it turned out really nice! Now that you've found the rabbit hole, I can show you just how deep it goes... *takes out Red Pill*

[DesFTW_]

I've built 2 custom boards and am going to be swapping switches on my keycheron k4 v2. My first board was just gateron browns in a 64% layout. My second was kailh speed coppers that I lubed (also 64%). I'll be honest, the process of lubing the switches was worth it but it took more than double the amount of time of my first build. Glad to see more people getting into it

[xxxxx]

Its an addictive hobby. I wont lie I kinda regret getting into custom keyboards. I am at work. A retail/repair store and brought my own keyboard today because I hate typing on the normal keyboards. I am spoiled now. In my down time I have been lubing the switches on this board today but I do kinda regret this hobby. But damn does typing feel and sound good now.

Just wait till you fall down the rabbit hole of lubing. I would however highly recommend lubing the stabilizers. That is the biggest improvement to feel and sound. OH also look into VIA. Its like QMK but better. I mean it is QMK but a more friendly UI.

[engonzal]

This was great, this is 100% the type of hobby i would get into. I will avoid it like the plague to protect my wallet lol.

[AlexZanderMuro]

awesome keyboard! if you like that profile of keycaps, you should take a peek at the MT3 profile. It's slightly more dished and a bit less "flat" across the rows, but is really great for typing and knowing where your keys are imo. theres also some really cool color schemes out there.

[AerinRavage]

11:42 I'm glad I'm not the only one who flips off misbehaving inanimate objects! Also, I don't want to hold the case. I want more of that resonance sound ASMR as you moved it in your hands!

[BA-oyuo]

You also should not use the stock stabilizers, they are really rattly and noisy, I recommend durock v2 stabilizers, and lube them with some dilectric grease or switch lube, band-aid modding also helps to get rid of the rattle, there are a lot of tutorials for that on YouTube and as someone who has used that mod I recommend doing it

[parzival]

Went for this exact same build last year except I went for the wooden case so I could do some art on it. One of my favorite things is setting the two keys to the right of the space bar to volume up and volume down. Fn+numlock to open calculator, home for my pc, fun+end for sleep

[kellyteague]

Love the reaction after getting the case out!!!

[davidg]

As soon as you got that Marsback searchlight, I just *knew* there would eventually be a custom keyboard video! A good mechanical keyboard really does feel great to type on.
I'm surprised no one in the comments was triggered by you installing the stabs in different orientations. Keyboard nuts tend to get even more CDO than other enthusiasts! (Yes, CDO. Alphabetical order, the way it should be.)

[RubyRoks]

That intro is a mood and a half. It's nice to get a fresh opinion on custom mechs. I've been watching a certain member of the keyboard enthu-community who's a bit of an elitist even if he's rather knowledgeable and it's nice to hear positivity towards MX based switches and smaller/non 101/104-key formfactors. If this does become an expensive recurring hobby, hopefully keyboard videos become somewhat lucrative to compensate