Build your own Mechanical Keyboard… the RIGHT Way

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 full-sized 104 keyboard for productivity and entering data in 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 percent 75 percent tkl or 10 keyless and 1800 there are also alternate layouts like ortholinear and Allison split for the ergonomically 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 entry-level 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 keycaps I mean 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 every thing 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 keycaps 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'd recommend for novice to intermediate Builders especially those who 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 Warzone and not Candy Crush unless you want that head to build redux.com Linus and start your new rig today our kit today is a bit more expensive than the 60 version but for our 190 US Dollars 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 pore on bottom and plate foam and Eva switch pad a set of feet and Cherry screw and stabilizers more on all of these as we go and don't worry if this guy and a set of switches and keycaps 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 desk pad 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 afro or other modifiers but also to break up the alphas like this this contributes 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 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 gonna have a couple of those linked down below then using a pair of conductive tweezers or a paper clip 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 1u they won't need them but bigger Keys like shift enter and tab will typically range anywhere from one and a half to two and a half U with the space bar generally being the biggest at around 6.25 U A good rule of thumb is that anything over 2u needs a stabilizer to stay well stable to see 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 spacebar anywhere other than right dead center is going to result in a sort of C saw 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 steps well I mean it wouldn't affect the functionality right no okay right but but but but it would be awful right yeah 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 Dielectric grease for the bars and cry Talk's 25g zero 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 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-in 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 altogether CoStar 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 while those can't be modified at all at least at this time so Cherry screwings it is for us now at this point if you still hear a little bit of rattle and 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 imagine 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 gonna 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 lttstore.com you just take the washer put it on the screw and screw it in from the back side that's it's nice good job 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 [Music] 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 anywho now it's time to assemble our PCB and get the rest of our keyboard ready for the case remember those Foams that I mentioned are the oh 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 sorbathane 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 and keycaps 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 of our kit we're going to use all three layers we're going to start with these 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 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 polycarb today for a lower pitched 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 gadaron blizzards these are five pin 60 gram 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 percent of the way there that's not always true though we have both unlubed and pre-lubed nixies from Cherry we couldn't really feel a whole lot of difference but then if we compare the unlooped 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 okay all right well it is better so fine if you have to live your own switches here's how you do it pop open your switch with a Handy Switch opener these can also be pried 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 throwing Lube at it because this process can vary a little bit depending on whether you're looping linear switches tactiles or clickies linears 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 overloop or you can end up removing a lot of the feel and sound especially for clickies so for linears take a small brush take your stem and brush a thin layer of crytok's 205 g0 along just about anywhere except the stem now to be clear 205 g0 is not the be all and end-all of switch Lube it's just pretty common and we happen to to have some on hand once that's done take the bottom housing and apply another thin layer on the stem rails particularly with linears 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 cry talks 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 then 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 some sockets might require you to rotate 90 or 180 degrees 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 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 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 gonna 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 tweezers also appear to be my friend here we went with the middle stiffness to start because 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 resistors any onboard micro controllers 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 two to four is enough another cheap and cheerful mod that seems to work like magic is the force brake mod this is kind of like creating a gasket for our case which should help reduce hollowness 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 tiny 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 right I mean that seems like it's on the Bulls now we just put this on and then ever so ever so carefully oh 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 whoa that's something we're done well sort of um I guess keycaps would make things a little bit more pleasant we've got a few different options to show off here keycaps 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 keycap is better than your average ABS keycap since PBT is a more durable plastic that tends to wear out both more slowly and more pleasingly but while the average ABS keycap 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 keycap 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 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 k-a-t the keycaps profile is all about this shape do you want something that's more flat and uniform form 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 keycaps these 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 it your kit and see is it ISO do you need a stabbed keycap is your space bar long at 7u 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 keycaps that come in various shapes colors and sizes the only drawback with these aside from the cost is that you might wait months or even a year to get them in some cases but before we actually try it something we already touched on in the last video is adding O-rings to your keycaps 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 keycap 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 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 whoops hmm 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 afro 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 think about like cool in 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 Segway to today's sponsor pulse way don't let managing servers Steal Away Your Life Energy leaving you a dried out soulless husk like Colton with pulse ways remote monitoring and management software you'll feel like an it Jedi 24 7 even while sleeping pulse waste platform gives you the power to manage your it infrastructure from anywhere at any time it's accessible through whatever device is closest to you so you really can be anywhere in the galaxy and still control every system it's for their own good so bring balance to the chaos of it management with pulse waves advanced technology the best part is you can try it for free today and see how it feels to be a true it Master click on the link below to start your free trial now and may the remote access be with you I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say that is it trademarked if you enjoyed this video 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 piecemeal

Channel: Linus Tech Tips

Views: 1,328,976

Keywords: KBDFans, Tofu, Keyboard, Mechanical Keyboard, Keyboard Switch, 65%, Gateron Blizzard, Hot Swap, Build Guide, Stabilizers, Foam

Id: bBon6WwkdJE

Length: 25min 7sec (1507 seconds)

Published: Sun May 21 2023