Building My $680 Custom Mechanical Keyboard!

what's up guys i'm random frank p and today is finally the day we'll be building my custom mechanical keyboard i've talked about it for a while now probably close to two months it is finally complete uh there's a lot to go over here so sit tight all the stuff that i go over as well we listed for you in the description down below okay so you want to check it out or just find out more about building your own custom keyboard this is one that's very you know true to my aesthetic and the channel so let's start this off so our main building block is the chassis itself the grid 600 from z frontier i first saw this launch last summer i was gonna buy it then but my wife and i literally bought a house that same week and then obviously everything else kind of got backseated a keyboard wasn't a priority however a few months ago something kind of sparked my memory and i googled it real quick to see that it was on its last day of its latest group buy so i hopped on it for 285 dollars now the one thing that i really like about it is it's compact 60 form factor but also the fact that it's modular in a sense they sell these different top modules for the keyboard you can swap out and really give it a custom unique look taking a look at it you can see the stock top module there is just this plain black metal bar but that's what can be swapped out and believe it or not the entire inspiration around this entire build was this extra piece that i bought for this it's called the peaks module this was an extra seventy dollars itself but it really is just the eye candy that ties this entire board together in the end it's a 3d cnc milled aluminum bar that just looks amazing i think all the renders for this showed it was a deep green color in the beginning and the product listing itself is even labeled green but as you can see it's a more darker teal color and that's exactly what i was hoping for what i love about it is how it changes shades depending on the way the light hits it those tessellated angular grooves reflects the light beautifully swapping it out is as easy as removing these six hex screws on the back side which reveals a hollowed out kind of compartment up top for the other module accessories and even things like picking up batteries for a wireless bluetooth setup however this part is going to be one of the last steps because you first have to get the pcb in place before this goes back on so we'll revisit this in a little bit now moving on our pcb of choice is the dz60 rgb from kbd fans this features hot swap sockets for quick and easy switch replacement and does have full rgb lighting built in for those who like colorful rainbow explosions on their board i'm going to keep in mind just a static color in the end to fit the build more evenly and i know people out there more so prefer soldering their switches so there's less wobble and it's just more sturdy when typing but i like having that ability to you know have the hot swap sockets for projects like this or if i ever want to switch out the keys and have to say completely different typing experience i can so for the next part of the build i picked up genuine screw and cherry stabilizers and this is where some of the customizing starts to come into play we have dielectric grease as well as crytox 205 grade zero lube and this is going to be used for lubing the stabilizer as well as some of these switches and stuff and we also have some wire cutters for doing a clipping and band-aid mod for our stabilizers so again now's where the customizing starts to come in so i'm not going to be doing a step-by-step tutorial here but i will run through what i'm doing and why i'm doing it to give you a better idea but i'm disassembling all the stabilizers and we're going to clip these thin pieces of plastic feet on the bottom that kind of protrude out these just kind of bounce off the pcb they have no real purpose here so we're going to clip those and we're going to do that for all of our stabilizer stems next using some crytox 205 grade zero lube from switch mod we're gonna lightly lube the inside this is gonna ensure the stem smoothly moves up and down for a better typing experience and we're gonna be doing the same thing for all of our switches we'll see that in a minute next for the wires we're gonna coat the ends of this in the dielectric grease we picked up again this is so when it's snapped into the actual housing the bar just smoothly rubs up against the plastic since this is gonna be going inside the stem and the stabilizer housing separately we're gonna do this for all four complete stabilizers and our space bar this does get very messy so make sure to have something like a paper towel to wipe your hands and to wipe any excess grease off of the top of the stem itself now we're gonna do the band-aid mod process essentially applying a thin pad for the stabilizers to get mounted on it's called a band-aid mod because you could use band-aids for this i'm just going to be using medical tape it's going to do the same thing in the end but you want to cut pieces the exact length and width of your stabilizers and stick them on the pcb to where they would kind of be mounted to absorb and dampen the sound of the stabilizers when you press on them we're also going to be applying a thin layer of grease on the pads as well it's just smoothing it all then lastly since our stabilizers are screwing we'll be mounting them now this is really going to start to kick off the whole build now getting into the goods our switches are gather on inks from novel keys these are known for being insanely smooth linear switches but we're also going to be painstakingly lubing every single switch here because we're just going to take these switches to the next level again not a tutorial but i'll show you what i'm doing for this and we're going to be using that same 205 grade 0 lube again with linear switches that's kind of the best combination for form so now what you want to do is disassemble every single switch i have a switch opener here that i picked up just easily pops them apart this is going to separate the housings from the stem and the spring so for the bottom housing we want to apply a thin layer of lube to each of the two sides where the stem comes in contact when you actuate it just because you know two parts that rub up against each other naturally are gonna cause a tiny bit of friction and resistance so the lube here is gonna help lessen that we're also gonna apply lube to the top and bottom of the spring as well as all four sides of our stem this is definitely the type of thing where less is more but since i was filming i had to make sure i was in frame and i was in focus the whole time so i promise the other 60 switches aren't as messy as this one then you want to repeat that process for every single switch assemble it back together when you're done and you have yourself a lube switch in the end moving right along i picked up a 10 white acrylic plate from space cat designs they're actually local and i wanted to avoid something like brass or aluminum to cut down the overall sound i just wanted something less you know metallic sounding so i figured acrylic would be a nice alternative then it's just a process of popping in all of our switches using a just a key switch tester i found online to make sure all of them work properly and that they're inserted into the hot swap sockets i went through tested out all the keys and we're golden ponyboy so z frontier actually includes a really nice dampening pad inside the grid 600 already this is where the pcb sits on it so it's not just you know mounted on metal and i'm actually perfectly happy with it but i did have a custom one sent out to me from mkultra and i actually bought a foam from them to sit between the pcb and the acrylic plate as well but it was just slightly too thick didn't quite work but i will be going with their custom bottom dampener here now we're going to insert the completed pcb and mount it to the chassis using all the screws except that middle post because i want this to have more of a softer give when typing and excluding that middle post will give you that end result are you bored yet no good we're almost done so you can see now there's a slight gap from the usb c on our pcb to the top of the back side of the keyboard but they do include a connector for this nice and simple and then from there our pcb is fully connected to the chassis lining up the screws from the bottom of our top uh peaks module we can screw that in place and finally begin to wrap this all up it takes time and patience to build a keyboard like this but filming everything just takes three times as long some extra simple but important parts of this i picked up is that magnetic dish to store all my loose screws when not in use and this electric screwdriver i'll put both the description down below as well but these definitely work handy during this build and can also be helpful for things like pc builds this literally leaves our last two components our keycaps and the cable i wanted caps that match the peaks module but finding something like that color is damn near impossible let alone finding a keycap set that's actually available right now to buy and isn't just a render or looks completely different from the render soul dark i'm looking at you you bastard however i found an older set from 2017 sa abyss these have three different pantones that in the right lighting just perfectly matches the peaks module and adds a bit of pop in the teal accents our glorious matching teal cable is from juju cables found him on instagram i'll link him down below highly recommend him uh this custom coil cable spans the width of our top module and looks dope i told him what i wanted and showed him the color that i wanted it matched to he instantly recommended his teal and the black tech flex and the end result is just perfect from there i changed the rgb lighting in the board to a light teal color and boom the grid 600 is completed after weeks and weeks and weeks of waiting and waiting low key though what the hell is up with that n key being so high i tried to manipulate it a bit so it would like sit lower but that's a minor fix that i can go through and do another day uh the end result as a whole i am very very happy with and now the moment you've all been waiting for a sound test of our lubed gatoron ink switches just to note though i left the three key unlubed so you can hear a pretty stark difference between lubed and un-lubed again when it's actually in the board so that'll wrap it up for my custom grid 600 keyboard hope you guys enjoyed this whole process took so long but in the end definitely worth it and this cost me 680 now is that a lot of money yes is that way more than your corsair your razer your steel series keyboard yes definitely but this is the complete opposite of those keyboards in every way this thing is a tank if i hit someone with this they would die but the whole thing around these custom keyboards is the fact that it is so unique to us yes there's custom you know grid 600 keyboards out there already that people have but is it the same switches that are lubed with the keycaps and the foam and all the modifications and stuff probably not this is a complete one-off custom one to me and the whole experience of getting everything and making it is what makes the whole keyboard enthusiast you know community so special uh but yeah 680 is a lot of money but in the end it's a really um unique keyboard and that's why i like it now i'm still up in the air on sa abyss like i can't stress enough how difficult it is to find a perfectly matched keycap set to that top module because everything out there is either in a group by phase or interest check phase or just a render or it's not available uh but i think sa abyss does match it pretty closely to what i wanted but what i also did was i went to max keyboards and i designed my very own keycap set like from the the font to the icons and everything and in the end i think it looks great it came out really well done i think it's just slightly a little bit too reflective and glossy on the black keycaps but let me know down below what you guys think do you like the essay abyss or the custom keycaps that i made from max keyboards so i'd love to hear your thoughts and stay tuned for a few months down the line when we kind of tear this down and make a completely new uh custom keyboard with a different top module and different keycaps so we're gonna be reviving this again in a completely different build probably won't see that until the holidays because that's when the actual keycaps get produced and ship out now you see my keycap dilemma but yeah figured i'd build the the hype for that a bit you're going to like that one as well but yeah that'll do it for my grid 600 hope you enjoyed if you like this video give it a big thumbs up show your support feel free to follow me on twitter randomfrankp at last if you haven't already hit that subscribe button hope you enjoyed have a good day

Channel: randomfrankp

Views: 1,688,012

Rating: 4.8786364 out of 5

Keywords: randomfrankp, 2019, keyboard, custom keyboard, grid 600 keyboard, grid 600 flash, gateron ink switches, gateron ink sound test, lubed keyboard, how to lube switches, gateron ink lubed, dz60rgb pcb, rgb keyboard, 60 keyboard, 60 keyboard gaming, grid 600 peaks, building a custom keyboard, build, building, sound test, typing test, 4k, tfue keyboard, custom keyboard cable, custom keyboard build, 60 percent mechanical keyboard, mechanical keyboard, asmr, build a keyboard, how to

Id: FSBFCx59fF8

Length: 12min 27sec (747 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 02 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/AsianFork]

I love how he's showing more and more of the mechkeyboards community.

[u/SQunX]

you didn't know?

[u/dnelsonn]

Him and hardware canucks have been putting out quite a few videos for custom mechs! It's been really nice to see two big tech channels showcasing more than just gamer boards.