Building my First Custom Mechanical Keyboard (with zero soldering)

hey everybody how's it going my name is mayuko and welcome back to my channel as you can tell from the title of this video it is time like finally time for me to open up pandora's box and build my very first ever mechanical keyboard i've talked about keyboards multiple times before on this channel things like desk setups stream setups as well as a video i made about the best keyboards for programmers as well as my most recent hhkb purchase but i have yet to actually build one because i've always just bought like the ones that are pre-built and i have this amazing opportunity to build one because the folks that keeps for all sent me a keyboard kit i'm scared to start this because yes it's gonna just turn into an expensive hobby because it is it just is i know that like a lot of y'all build keyboards and i have a lot of friends who build mechanical keyboards and i know it's an expensive hobby but goodness i just wanna try it out so this is gonna be kind of like a build with me video going to show you like my live reactions some parts are probably going to be a little boring and monotonous because it's going to be a lot of like similar repetitive notions but hey we're going to hang out and it's going to be fun if you're into these kinds of videos or just into my personality and you enjoy watching this one because i don't know maybe you're gonna live vicariously through me or something like that then make sure to click subscribe also make sure to join my membership program right here on youtube by clicking the join button for as low as 99 cents per month you get access to a lot of different exclusive perks as well as an exclusive video that pairs along with this one i guess we should build it i'm gonna move this because heaven knows that i am gonna spill it and we can't have those kind of errors here today so let me go get the parts oh goodness there's a lot of stuff okay i have opened some of them but some of these i haven't opened before so let's take a look-see all right inside box number one we've got oh pink keycaps oh and black on white japanese keycaps oh and stickers that's so nice we'll open these in a little bit let's take a look inside box number two oh desk mats oh these are hefty thank you that's so nice let's take a look at these keycaps real quick okay so before i open everything and we get started with building i just want to say a huge thank you to keeps for all for sending me all of this they're a really small company and they're just starting to get into the kind of mechanical keyboard space and they sent me all this stuff because they're really enthusiastic about helping me build my very first ever mechanical picky board so thank you so much you can check them out in the description box down below and you can buy all of these things minus the cute little desk mats as a whole entire package uh pre-order starts from september 20th to october 4th okay let's look let's look at these pink ones first oh i like this ombre look at this wow okay okay i'm into it i believe there's two rows of key caps here so there's this one careful and this one oh i like it i'm not a huge pink fan to be honest but like this ombre i can totally get with i love it next i'm going to open the blue ones because i have taken a look at these but i just wanted to show you what they look like this is like one of my favorite colors of navy blue so i think i think this is what i'm going to put on there we'll see what the black on white also looks like too but it comes with this and then these keys i think these actually come with more a lot of these products are non-final a lot of them are still prototypes so i would definitely consult the website for the final packaging and what's included but this blue is gorgeous i like it a lot okay and then last but not least black on white japanese keycaps oh that's clean i think i think i'm gonna have to go with these i like this white and this black color and the japanese keyboard part just screams like it's me it's me and a keyboard you know let's take a look at what's underneath oh these are so cute i like that a lot it's very japanesey oh they also sent me these keycaps they're very cute they're izakaya themed and i thought that was also a very me thing because i love izakaya beer related things i i like it too and then here's the build kit so it comes in a really nice carrying case apparently this is not the final color it's gonna match the actual keycap colors but i've never had a keyboard case before so i guess i can travel with my keyboard now it's gonna make me that super extra person at the airport and the cafes and you know what i'm okay with it so let's take a look here we go okay so the kit name is called the free bird 60 full kit this is the case that it comes with it's really hefty this is an e coated aluminum case it comes in black navy olive and white this is not the final version again this is still a prototype but goodness this this got some weight on it and i really like that the silicone goes all the way across instead of like the tiny little rubber feet and then let's look inside what's here so these are stabilizers and then there's also some o-rings and screws in there there's more o-rings and screws in that one it comes with the usb-c to usb cord and then here's the pcb board and the switch plate okay here's the switch plate again this is not a final color apparently there's gonna be one that's gonna match this um case color so it's gonna come in white as well as black and aluminum silicone dampener for the thawkiness thank you love that and then here's the pcb case oh goodness i hope i don't like short this or anything i am scared of using electronics because whenever i handle them scott who majored in electrical engineering and knows a lot more about this stuff is like oh you go don't touch that one part so i'm just gonna be really careful with it but you know it'll probably be fine it'll probably be fine i think i'll be okay okay so here's the pcb board on the back it says keebs for all which is great so this pcb board is the fb60 hot swappable pcb board so i don't have to solder anything which literally that was like one of the biggest blockers really for me in wanting to build a keyboard because i suck at soldering i'm not gonna lie to you i am terrible at soldering and it terrifies me so the fact that i can literally just push things in and it works my kind of mechanical keyboard gotta say oh almost forgot gotta show the different switches that they sent me so these switches are gateron milky yellows apparently they're very quiet and they're very cute so i'm excited to try them out i've only ever really typed on cherry mx keys as well as the whatever is inside the hhkb what is it called what is it called i want to say it starts with the th this one this one is what i'm thinking about so the folks at cubesforall sent me all this they also sent me like a lovely build guide which i did watch but i'm not gonna lie to you i don't really know what i'm doing i'm very bad at electronics i'm just i like things to be in a complete state but you know what today is a day for trying new things and seeking out new possibilities and learning and probably making a mistake or two but at the end of it i'm hoping i'm promising myself that there will be a keyboard that i will add an audio test for at the very end because that's like one of my favorite things about keyboard videos that i get to add this like audio test at the end to show you how it sounds using a really good microphone okay let's get building i don't remember what i'm supposed to do first okay so here's what i'm going to do first because this is the easiest thing i'm going to put this thing on here because that's super intuitive step one is that right i hope that's right done okay so what i believe i have to do next is build the stabilizers which is not part of the guide but you know what let's just wing it from the get-go we're just gonna try things out and we're gonna see how it goes also note i'm not gonna be lubing anything because yo girl doesn't know how to do that and i feel like that's the next level up and i'm just trying to get a functional thing here today you know what i mean okay i'm looking at this and this makes no sense so guess what we're gonna do we're gonna check some youtube videos it's starting to make sense to me though i think i got it i think i got it oh nope i don't remember how to do it oh poo [Music] ah did i get it i think i got it i i think i'm proud of myself i'm not really sure if it all comes together at the end it'll be a freaking miracle but i've got at least a model this is some small small hands important last click here we go okay i think i did it so next this is very similar to other things that i've done in that it's um screwing screws into a thing but wow is it much much smaller than what i'm used to how does that fit i don't get it i think what i wasn't supposed to do is to screw this in just yet let me take that out big hole i'm so afraid of breaking the pcb board oh i did it i did it and then i screw the oh my look at what look at what's happened stabilize the stabilizers righty tighty lefty loosey you know i feel like mechanical keyboards are like the new gundam kit sort of i never made the gundam kits or anything like that but i feel like it hits a similar target demographic of people who like building tiny things with their hands except i guess keyboards are a little bit more utilitarian because most people create them to use them and gundams are usually there on display i don't know i don't know what people do with their gundam like if you like building that kind of stuff you're probably gonna like building keyboards not gonna lie and then i think the other thing too is mechanical keyboards are just like so much more accessible or like you don't have to have watched the entire gundam anime in order to appreciate it you just have to kind of like typing so far i don't know if i'll get into mechanical keyboards maybe maybe i think it's that like by making something and then you realize that like when you use it you're like damn i made this which is the cool part because i do like making stuff i've made that picture shelf right behind me i also made the thing that this light bulb is hanging up on but i made a lot of stuff for my own room because i wanted custom pieces well they didn't need to be custom i just couldn't find what i wanted on sale anywhere am i doing this wrong oh i'm doing this wrong all right from the top also i just want to say i'm sorry if any of you are cringing to any part of this um as you're watching me build it i am such a beginner and i just don't know what i'm doing so please be nice to me in the comments because i don't know what i'm doing i welcome constructive feedback but your girl is trying her best okay you know what i think i truly believe that like in order to learn something really learn it you got to like make a big mistake first well that's not necessarily you can definitely learn from others mistakes and you don't have to learn from a mistake in order to learn at all but for me i find that just like being unafraid of trying and just going for it is like the best way to like try things out and do it because i think there's something about like you know what when you've really failed feeling that failure in your bones and being like you know what that sucked i'm never gonna do it again okay there we go everybody's happy no it's just not going in oh what's wrong with you yo everyone makes this look so easy but it's like really hard i do think maybe this is the hardest part of building a keyboard though okay got it wow am i gonna take these out at some point and then properly lube the switches probably not okay we're looking good we're looking good we got one more i wish i had like three hands to do this i did i freaking did it so i believe what comes next i hope what comes next is installing the switches this part's going to be very monotonous i believe all right so next i'm going to install the switches onto the switch plate is that what this is called this is called the switch plate and then i'm going to install onto the pcb board because i've been told that that's easier that way so i hope this is going to be easier than adding the stabilizers so this one i'm going to consult how the direction of this because it's supposed to go downwards i think i believe downwards is north facing and then upwards and south facing this is already proving to be so much easier than the stabilizers so yay the best part is that i know that if i mess up i can use this thing to pull it out oh so this kit also by the way is called freebird 60 so it's technically a 60 keyboard but you can actually configure it and install it to be 65 and customize it to what you want because i didn't say this in my hhqb video because i forgot about it but the fact that it doesn't have arrow keys is kind of annoying i've actually like programmed my hhkb to use the function and the wasd keys as a replacement but i would much rather have arrow keys so i'm excited to have arrow keys back again okay i'm going to try installing it onto the plate now oh is that a connection you can do it my yuko you are okay bubble i think that's in but hard to tell i hope i didn't break any oh my gosh the anxiety is real while you build this there's probably like a way to install these where you're like not hurting any of the pins and i just don't know how to do that but they did tell me as troubleshooting if one of the keys don't work is probably because one of the little like leg thingies are bent and not that like there's actually wrong connection okay okay i did it i have installed all the switches so now i'm gonna install this onto here don't oh my god i thought i almost lost it again you know i always thought i was someone who could do like detailed work like this but after this i'm not so sure putting the overall because o-ring is fat i mean look at this thing it's fat can you see it okay now i just gotta screw it on i think that's it now i think i just gotta put the key caps on i'm gonna put on these ones the only like cold already the only thing i'm super particular about in terms of keycaps is my friend taught me about putting on the space bar backwards so instead of typing like this on the thumb putting it like this did i install you incorrectly oh oh dude the sound of this i can already tell i'm gonna like this and a plus okay yo i think i'm done take a look wow that thing is heavy take a look at this custom built mechanical keyboard i'm pretty happy with how it turned out yo i gotta say this case like makes this keyboard infinitely better than any keyboards i've ever had it's just so hefty like this is probably like five pounds three to five pounds it's just so heavy shall we test this thing i think it's time to test it so key tester my q doesn't work my six doesn't work i just work wow wow this is bad a lot of my keys don't work all right well let me show you the results here are all of the keys that work i would say that's about a 50 rate of success so i do think i gotta take it back out again and then test things out but hey thank you so much for watching i i think i would call this to success there's like obviously mistakes that i've made and you saw them you saw me make them which is totally fine but i would say that yo i would totally use this on a day-to-day basis and i'm excited to once i fix everything thank you all so much for watching again all the information about all the things that i used are in the description box down below thank you again so much to cubes for all for sending me this kit you'll find their link as well as my affiliate link in the description box again this kit the freebird 60 build kit which includes the case the pcb the plate as well as the switches in keycaps is going to go on pre-order from september 20th to october 4th if you pre-order now then you'll get it around january time-ish and so i hope you all try it out overall in my mechanical keyboard experience i would say this was fun i think the whole like hot-swappable switches make this so much more easier and fun to do instead of soldering so i think i would do this again but i know a little bit more what to expect next time and i think i can do a better job so i am excited to take this apart and put it back together again because that's what you're supposed to do with mechanical keyboards when they don't work that's really why people build their own keyboards to begin with because they want to customize each and every part of the keyboard process everything from the keycaps to the switches to the pcb board underneath and the layout as well as the case and how damp the sound is i will add a sound test for you at the end of this and so you can hear how it sounds if you remember then make sure to check out the exclusive video for you in the description box down below and if you're not a member you can come join us and get access to that and many more other perks for as low as 99 cents a month all right everybody thank you so much for being on this journey with me thank you for coming along to it i hope you enjoy these keyword videos and who knows maybe i will do more keyboard videos in the future and if you'd like me to then make sure to leave a comment down below i hope that i didn't make anybody cringe too hard and uh this is fun thanks for hanging out and i'll see you next time bye [Music] you

Channel: mayuko

Views: 52,386

Keywords: mayuko inoue, mechanical keyboard, keyboard asmr, how to build a mechanical keyboard, custom keyboard build, custom keyboard, keyboard sound test, typing test, mechanical keyboard asmr, mechanical keyboard switches, how to build a mechanical keyboard without soldering, keyboard building for beginners

Id: gC7YS_A6vCU

Length: 20min 51sec (1251 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 20 2021