I’ve always seen mechanical keyboards as
a fun hobby to get into, especially because it involves an actual tool that most of us
use everyday. But sometimes some of us can take it bit too
seriously, and I guess that’s fine, because there are no rules and you can enjoy the hobby
in your own way. But what I enjoy the most is bringing it back
to having fun. So today we’re going to build a keyboard
that doesn’t make sense, and this is the Pain27. Here’s the PCB, and this was a project between
some guys in the Australian Mech Discord. And as we can see, this thing is tiny with
just 27 keys as the name suggests, with only the actual letters and spacebar. They do have files for an acrylic case, but
I recently got this cheap scroll saw from someone, so I plan to do a bit more, basing
it on the F62PE which is based on the IBM F62. First I’ll make the plate. Here I have a modified version of the drawing
they provide on Github, and ideally you would get this laser cut for ease and accuracy. I’m using 3mm thick clear acrylic and then
it’s just a matter of drilling and cutting. Used scroll saws can be found for very cheap. I picked mine up from some guy who didn’t
even open the box. Scroll saws are usually for small intricate
work, using a thin blade that just goes up and down. The special thing that differentiates it to
say a bandsaw, is that it can get inside holes, which is of course is necessary for these
cutouts. At first I was pretty slow as you can see. But then I gradually got faster and more accurate. The cutting itself is pretty fast though,
it’s just having to remove the blade after every cut is what takes time. But yeh, I’m never cutting a plate again. Laser is infinitely better. Alright so here’s everything cut. It’s not the cleanest, so I’ll give it
a bit of a file. Now with the plate made, I’m going to build
some of the actual keyboard, as I’m not exactly sure how everything will fit together,
in particular the tough placement of the Pro Micro controller. So let’s get soldering. First we’ll do the Pro Micro which is a
popular microcontroller used in many community made PCBs, because of it’s accessibility
and price. And this is just a Chinese clone of the actual
one by the way. And then each key needs a diode. And we also have a couple of resistors for
the LEDs. I’m actually not going to install in switch
LEDs, so not all of these are necessary. One of the cool things which I took into account
when designing the case, is that this has RGB underglow lighting greatness. And these are the only SMD components that
we have to solder. Back to the case now. Again using that drawing from GitHub, I added
a bit to make the top half of the case, which will be made from this piece of Red Oak, which
is a hardwood. It’s not the best looking piece, but it’ll
do. This is an 18mm thick piece and the scroll
saw had no problems cutting through it. Being 18mm thick though, it’s way too tall,
so I have to thin it down. Unfortunately I don’t have the capacity
to resaw on my bandsaw, so I went through the painful task of sanding it down. One of the major design elements of the F62
board is this cutout at the front to access the keys. Unfortunately this isn’t something that
the scroll saw could do, so I had to use my router, although you could potentially saw
and chisel it out. And once that’s done, it’s all a matter
of sanding to create those curves, and then coating it. Now to the bottom piece. The bottom piece of the case is pretty simple. I have some sheets, the white pieces actually
being polycarbonate. And the idea is to just stack them, glue them,
and paint them. I lost the footage of the cutting, but with
this, it doesn’t need to be super accurate as the outsides will be sanded, and the insides
won’t be seen. I wasn’t really sure on how to glue these
pieces together. I tried normal PVA glue, which you would use
with timber and such, and that seemed to work fine. And I also tried this PVC cement stuff which
I had, and that seemed to work as well. When it’s all dry, it’s exactly the same
as the wood, with sanding it into shape. And it worked out quite well. It’s a good shape, and actually feels pretty
solid in the hands. One thing that I did forget about, was the
micro USB port. The Pro Micro is positioned in such away,
in that it is isolated, but orientated in this horizontal position. Therefore the port is on the side. I could have a right angled cable and route
it out the back, but I think this adds to the charm. I could have and really should have cut these
holes prior to glueing, but yeh, I didn’t. The case is pretty roughed up, so I caked
on some primer filler to try and fill up everything. And I also painted the plate black. With painting, you just have to be patient. You gotta wait for the stuff to dry, and then
sand in between coats and all that. I finally got the bottom piece into reasonable
shape. The USB hole that I made was actually too
high, so I had to redo it on the other side. It’s kinda dodgy, but I shoved some pieces
of acrylic in there, and just filled it up. Deciding on what colour to paint the bottom
was pretty difficult. I have to use SA profile keycaps due to their
height, and I don’t really have much available. At first, I did try matte black, and I thought
it looked really good. But to go with the Royal keyswitches, I just
went with purple. And yes, I am using the new Kailh Box Royal
keyswitches. These are super tactile switches developed
by NovelKeys and of course made by Kailh. They’re a very interesting keyswitch. They have that very prominent tactile bump
which is very close to the top, so you have that prolonged bottom out. But yeh, it’s all about that strong bump,
which is definitely on the higher end. For the keycaps, I’ve gone with the uniform
SA keycaps from the Vortex Vibe. Because my plate is flat, it does lay quite
low, so shorter keycaps like Cherry profile sit a bit too low. It works with the F62 because it has an angled
plate. So while some keyswitches will be submerged,
the others will rise above. I still have this cutout here for the pro
micro which I didn’t need anyway, plus the keyswitches do look a bit exposed. So I cut some pieces to fit into those spaces. And to finish it off I just cut and painted
a piece of acrylic to use as the all important pen rest. And here it is all done, and it turned out
alright. Everything fits, and it looks relatively clean. I do think that I succeeded in somewhat resembling
the F62pe, which I absolutely love the look of. I love the look of wood. Again, not the prettiest piece of timber,
but I’m happy with the shape and overall finish. There are a couple of things that I didn’t
quite get right. The mounting plate that splits the 2 halves
is too thick at 3mm. It looks kind of disproportional, with the
gap being that big. So I think 1.5mm or maybe even 2mm would have
been better. The angled plate on the original really does
give it its look. I couldn’t be bothered to do that, so I
just have the flat design for simplicity. And that brings in the complications with
the keycap heights and all that which you saw. And these keys are pretty wonky, like pretty
bad. I’m not completely sold on the purple. I think it doesn’t come off too well in
matching the wood. I feel that the black really popped and contrasted
really nicely with the wood. So it’s a more muted look, rather than punchy
which I probably would rather have. As for the actual usability. It’s terrible. Absolutely terrible. I didn’t even try to use it for more than
a couple of minutes because I don’t have the time. This is purely a display piece, because for
anything that isn’t a speed typing test, it was just too much to access the other keys. To access the other keys there are layers
which are accessed by holding some keys down. So for example to press backspace, I have
to hold the spacebar, and press P. But yeh, I don’t care about that. I’m happy with what I’ve done. I’m happy with what the boys have done. It was a fun project to get familiar with
the scroll saw. And since I probably will never be able to
get an F62pe, I now have this instead.
