The Making of My $450 Custom Mechanical Keyboard!

hey everyone my name is homaginio welcome back to another mechanical keyboard video so it's been roughly a few months since my previous kbd75 v2 build and i really wanted to build another one of these premium keyboards because it's really fun and it seems like you guys really enjoyed watching me go through the whole thing last time so welcome back everyone i've been practicing a lot with more budget builds and builds for clients so i definitely feel a lot more confident with building keyboards with that let's get straight to the parts okay let's start off with the case [Music] this is a gray kvd fans tofu 65 it's made out of cnc machined aluminum and it is honestly stunning the edges are super clean it feels extremely smooth to the touch and most of all it has this weight to it which makes it feel extremely premium this is also thanks to the shiny brass weight screwed behind on the bottom it's not something that you'll see every day when using it but it definitely makes a huge difference in both the acoustics and the overall feel of the keyboard it also has the kbdfans logo engraved in the bottom right corner and it just looks incredible when paired with the gray design of the case and again you might be thinking that having a weight attached is a little bit extra for a keyboard but attaching a weight to a keyboard helps to make the keyboard sound more thocky and also reduces any hollowness it might have and plus i mean it just looks cool so with the case comes a really nice pcb this is the kbd67v2 pcb and it honestly just looks beautiful i've never actually seen in person such an aesthetic looking pcb the black and gold design even though i'm not gonna see this once it's fully built is truly something just beautiful then we have the plate this is an aluminum plate and honestly i really regret not getting a brass one i don't know why i got the aluminum one i bought this quite a while ago but whatever let's just go with it i'm sure it'll still sound great next up we have the switches for today's build i'm gonna be using the telios v2 switches these are allegedly one of the if not smoothest linears on the market so i had to try them out for myself i've been hearing a lot of positive and negative discussions regarding the switches some people say it's overpriced some people say it's just the best out there and i wanted to give my own thoughts after trying them out these are priced at 10 us dollars for 10 switches so one us dollar per switch it is a very high tier switch and oh man i'm just excited to try this out okay and lastly we have our keycap set this is the gmk phosphorous set it's a beautiful cyan and gray design which i'm a huge fan of on any keyboard these were designed by mordin and as soon as i saw them i had to get them for myself i think these would look great with the gray color case that i have today [Music] [Music] alright so as usual let's begin by lubing the switches we of course start off by dismantling all of the switches i would usually put all the parts into bowls but i've recently purchased a loop station from kbdfans it's okay honestly it's not the best one out there but it definitely helps to speed up the process but it's blue and cheap and the shipping is fast so yeah but even if you do have a loop station i recommend that you get two bowls one for the springs and one for the top housings for easier organization i'll get into that later and once again i always use a switch opener this is an aluminum one from you guessed it kvd fans it makes opening switches super convenient and way easier totally recommend it if you're going to lube your own switches dismantling the switches can definitely be a bit of a long process so i definitely recommend that you get some music on or a youtube video just to keep yourself you know sane and so you don't go crazy but after dismantling all of them we now have to begin lubing them so how you lube a switch will depend on a few factors mainly it depends on what type of switch it is is it a tactile switch or is it a linear switch different switches will use different types of lube and will also require different quantities and techniques in this case we're going to be lubing linear switches and i want them to be buttery smooth so i'm going to be using a thick lube called crytox 205 g0 and i only really recommend this for linear switches so i start off by lubing the bottom housing i get a decent amount of crytox on the brush clean off and then brush two to three times against the walls here then i dip it into the hole in the middle and then go around the hole and tap on the bottom where the stem will land and you repeat that for every single switch sometimes you may over apply lube and that's okay it's not the end of the world just make sure that you get a clean brush and go over it again to even out the lube as for the stems i tend to start off by lubing the front part with the legs making sure to evenly coat the faces and legs also making sure to lubricate the bottom of the legs after that i brush the sides two to three times each and then the back you should ideally try to avoid getting any big puddles of lube onto the switch and it should instead be a nice even coat throughout it takes a little bit of practice and patience a lot of patience but honestly it really isn't that hard and now to back lube the springs the speed of the process i usually get a small ziploc bag and stuff all the springs inside after that i apply some crytox on the sides close the bag and shake it this will ensure a nice even spread of crytox onto all of the springs are your winning shot oh god wait so after lubing the springs we now have to start reassembling the switches one thing i have wanted to try for a while however is filming filming a switch is adding a small sheet of plastic film in between the top and bottom housing this helps to make the switch more secure it reduces wobble and also helps to make the acoustics far more pleasing for today's build i'm going to be using desk keys switch film some kvd fans this isn't something you have to do with switches but if you are going to be spending hours and lots of money on a keyboard you might as well spend an extra five to ten dollars on some films to give your keyboard that extra touch just do note that it can take a little extra time to film your switches so once again patience is key oh my god i'm actually going to shoot myself and one last thing i like to do is also add a little lube on the top housing to ensure the smoothest linear experience possible just a light tap you don't need to add too much just a little bit so with the switches done we can now move on to the stabilizers so with every kvd fans diy kit you get a set of oem stabilizers and like i discussed in the last video these are pretty much trash so i'm gonna be using screw in genuine cherry mx stabilizers instead i know there's a lot of other better premium ones out there but this one works just fine in my opinion but i'm definitely going to try out some better ones in the future so for just a little bit of context pcb mounted stabilizers can either be clipped on or screwed on screwed-in stabilizers will help to reduce a rattle as it'll be more securely tightened onto the pcb making it sound a lot more clean and will also help to make any large key like a space bar feel a lot smoother so as usual we have to start off by clipping the stabilizers and then lubing them it just takes two simple snips and it will greatly improve the sound of your stabilizers by a lot i'm using a gundam model cutter i got from my friend but you can also just use scissors if you want so after clipping all of the stabilizers we can now move on to lubing them another thing that i've changed in my process is what lube i use i used to use dye electric grease but it made my stabilizers feel really mushy and greasy i guess that's kind of the point but i'm now using crytox 205 g0 a generous amount of 205 g0 to lube the stabilizers because i still want to get the smoothness but i hate that slimy mushy feeling that i get when i use dye electric grease so i highly recommend that you use crytox instead so after lubing and clipping the stabilizers i now have to band-aid my pcb or in this case just put tape on it band-aiding or taping a pcb helps to again reduce any unnecessary movement from the stabilizer and will help to secure it in place this process can also just take a little while so once again take your time while doing this please make sure to test your stabilizers after setting them up it can help to quality check the build and see if there's anything that needs adjusting in my case i needed to redo some of the tape because it didn't fully cover the contact between the stabilizer and the pcb and i also had to apply just a little bit more lube [Music] and with the stabilizers complete we can now begin soldering the pcb alright so after working on my previous keyboard the whole soldering process has become a lot easier for me my consistency improved and i have become pretty efficient at least i think so i'm still not a huge fan of this process it feels pretty permanent and desoldering any pcb is an actual nightmare i really hope that we can get to a point where we get more hot swap pcbs in the market it would make it way more beginner friendly and just easier for the majority of enthusiasts especially when they want to swap out switches with that said there is a very satisfying feeling of successfully soldering all of your switches onto a pcb for me it makes me feel very proud of my work and when done properly can look really nice and with all of that done we can finally start putting things together even with the brass weight i am afraid of the case sounding hollow so i am going to be adding some foam into the case i purchased this large roll of foam from my hardware store it's pretty thin and light which to be honest isn't the most effective type of foam a lot of people purchase much denser types of foam which are definitely more effective but my roll of foam has been extremely useful thus far installing it is honestly really easy just cut it to size put it in and then screw the pcb onto the case and all we have to do now is put the key caps onto the switches [Music] subscribe to homagenew so so so so so [Music] so all right so at the time of recording this i've been using this keyboard for around two weeks and it is honestly amazing is by far my favorite build i've made so far i do think that i want to try get durock stabilizers as even though there isn't a lot of rattle in this keyboard my spacebar definitely feels just a tiny bit rattly and i'm wondering if the stabilizers will really change the feel of the space bar aside from that the filmed and lubed tilos v2 are actually heaven to type on they are buttery smooth and they have a really nice sound profile i'm definitely going to be making a switch review on those soon and i also think the case looks incredible and the overall design is just so clean aesthetic and i'm really satisfied with this build anyways guys that's it for today's video thank you so much for watching i hope you enjoyed if you did please do consider subscribing and if you want to support this channel feel free to join my discord server or support me on patreon and with that i'll see you guys in the next video peace you

Channel: Hamaji Neo

Views: 1,231,257

Rating: 4.9459062 out of 5

Keywords: Hamaji Neo, Custom Keyboard, Custom Keyboard Build, Keyboard Build, Tealios V2, Tealios V2 Lubed, Linear Switches, Best Linear Switch, Premium Keyboard, Endgame Keyboard, Keyboard Typing Test, Tealios typing test, tofu65 build, kbdfans tofu65, switch lubing, premium custom keyboard, custom mechanical keyboard, mechanical keyboard build, hamaji neo keyboard, custom keyboard tutorial, diy keyboard

Id: uqHVepFilec

Length: 13min 7sec (787 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 06 2020