Upgrading the RK61 to make it MAX THOCK

this is the rk61 keyboard it's a wildly popular 50 dollar keyboard that you can get pretty much everywhere and as you just heard you can make it sound pretty good with a couple upgrades but how did i get from this to this let's get into it so this is the rk61 keyboard banger did send this as well as the modding parts used for this video but all thoughts are my own and that is made clear about the fact that this keyboard in its stock form is terrible i won't be doing a full review of the board since there isn't anything special about it but i'll run down the basic specs it's a 60 plastic case with 2.4 gigahertz bluetooth 5.0 and wired connection it has rgb comes with basic keyboard accessories and the most important feature which i just added hot swap why is this important because i got this keyboard with brown switches why browns because a couple of keyboard content creators happened to tell me that cherry mx browns were the best keyboard switch these ones aren't by cherry they're actually rk branded and they sound interesting to put it nicely but enough about this keyboard let's start the mods so the first thing i'm going to be doing is disassembling the entire keyboard so i'll be removing the switches the stabs and all the keycaps then i'll unscrew the case through the bottom since that's where the screws are located and i'll set the case aside the plate is fastened to the pcb using screws so i'll unscrew that as well now that that's done i'll still need the plate definitely need the pcb in case and i don't have any replacement steps so i'll keep the ones that came with the board but as for the keycaps and switches [Music] i'll start the mods with the stabs so i'll wash them with soapy water to remove the factory lube then i'll leave them to air dry overnight since i threw away the browns i needed to replace them with a switch that had a little more tactility so i got some a jazz banana switches these are lube with crytox 205 grade 0 with gpl 105 on the springs before i install them into the board i'll install a thin layer of pe foam in between the plate and pcb making sure to cut out holes for the stabs then when re-screwing the plate and pcb together i wanted to see if o-ring mounting the board works with the way the plate screws in but after some testing i didn't find any meaningful difference so i removed them then i'll install all the switches i added two layers of masking tape to the back of the pcb and then i'll poke holes in the tape to make room for the standoff the included case foam is really thin so i'll replace it with a layer of these sticky foam strips and after realizing that's just as thin as the included case from i then added a layer of packing foam into the case just to try dampen any hollowness to finish off the case mods screwing everything back together super difficult because of the added thickness and now the bluetooth switches on the bottom of the keyboard are barely accessible but oh well now the stabs have dried and they've all been clipped i tried wholly modding the stabs i was gonna try the plumber's mod but i wasn't able to get some in time before the video release so i'll be doing that in my next build instead sorry this the holy mod actually didn't work because my bandages were too thick and the stabs wouldn't return so i had to remove all the band-aid strips then i lubed them with crytox 205 grade 0 on the housing with dielectric grease on the wires but the space bar is still wholly modded once the stabs are installed it's time for the keycaps these are the plum blossom keycaps and i thought that they would be a good fit with the white case installing the keycaps and once that's done this stunning build is complete let's see how it sounds [Applause] so this build actually turned out pretty good the banana switches definitely sound super good in this board they already have a deep snappy sound signature on their own and the addition of the pe foam and tape mod definitely accentuated those characteristics it's unapologetically loud though a little pingy on some switches if you're listening for it weirdly enough by doing the pe 4 mod i actually popped out a couple of the gator on hot shop sockets but if i just pushed it back into place while a switch was installed then it still worked no soldering was necessary this could have been a weak solar joint from the manufacturer or user error from the extra force needed to install switches with the pe foam none of the switch pins were bent though if you're wondering what the keyboard sounds like without pe foam but with all the other mods i've included a sound test for that as well at the end of the video alongside the stock keyboard sound and the modded keyboard sound with the pe foam the total cost of this keyboard came to just under 130 dollars which is a pretty good deal considering the end result but if you're on a tighter budget you can always get some akko cs switches or keep using the star keycaps overall i'm super happy with this board i can't really recommend it if you're looking to mod it since the sockets came out very easily so keep that in mind if you're looking to pick this up or just avoid doing the pe phone mode definitely cannot recommend it if you're looking to use a stalk i feel like that can legally be classified as torture if you enjoyed this video be sure to leave a like and subscribe to the channel and if you have any questions feel free to comment below or ask me over my discord server if we hit 50 members i'll let you guys decide the switch i use in my next build thanks for watching and i'll see you in the next video you [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Turboards

Views: 434,824

Keywords: Custom Mechanical Keyboard, Mechanical Keyboard, Gaming Keyboard, Keyboard Switches, Lubed Switches, Krytox 205g0, Keyboard Stabilizers, Typing Sounds, Typing Test, RK61, Royal Kludge, Royal Kludge Keyboard, AJAZZ Bananas, AJAZZ Switch, A Jazz Switch, AJAZZ Diced Fruit, Diced Fruit Banana, Plum Blossom Keycaps, Cherry Blossom Keycaps, PE Foam Mod, PE Foam, Tape Mod, Tempest Tape Mod, TEMPE5T, oTEMPE5To, Foam Mod, Packing Foam, Thock, Thocky Keyboard, Thock Budget, Thocky

Id: TN3Ft598XTk

Length: 7min 35sec (455 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 18 2022