How long did it take you to get good at building keyboards?

I had four years of electronics in high school, and part of the coursework included diagnosing and repairing old radios and TVs, so I had a fair amount of soldering experience back in the day. Then there was a 30+ year gap in which I don’t recall touching a soldering iron once, followed by this. So while on paper I had plenty of experience, in reality I was very rusty.

Cheap PCB kits are a great way to build confidence - that was the first thing I did before building my first board.

I think if I was to do anything differently, I’d echo a theme Manofinterests touched on - before you attempt a new mod, think through what the mod is intended to do and how to evaluate the impact of the mod. For the first few builds, I was much more “build first and ask questions later”, which is (a lot of) fun in the moment, but perhaps not the ideal way to learn. On the other hand, I’d also echo Rob27shred - if each build isn’t slightly uncomfortable in some way, then you’re probably not learning anything. Mistakes happen, embrace them.

It wasn’t until my 19th build that I did full-board switch swapping, and only then after doing a bunch of homework to understand how to go about that process. In retrospect, I could have attempted it much earlier in my journey, but I think I had a bit of a mental block on the idea that I was about to tear apart a fully-functioning board, and what if I break it? Kind of nuts, since at the point when I’m 18 boards in, the overwhelming majority of the damage to my wallet has already been done - one board isn’t going to change the picture much.

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