OK, this has been discussed before, and it seems the predominant answer is “baggies”
I’ve accumulated maybe 10 keycap sets in the 2 weeks since I got into mechanical keyboards, still looking for the right one. Most come in some sort of container where you can see the keys laid out and find one quickly. Several just came in bags.
I just want a dang box for them. Amazon has a half dozen options, most have garbage like tape hinges that apparently just fall apart. Some other ones have the 4 tray solution, but those don’t stay together unless you tape them.
And ALL of these options cost as much as a dang cheap keycap set off of amazon, or more lol.
ONE seller actually sells the longer box with one tray to lay the keycaps out in, it’s $38 for 5, so a little under $8 apiece. If you click on the seller though the seller reviews, 12 in the past 12 months, half of which are “Did not receive the product”, and amazon “corrects” the review with a note “This was not the seller’s fault” (??? um, they still didn’t get the product…) so that review is not counting against their seller review… even though they’re not even delivering the product lol
Does anyone know a source for a simple box with a tray to hold keycaps laid out, so you can easily find keys rather than playing “sort through 110 keys for the esc key”?
So far the best solution I can find is to go on amazon, buy some $11 keycaps, toss them and use that box seems the best solution I’ve found lol
JTK trays are the most common option I see people using. Those are $15 on drop currently. You can sometimes get them cheaper on mechmarket from people like me who don’t use them (I must admit, I’ve sadly discarded several of these… don’t hate me!)
Yea, baggies are my choice for storage. Mostly because I need room, but also because I hate trying to pull caps out of those storage trays.
Grab a bag, go to counter, spill out bag, get your caps, rake the unused back into the bag. Done. Change out a set of keycaps in about 2 minutes. No way I’ve found to do it more efficiently.
JTK Trays are my go to keycap storage. However they are expensive & come in a couple different variants (standard, medium, medium max, & max). I use the standard variant the most as they usually come in two packs & two of them is enough to fit a full keycap set with a child kit or two. Although the standard & medium trays do not fit any of the taller profiles (SA, MT3, & similar), the max & medium max trays will fit those. Also do not buy the regular trays from drop, they are extra expensive through them as they just sell them in singles as opposed to the 2 pack that everywhere else sells. Here’s a link to a site that sells them in two packs, JTK Trays Keycap Storage – Divinikey.
These suggestions are all good. I propose another suggestion. The best keycap storage is of course a keyboard. So, now all you need to do is buy as many keyboards as you have keycap sets. This is the way of the hobby.
I have never bothered to make one, but I have had the notion from time to time to take the parametric box designers you can find online, “design” a box of the right dimensions, and edit the bottom panel to include keycap cutouts. Then you’d just cut a slightly smaller “new bottom” panel to glue underneath which would both plug the openings for the caps and make it nestable. It could be pretty cheap to do from something like 3mm underlayment plywood while still looking more put-together than cardboard or ziploc bags. Think something like the below, but with the telltale Laser-cutter box joints (image courtesy of the well-known CAD package “Microsoft Paint”).
