Yikes! That would be right at home in the keyboard horror thread
Saw the bitt101 on a Twitch stream (juliday97) a little while ago. Just stuck out to me as a delightful board - luckily - in-stock! Delivered this week - and put together this evening. The KAT Monochrome that is on there feels a little…tall - will likely swap the caps out - but it’s a fun board.
The top row of LED buttons flips between screen options, as well as, disabling the screen / LEDs - an action bar - and the second row acts as the F row.
I wasn’t sure on the sound, since the body is just bent, powder-coated steel, but with the plate and mute foam - it’s really quite pleasant.
Built with Gateron Oil Kings.
Lighting on the photo is meh - it’s a nice white - powder coat. Only a few specks which give it character
That’s an awesome looking board. I love that thing!
Cloudline TKL by JJW x Shannie
Infill is a must with engravings:
An absolutely top-tier board. Chef’s kiss emoji.
That infill looks super nice. Did you do it yourself with some enamel paint?
I second this. @JucheCatgirl do you have a guide you used or can you make one yourself. I have a few boards I’ve always wanted to infill but I’ve been too afraid to
Yep! I used a water-based acrylic paint, specifically this ‘Brainmatter Beige’ that I found at a hobby shop, it’s a very close match for GMK L9 to my eyes and water-based acrylic is a bit easier to safely remove.
I use a 000 brush for infill, you can be a bit sloppy with application at first and then wipe off the excess with non-acetone nail polish remover or rubbing alcohol on cotton squares or q tips. You can rub the q-tip right across the engraving and it’ll clean off the excess paint without removing the paint in the engraving.
Can I ask your thoughts or advice on infilling the engraving? I am about to do the same.
My research seems to suggest:
- Acrylic water-based paint.
- Slap it on.
- Gently scrap off the access with a plastic credit card, leaving only the infill behind.
Was that your experience as well?
Lol @JucheCatgirl guess I should have continued reading before replying
Infill following @JucheCatgirl’s instructions! I tried the scrap off method first, but I think it does look cleaner with the non-acetone based nail polish remover method. I ended up finishing with that. Took few coats.
If I zoom in, I can find some little bits I wish were better, but from arm-length away height, I think looks great. It is a lovely detail and I will definitely have to look for more boards with a feature like this in the future.
Kind of tempted to try and find a Cloudline now too
Very nice, thanks for sharing! I love a good infill, it’s such a simple modification and it adds so much character.
I’ve infilled one other board, the Freyr TKL by the exit scammers at CherryB Studio:
(I tried adding a pic of the full board but it wouldn’t upload correctly - just imagine a grey TKL with SGI beige keycaps )
I have a third TKL with a nav cluster engraving (CherryB Neo87) that I haven’t filled yet, but only because I’ve been too lazy to buy more paint - I just have the beige that I had purchased specifically for infilling the Freyr
I’ve been using my Pegasus again after a short break. Built with lubed KTT Sea Salt Lemons, Durock stabs and GMK Shoko.
Lovely. And lovely photography
Ok, as promised, here are pics of my Green and Copper Mode Envoy. All pics are from my iPhone and I will be the first to admit I am know almost NOTHING about lighting or framing shots…
Specs
- Green Aluminum Case
- Copper weight
- Walnut accent
- Copper plate
- Solder PCB
- Gateron Baby Kangaroo switches
- Gazzew Boba U4T (62g) under the spacebar
- Owlstabs (Loctite dielectric grease on wires, GS2 on housing)
- GMK Nines keycaps
- Kono aluminum Nines Artisan
This is fantastic!
Looks fantastic! I’d love to hear it.
Still don’t have a good setup for recording audio that would do this setup justice. I will just add my voice to the chorus of everyone else saying how good these switches, and this board sounds and feels.
Also went back to the Polycarbonate Envoy and tossed some new goodies in it as well!
Specs
- Polycarbonate Case
- Polished Stainless Steel weight and accent
- Hotswap PCB
- POM plate
- Cherry clip-in stabs w/Durock wires, GS3 on wires GS2 on housings
- Bolsa Supply Laguna Blue linears switches (stock lube)
- Mode Anthracite keycaps and artisan
Oh, heck I’ve just been using the voice memos app on my phone - but I respect having standards.
Man, that frosted one looks fantastic. I’ve heard good things about the Mode caps - oooh and a POM plate. I went with carbon for my Envoy but POM is my usual fave. How do you like the copper?
POM has really grown on me and may be my favorite material for long pole linear switches. Mode makes some of the nicest ones I’ve seen with the matte finish. I’d recommend wearing nitrile gloves to install switches into them and any oils or grease on your fingers will leave fingerprints or smudges.
Copper plate is really nice with tactiles, which I found out on my Iron165. I was always worried about metallic ping or resonance using brass or copper for plates. I’m not picking up any on either of my copper plates boards. Instead, it sounds closer to plateless to my ears.