Had a bum laser run starting the “Battleship at Home” build, aka the “Big Dumb Red Button” build. First top-plate didn’t get a clean burn all the way through and broke (or “tore,” really… this Masonite stuff is closer to cardboard than you might think) when I tried to persuade it afterward.
This board is closing in on 400mm (15.75") wide, which the maximum that my laser, or rather its steel honeycomb cutting support, can handle. I’m going to have to be patient and careful with the four plates that make up most of the structure. Gotta double check that everything is as level as can be, probably lower the focus so it’s in the middle of the plate instead of the surface, and maybe run three passes instead of two.
Keycap Crap Noise - Noticed there were minor noise most of which seemed to be keycap fit related. While PBT is less likely to crack, repeatedly replacing keycap will eventually loosen its grip on switch stem and striking the walls with each stroke.
PTFE Tape Keycap Mod - To test my theory, I placed small (4~5mm) strips of PTFE tape on top of the stem before place keycap on. That made the fit snug again and much of the noise I heard before are gone.
Sound - This mod makes sound more solid.
Maintenance - PTFE tape will sticks to either the stem or the keycap so some care will be needed when replacing keycaps or switches.
Lasering done (probably), though I had to babysit it all day and had to pull the switch plate after one pass when I’d have preferred two, because the second pass was starting a mm or two off from the first. I think something might be up with the belts or a stepper motor, as this is a new occurrence, and it was pausing more often than usual as well.
Had a little bit of tearout knocking out the switch openings, but the switchplate held together. My goofy ass also forgot a non-symmetrical bottom plate needs to be cut with the masonite upside down. I’ll see if the hollow feet can cover an offset, or else pick between redoing it or having the “burlap” side visible.
I also got the switches installed and dry-fit the encoder and the big dumb button, so I can start to get a feel for what this thing will look like when it’s done.
LOL, this thing has every limitation that a Boston has, plus many more. Dude, you may have a problem and not be 100% normal like the very normal me.
Never done a commission, but if somebody had an idea that’s within my modest skillset, I would certainly talk. I reckon if the best use of my “talents” would just be some unique layout that a person is desperate to make real without breaking the bank, sound profile and long-term viability as a no-fuss daily-driver be damned.
EDIT: which is not to say I’ve had any major issues with my boards, far from it in fact. Apart from fixing a cold joint here and there, they’ve all worked perfectly fine. I’ve just only been at it a year and have made way too many to have put many miles on some obviously inexpensive materials.
Aside, I appreciate that the goofball 90’s movie Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey pays tribute to one of my favorite Ingmar Bergman films, the much more artsy and plodding The Seventh Seal with its personified Death character.
I wanted this board for 10 years. I had been watching someone selling it for almost 1/2 a year. Price kept dropping. I kept lurking. Finally, the price failed to drop for two listings in a row. I figured he had hit his lowest limit. But what the hell, never hurts to ask. He sold it for what I wanted to pay! Hell. Yes.
So today I built one of my grail keyboards. It’s a TX-84 v1. Silver with stainless steel weight. This board was absolutely pristine. Came in the original packaging with everyone still wrapped up. Two plates, two PCBs. Everything unused. Heaven.
I still opted to build it with a Hiney pcb so I could have USB-C and more modern software for programming.
I used my snow crash linear switches. The typing sound is crazy. These switches are appropriately named crash. If you like linear switches, you can’t skip these. You have to try them. If you don’t like them, you can sell them to me.
Some teflon tape bits to tighten up keycaps. Doesn’t take much. A few mm will unroll to long enough length. Difference in sound and feel is noticeable enough to encourage me to do a full board eventually but I usually start with modifiers as I use them like fidgets.
I think I pissed off the God of Stepper Motors or something. After the laser was being weird, my 3D printer was not playing nice, and I eventually had to do a nozzle switch because of a clog and take some extra efforts to get some decent bed adhesion. Then, to top it all off, the mostly-successful (but also not at all successful) print revealed some overly ambitious 3D model dimensions and slicer settings. As soon as one starts to think any part of making a keyboard from scratch is routine, hubris will be punished.
Here is the story of this HIBI MIA. I put it together to see whether it works – it does – and was a bit surprised by the fact that its screws appear to be regular Allen screws from the hardware store, without any branding, and it didn’t even come with a tool. Also the white USB-C cable seems to be rather generic, although one might have expected a Botanical themed cable as well.
Judging by the fact that one of these things usually seem to go for around $150, it puzzles me how little love was put into it. In fact, not even the case that it came in fits the Botanical aesthetic, as it is purple. I might be spoiled by other manufacturers, but this piece of hardware sadly feels disproportionate to its price.
I’ll be putting it back into its box and try to sell it, to recover the costs that I ultimately ended up paying for what I had actually ordered – which was luckily well below the price that this item usually goes for.
Brother-in-law loves ortho boards so I built a Corne for him. This shit is for younger eyes. Really annoying to have to get out my phone magnifier for every single diode.
Nice! Looks like you soldered on the LEDs too; any tips for that? I think I mucked up my first attempt, they all turned kinda different tones like I may have heated some for too long… So hard to stick down.
A quartet of gag-gift big switches, tailored to an inside-joke held by a certain team of IT folks. Three of them still need their bottom plates - oops. >.> Jrog was the username of one locally infamous member of this IT group.
These giant one-button macro pads send ALT+F4 when pressed.
I made a pretty big goof while trimming the pins on one of them:
I think my set of Cherry MX Brown is finally ready for daily rotation, replacing super marbly Vertex V1 on Polaris. Amazing feel that I doubt will get tired of easily.
UPDATE: On random try, I found that Cherry MX Browns sound better and smoother in Brutal 60 (typing angle 7.5-degree) case. With Polaris, I’d occasionally feel scratchy as the leaf goes over the bump. Very little of that with Brutal 60 if at all.
FYI, Polaris’ typing angle is 6.5-degree, a full degree difference. If you’ve been using a scratchy set of MX Browns at a lower angle than 7.5-degree, try raising the typing angle.
