Today we’re back with another custom mechanical keyboard build for someone, and we’re going
with another 60% build, because of its accessibility and modularity.
And here are the parts for today’s build.
Since my other B.face build, it’s no surprise that some people wanted to have something
similar.
But just so you know, I do have a bunch of different builds coming soon.
So we’re again using the B.face R 60% PCB.
However this time to save on some money, we got the resistors and diodes separate, because
it is a pricey item.
Also from the Winkeyless store we have their BBB acrylic case, and this my first time working
with this.
This build is also pretty exciting for me, because we’re using the Kailh Box Red keyswitches,
which I’ll go more in depth about later.
For the keycaps to match with the acrylic case, we have these blank frost ABS caps.
And then we have the genuine Cherry stabilisers, and some white LEDs to finish it off.
Alright so let’s just get straight into the build.
Here’s the case, and this is also what the keyswitches will be mounted to, rather than
a more traditional metal plate.
And this is what we call a sandwich case, as these 4 main acrylic pieces stack up to
create
the enclosure.
To start off we have the top 2 plates which will hold the keyswitches in place.
So I’m just gonna put in a few keyswitches to line everything up, and then put the PCB
in.
What makes this slightly difficult is that the Kailh Box keyswitches are plate mount
switches, meaning that they don’t have the little prongs that go into the PCB to align,
and hold them in place.
So to hold it in place we just solder in these few keyswitches in each corner.
I’m only going to solder in 1 pin on each to save time desoldering it later.
Normally you wouldn’t need to desolder, but for these specific keyswitches we have
to, for the LEDs to fit.
The Kailh Box Red switches are designed to be used with SMD LEDs.
This is because it has a closed design, where there’s no holes for a through hole LED
to pop through.
As we can see the top is closed off, and the bottom has a hole to let liquids seep through.
If we open up the switch we can see that the metal contacts are also enclosed in their
own compartment, and are activated by this small green bit which is pushed by the slider.
So if there is a spill, the metal contacts won’t be affected.
Another thing to note is that the springs are narrower than standard MX switch springs,
so you can’t as easily change them out.
The stems have the same Cherry style cross, but also the surrounding plastic.
So yes, these will fit the standard MX keycaps you find everywhere.
This closed top with the open bottom design by Kailh is intended to keep dust out, as
well as moisture which they say can cause corrosion, and they have been given an IP56
protection rating.
Because of this, we have to put the LED in first, and then put the keyswitch over it.
The other thing is that the gap in the switch isn’t that big.
So a typical 3mm round LED will hardly go up through the hole, so I’m using these
rectangular 2x3x4 LEDs.
And these go up quite far because of it’s shape.
Before soldering in the LEDs, I also have to put in the keyswitches and then solder
them in place, so that I know how far the LEDs need to go through the PCB.
And this is not a soldering tutorial, I want avoid explaining this every time I do a build,
so I’ll link some good tutorials in the description below.
Once the keyswitches are soldered in place, I can push the LEDs all the way through, and
then solder those in.
With the LEDs you just have to look at the polarity for the orientation.
The longer pin will be the positive, with the shorter the negative.
And the PCB will have it labelled on there.
One of the mistakes I made when ordering this stuff, is that I got the plates which have
these big holes for the stabilised keys.
As said before, these Kailh Box switches don’t have the prongs to line them up, so they can
swivel around.
So I’m gonna go to the stabilisers first and sort it out after.
Here I have genuine Cherry stabilisers.
And they’re nice and easy to put together, but first I’ll lube them.
I’m using Super Lube which is easy to buy, but you can also use Dieletric grease.
I like to apply it with a brush, but you can use whatever.
Some people use something like a toothpick.
And you just want to put it on the moving contact points.
You can put less, you can put more.
I do like to put quite a bit to ensure no rattle and get a bit of a softer feel, but
dust can be a problem.
If you have fake stabs, lube is absolutely necessary.
Rattly keys are just the worst, especially a rattly spacebar.
It honestly makes such a huge difference in the typing experience and usability of the
keyboard.
And this is where my mistake was actually quite fortunate.
Normally you would put the stabilisers in right at the start, because the mounting plate
goes on top of it.
And if the stabilisers pop out by accident, then you would have to desolder the switches
to get access to them.
With this, they can be taken out and put back in at anytime.
I also did the toothpick mod for the stabs to ensure they don’t come out, which can
happen with these clip in stabs and tight keycaps.
And then I just tried my best to line things up and then soldered in the rest of the switches.
Now to the boring and tedious diodes and resistors.
We need the diodes for the keys, and the resistors for the LEDs.
And these are both SMD components, but you can also use through hole diodes which are
much easier to solder if you’re just using a regular soldering iron.
It’s mainly difficult because of how small they are.
But basically I just put solder on one pad, reflow it and put the component in place.
And then solder in the other side.
For the resistors the orientation doesn’t matter.
But for the diodes, it’s just like the LEDs.
On the PCB it’ll show the flow of the current with this symbol, and then you just line up
the cathode pin accordingly.
All that brownish residue is just the flux, and can be later cleaned with isopropyl alcohol.
And here’s the soldering all done.
For most PCBs you won’t need to solder the diodes and resistors, so it doesn’t really
take long.
But now to put the rest of the case together.
First we’ll do the foot which angles the board.
This as well can be had in various colours, and it comes in 4 pieces.
On the end of each piece there’s a hole denoting the order in which it stacks.
There’s 3 spaces for some threads to go into which will allow us to secure it to the
base.
And the whole thing comes together with these hex screws and matching threads, and they’re
also all the same size to make it easy.
And to finish it off, it comes with some 3M feet to stop it from sliding.
And here it is all done.
With all the lighting off, it’s quite a unique look.
We have this completely frosted white look.
The keycaps are quite similar to the case, but not as textured.
And they’re not that thin at actually about 1.2mm, so that’s not bad for super cheap
keycaps.
Also yes these are blanks.
I personally can type without looking at my keyboard, so it’s no problem for me, but
of course it will be difficult for others.
The one thing about the Kailh Box switches is that the red colour goes through the keycap
quite a bit because of how big the stem is.
So it’s like the keyboard has a bit of a red tint to it.
The case itself is very slim at just over 12mm.
The long foot adds that bit of angle to the case, but also acts as structural support
for the whole keyboard, because it does flex a bit which is understandable.
It is pretty light at about 580 grams, but that’s not bad at all.
I was expecting it to be lighter, but it’s not far off other 60% boards.
There’s a heap of options for different colours for the different layers of acrylic
but we’ve kept it simple.
And there’s also black screws available, but we went with these ones.
And it’s a very DIY type of look with the layers and the exposed screws.
It’s not for everyone, I personally really like it.
Turning the lights on and we have this.
For the key lighting we just have the white LEDs.
But because of how the switch is constructed, the lighting also has quite a bit of a boxy
look with the top bit of the keycap illuminated.
But of course on the longer keys, we just have the central illumination.
And then we have the RGB underglow.
Because the whole thing is made from acrylic, including the mounting plate, the whole thing
lights up.
And it’s a pretty nice and unique effect.
Since it isn’t a uniform piece, it is broken up a bit, and the light doesn’t really spread
to the sides as much.
The lighting can be customised though in the boot mapper client.
For the top key lighting, we can adjust the brightness and there’s a few effects.
And for the bottom underglow we can change the colours to whatever since it is RGB.
And there are also a bunch of effects that you can do.
One of the cool things in my opinion is that the foot that angles the keyboard also lights
up really really nicely.
And of course the typing experience.
I had such a great time with this keyboard, and I got quite attached to it.
The complete acrylic construction does impact on how it feels.
It kind of softens the feel, where metal plates can have a kind of sharp and harsh bottoming
out.
With this it’s not so harsh, and in turn makes it slightly quieter.
From this limited experience, I would say the switches are quite smooth, and are at
about Gateron level.
It’s hard to say for me, since this is based purely on feel, and some switches are buttery
smooth,with some not so much.
Perhaps they’re smoother than Gateron, but I can’t say for sure.
So all up it was a fun build, and is the first sandwich build on the channel, so that was
good.
The typing experience is something I really like, with the Kailh Box Red keyswitches offering
a nice alternative for builders.
The look is different to anything I’ve had on the channel so far.
We’ve gone full frost to create this ghostly look, with this very DIY look.
I’ve done the other underglow build before, but this is a different angle to that approach.
I’m actually quite sad I have to send this away, because I got quite attached to using
it on my desktop.
I’ll put links in the description for the stuff, and I’ll have more Kailh switch builds
coming up soon.