Hey guys, today we have that cheap Alice style custom mechanical keyboard, but not actually
Alice layout, but Arisu style, and this is from YMDK in China. And this thing without
switches is only 135USD. And not much more if you want it built. Which may sound like
a good chunk of money, and it is, but in custom mechs, it’s pretty low.
No proper packaging though. Comes in that box, which is fine, whatever, as long as it
comes undamaged.
We even get a few goodies. I mean this USB C cable is pretty sweet with its denim sleeving.
We also get a keycap puller, keyswitch puller. All the case hardware. And screw in stabs
which normally cost a bit. So not bad for value.
And here it is. Very simple construction, with a thin plastic piece sandwiched between
the two alu pieces. I grabbed the grey version, which I’ll be painting anyway, but there
are a few colours avail.
And yeh the ano isn’t the greatest, which is to be expected. A bit streaky, and that
classic sparkle. And just a bunch of machining defects around, especially on the inside edges,
but nothing too crazy. Just this scratch here which is actually on show; is pretty bad.
Taking it apart, there’s just a bunch of Phillips head screws on the bottom, and that
super thin 1mm acrylic piece comes loose. I’m actually not sure if that was supposed
to be broken up top, but whatever, I’m not gonna use it anyway because I don’t like
that aesthetic, but it does allow for that sideglow.
Here’s the bottom aluminium piece. It basically just closes off the case at the bottom, and
no angle because the feet just screw in.
And finally the top alu piece. Again, just one piece with the integrated plate, makes
it nice and simple, and more importantly, cheap. Normally of course we have separate
plates, and the mounting of said plates determines a lot of how keyboards sound and feel. But
with this, we know it’s gonna be stiff as.
Here’s the PCB. Looks like we get 2 spare diodes too. It supports 5 pin MX style switches,
and through hole LEDs if you want that. It isn’t hotswap, so we will have to solder,
feels like it’s been a while to be honest. On the bottom we do have underglow RGB LEDs.
And finally a USB C port which is sweet.
I didn’t record the stabiliser installation, but I lubed them up nicely. But again, these
screw in stabs come with the kit which for the price is an awesome inclusion. And while
the PCB supports a normal backspace, the plate does not.
To keep it on the cheaper end, I also grabbed this Matcha XDA keyset from the same store,
has the compatibility, and it was only 33 bucks. And this is exactly what we’re gonna
theme the board off.
To be honest, I couldn’t be stuffed to head out to the store and actually colour match
this, and in the theme of keeping it cheap, I’m just using a normal spray paint can
that I already had, no airbrushing.
And we’ll do some experimenting. At the time, I was like yeh, full cheap, stuff priming,
stuff sanding or stripping, just send it. And that’s what I did, just went straight
on with the paint.
To be absolutely clear. This is not what I normally do, I just got a bit carried away
here. Definitely rough it up, use etch primer for metals, and then spray with the colour
paint. Because I did end up having issues later on with paint flaking off around the
edges while sanding. So don’t follow this.
Green is such a nice colour on keyboards, honestly. Even just the plain state it’s
in now looks sweet as with the Matcha keycaps. But of course, we gotta push further because
why not. But before that, just a heap of sanding. Always so much sanding when it comes to painting.
Looks like I was watching smilindown on Twitch at the time, building his Mode80. It’s kinda
funny when you think about it, so often when building keyboards, I’m watching someone
else build one.
Here’s my dodgy illustrator work, please do not judge. And yeh just going with the
whole matcha theme. I was pretty lazy, so I just grabbed some stock leaf illustrations
off the interwebz, they’re not even matcha leaves.
It’s not for everyone, but it’s really fun adding stuff to the board to spice it
up aesthetically. Give it more personalisation, something a bit different you know?
Gotta give a shoutout to my mate Justin for giving me the idea of having Matcha in Katakana,
while I was streaming Illustrator on Discord. Clear paper makes it all easy though, don’t
need to be super precise with cutting. And I made cutouts for the screw holes, so that’s
all good.
Also josefU, because Jintae. And timkeyless because he was in voice chat while I was doing
this. Check them both out on Twitch though. Champions. Arthot was in there too, can’t
remember who else. Soz.
And then it’s just a matter of clear coating and slowly working them in so they don’t
look like stickers. Gotta love wet sanding
Lookin pretty good so far. Unfortunately because of just lazy masking, I’m using that word
too much, I got some overspray on the inside. But then again, it’s just the inside. And
the black, I just Sharpie’d on. Mad scuff.
So of course the thing with painting, is that you’re adding thickness. With this build,
there’s no real fitting parts where tolerances are important, so it’s not much of an issue.
The only thing it did affect were the stab cutouts being tight.
As for the switches, I’m chucking in some Gazzew Boba U4T’s. As the board has this
integrated plate, it’s gonna be hard, it’s gonna be harsh, so I’m gonna embrace it.
These are tactile switches with a pronounced bump and a long pole, similar to say the Holy
Panda’s, and I know this is gonna be crazy loud.
I also chucked in a few Gateron Cap Yellows for a linear reference.
And here it is, the YMDK Wings custom mechanical keyboard, all painted up Matcha themed. Always
so good finishing a job and seeing everything come together. You can visualise things and
draw things up, but you don’t know for sure how it’ll look until it’s done.
Again, I didn’t colour match the greens or anything, but it works absolutely fine.
It’s such a pleasant and calming green. Not as vibrant as a green that we would normally
associate with matcha, but it looks so good with the matte clear coat sanded nicely smooth.
I knew the bottom would look pretty good, but I’m pleasantly surprised with the top.
It was actually pretty tough trying to add stuff to the top surface, even though there’s
so much empty space, the irregular shapes made things look out of place. The Katakana
over here is easy though, like the TGR Alice and stuff, but the leaves over here was a
bit of a gamble, but I think you can tell what it is. And going black with the decals
definitely gave it more life. I previously had the opacity a bit down, and I wasn’t
a fan. And then adding black to the edge of the bottom alu piece again gave it more pop.
But then turning it over, nice, pretty happy. Green on green looks sweet, very calming,
even if they’re not matcha leaves, we still have the matcha in writing, so we good. Cutting
was a bit dodge towards the bottom, missed the lines I drew. And I didn’t go edge to
edge just to avoid any potential lifting issues, even though it is all clear coated. The completely
flat bottom did make this easy though, as we saw before it was just one big print.
Back to the top, and let’s talk about that layout. Many of you will know the TGR Alice,
which has spawned a whole lot of these ergo style boards, and that would be like a 60%.This
is based off the Arisu layout which is like a 65% version with arrow keys. Similar to
like Maja. But this doesn’t have the 2nd B on the right hand side.
And that’s the main thing when it comes to splitting a keyboard. The angling is all
cool, allows us to have a more natural arm and wrist position. But it’s that awkward
crossover that some will take time to get used to because of our individual typing techniques.
In my case, I do press B with my right index. And I press Y with my left index, that’s
just me. So obviously when it comes to typing, that’s something to adapt to. Also, this
has a split backspace, and I’ve always been a full sized backspace person.
It also doesn’t have the Windows key, which I often use. However this is programmable
via QMK, so you can play around with the layout and layers and all that. Other than that,
it’s all pretty standard, very comfortable and easy to use, and after just a bit more
time with it, you can adapt pretty easily because it’s just a split 65% angled downwards.
Alrighty, let’s finally give this thing
a listen.
What an absolute machine. It’s pretty much exactly what I expected it to sound like.
As said before, integrated plate, and it’s split, so it’s more like 2 small plates,
so as stiff as a plate will ever be. No flex, but still 1.5mm alu, so it’s sharp, it’s
clacky, and just crazy loud with these U4T’s. I remember hearing these switches on kiwikangs
keyboard stream, and I loved how they sounded.
They’re quite reminiscent of Holy Panda’s. Strong pronounced bump, long pole with the
earlier bottom out, and just wonderfully clacky on here. I did film and lube the bottom housing
only with Tribosys 3203 just to clean the sound up a little bit. And they are named
thocky though, but in this board, yeh that’s just not happening. You can hear them long
poles on that plate, and the upstroke is loud. But yeh, I made this combination on purpose,
that’s what I wanted. And I love it, it’s so different to all my other boards which
are seemingly linear.
As for linears, I have the Gateron Cap Yellows, but it is just the number row which always
sounds different, but not bad.The board definitely won’t align to many peoples preferences,
that’s just obvious. I know the switches make a lot of noise, but I didn’t hear any
ping. It’s just the typical thin, sharp, and hollow sound that these kind of boards
have.
I will build let’s say a more standard board with the UT4s though in the future, because
they feel awesome.
And that’s the YMDK Wings custom mechanical keyboard. It’s cheap. Cheap for a custom
mech, and it shows with it’s lacking quality, it’s mounting method, but it’s kinda enticing
because of the layout. It gives you the opportunity to try something like this. Which at the moment
is somewhat limited with expensive mechs, and then there’s a bunch of acrylic layered
boards. But for an alu board and even all those accessories it came with, this is value.
But it probs won’t amaze you with its typing experience, although this one does for me.
So it might be something you won’t even use, however if you’re on a super tight
budget, it’s an option. Also a very easy board to paint if you wanted to.
I’ll chuck all the links in the description, and all the keyboard Streamers I mentioned
too. Bless.