My First Mechanical Keyboard ⌨️
Building a mechanical keyboard with zero experience and zero research
Before moving to Austin, I worked in the heart of our nation’s capital, where I ran a R&D lab for the consulting firm, Booz Allen. During my time in the lab, I quickly grew an affinity for rapid prototyping and product development. My job was fairly straightforward: help creators turn their ideas into early-stage products. As such, I made sure our lab was chock full with every tool any maker could ever need. We had a myriad of 3D printers, milling machines, laser cutters, soldering stations, electronics, and just about every computing device you could imagine; all free and open to use, as long as you had a creative idea and target market.
However, when I first started this job I had zero experience in prototyping - especially hardware based solutions. I remember that once in high school I modded an Xbox controller so I could pwn noobs in Halo 2 LAN parties, but that was as far as my experience had taken me. I needed to find quick projects to help me upskill and fast.
I started like most- 3D printing. I quickly found Benchy, which is essentially the hello-world of 3D printing and I was off to the races. Next, I started assembling my army of 3D printed baby Groots. From there, I moved to potential lab logos and signage, to more complex widgets like gears, and then before I knew it I was modeling little apparatuses to hold Amazon Alexa’s and other odd job fixes around my 650 sq ft row house.
However, this didn’t really teach me about the more complex things like soldering and basic electronics. I still wanted to find more projects and to become a true expert who could better collaborate with the makers around me.
Shortly after re-launching our EBC (Executive Briefing Center) lab as a rapid prototyping incubator, I visited some of our other labs around the country. First up was our Innovation Center in Austin, Texas. It was in need of a remodel and our team wanted to scale our incubator concept to other innovation spaces across the country. I still remember the first time I walked into our space on 7th and Brazos. We had just expanded to a new floor in the Capitol Factory. I walked in and was immediately greeted by the clickity clackity clack of an entire floor of VR developers mashing away at their keyboards. It was fascinating. Why did they all have such weird looking keyboards? Why were some split into two pieces? Others sat at odd angles. And almost all of them were brimming with more LED lights than my grandmother’s Christmas tree. What an odd thing…
Curious, I asked “Woah, dude. What is that thing?” I was met with a cagey reply, “This? It’s just a mechanical keyboard”. After I continued to distract them from their work, they finally said, “Check out this reddit thread… it’ll give you way more information than we have.” I took the hint and placed the scratch paper into my laptop bag.
That night, I stayed up for hours looking at thousands and thousands of artisan-crafted keyboards. Each was completely different from the last. Some were tiny - no more than maybe 40 keys. Others were massive and looked like they were ripped right off my dad’s Tandy 1400. I was hooked. Finally, a project where the end result won’t be just a boring wall mounted raspberry pi sitting in a goofy little neon printed case. Moreover, this seemed like a hobby where I could do two things I love: hands-on, tactile development and creative expression.
So it began… I started monitoring a couple of different forums. Primarily the three below:
Before too long, I knew what I liked. I wanted something small and sleek. I also wanted something minimalistic with no RGB lights. I would say, “I hope I don’t offend anyone,” but that’s the beauty of this hobby - each build is unique to you. Everyone has their own style and there are more than enough artisans out there who are making something that suits your personal style. Shortly after that, I found the artisans I liked and simply had to wait until the appropriate group buys to collect the pieces I needed.
To get started, you need source six main components:
- A case
- A printed circuit board
- A base plate
- Mechanical switches
- Artisan keycaps
- And a cable of some sort
Of course, you need tools to put it all together but we’ll get to that later.
Perhaps I’ll do another post at some point about how I find these designers, but until then here is a short summary of the parts I picked and quick blurb on why I picked them:
Case: Mekanisk Klippe T4
Mekanisk is a Norwegian based designer who has a minimalistic aesthetic and sweats the details. Everything from the design to the palette to the packaging is immaculate. I’ve been following him for quite some time and you can tell he is also incredibly passionate about turning this hobby into something more for the community at large. He even opened a brick and mortar recently which I hope to visit at some point in future.
Switches: Drop + Invyr Holy Panda
Switches. Switches. Switches. So this is really the bread of butter of the hobby, but I am new and, to be honest, any switch feels 10x better than the Macbook Pro butterfly keyboard I’m stuck with on my work machine. If you’re reading this and thinking about diving into the hobby, I’d recommend buying a switch sampler and seeing which ones you enjoy the most. For me, this offers a satisfying tactical feel with a sound that isn’t totally disruptive in case we ever make it back into IRL offices.
Keycaps: MiTO rmk GMK Hennessey
MiTO is decidedly the reason I got into the hobby. Mito turned something I was interested in into something I knew I wanted to pursue. Some of the designs he’s dropped in the past are nothing short of Art. Check out Godspeed or Laser and see if you don’t believe me. If I didn’t find MiTO I’m not sure I would have ever pursued the hobby further. The older drops are harder to find nowadays, but you can get lucky on r/MechMarket if you’re persistent like I was for XDA Canvas which might make an appearance in my next build. Stay tuned.
PCB: Mekanisk WT60-D PCB
Not that you’ll ever see it after you complete the build process, but this board is gorgeous. It’s actually designed and produced by Wilba at wilba.tech, but it was made to specs provided by Mekanisk. If you’re intimidated by the prospect of sourcing parts from different vendors like I was, Mekanisk makes this process more approachable with build bundles.
Plate: Mekanisk 60% Mounting Plate V2.2
My plate is probably my one regret. I picked form over function which was a mistake in retrospect. The TL;DR is that plates are used to align and hold the switches in the PCB. Plates can also affect the sound and stiffness of the keyboard. I went with a plastic plate because it was the only one I could find that was pure white which I wanted to keep the monochromatic look I was going for. For a high quality build, this is the one area I’ll probably revisit in the coming weeks. I’ll likely replace this board with brass for a more solid feel throughout.
Cable: Space Cables And last, but not least I’ll give a special shoutout to Space Cables because they’re actually based out of Austin, Texas. The founder is awesome and really appreciates the support from the community. He also gave me some great recommendations for when I first moved to town… so go follow him.
Alright, now to the fun part: building the keyboard. As I mentioned earlier, I ordered most of the parts during group buys that went live just before the pandemic. No new news here, but the pandemic wrecked supply chains globally, so I waited over a year for all my parts to finally arrive. By this time, I’d left my lab gig for a new job in Texas. This meant I also lost access to all the high-end tools in my lab and my parts collected dust for another year while I procrastinated this project.
To be honest, I had two major concerns that helped me validate my procrastination:
First, I was terrified I didn’t know how to solder and had an irrational fear that I’d touch the hot iron to the board and short circuit everything. I had this image of borking my board and throwing away countless hours of research in a split second. Turns out soldering isn’t easy, but it’s far from intimidating after your first go. I watched this video shortly before and it gave me the confidence I need to dive in.
Next, I was extremely overwhelmed by the prospect of programming my own PCB. In my mind, this was an intricate process which would require significant lift on my part. Turns out, tools like VIA and GMK make this part mindless as well.
So, this past weekend, after a failed trip to Europe for the weekend (s/o Omicron), I decided now would be the perfect time to give it a try. I bought the cheapest soldering iron I could find on Amazon and dusted off the parts in my project closet.
Before diving in, here are the basic steps you need to complete during the build phase:
- Program your keyboard layout
- Attach your stabilizers
- Snap in your base plate
- Pop your switches into the PCB
- Solder the switches to the board
- Test out the keys
- Mount the PCB to the case
- Plug it in and start clacking
The good stuff.
Program the Keyboard with Via
I’m not sure why I had this misconception, but for some reason I imagined I’d need to flash my board to support the custom 60% layout. Instead, all I needed to do was download Via and plug in my board. After that, the process was quick and clear, but if you’re weary you can watch this walkthrough like I did.
Attach your Stabilizers
Surprisingly, I had the most trouble with this step. The pieces are delicate and there are no extra parts, so be careful. Again, I watched a walkthrough and after a little trial and error it was good to go.
Snap in your base plate
This is self-explanatory, but once you have your stabilizers in place the board just goes over and snaps into place firmly. Make sure the plate is firm because the next step is dependent on it.
Pop in your switches
With your plate in place, you can start placing individual switches. Again, this step is very important. If you don’t place your switches in your board securely then the metal tips at the end won’t make it through the holes in the PCB. This can lead to difficulty making solid connections through soldering to your board and ultimately lead to faulty keys.
Solder the keys
Solder the keys! This is the scary, but fun part. Again, I watched a walkthrough and this gave me a tremendous amount of confidence, so shout out BT for the video. In the video, the narrator walks through the do’s and don’ts of soldering and clarifies what a “good” connection looks like. TL;DR if the solder goes into the hole and covers the ping it’s probably going to work just fine. Once I realized not every connection needs to be picture perfect, it was easy to get started.
Test the keys
This step is also key before moving forward. I used Via to test my connections and everything checked out just fine. However, I’m skeptical by nature so I tested three more times only to realize my T and 0 keys were a little spotty. Not to worry, I turned the board back around, heated my iron, and secured the connections without problem. I actually had to remove the solder from one and start over, but again this process is way less intimidating than it sounds.
Mount the PCB
Mounting the plate simply requires screwing in a few screws to firmly attach the PCB to the case. I highly recommend a magnetic tip screwdriver as the parts are small and they can get lost easily and, I’ll say it again, there are no extra parts.
Start clacking
BOOM. Just like that I was 10x more productive. Not really, but there is something cathartic about the tactile manner of a mechanical keyboard. Satisfied with the look and feel of the board, I cleaned up my workstation and moved the board into my office as my primary keyboard.
All-in-all this project took me about 2.5 years and 5 hours. The first 1.5 years were spent sourcing and receiving my parts. The second year was spent procrastinating. And the last 5 hours were spent putting it all together. Seriously, once you have the parts you can easily do this in a night. It was so fun and so easy I am now currently trying to figure out a way to turn this into a side hustle. It is truly that fun.
Anyways, I hope this way-too-long-didn’t-read blog helps explain my motivation for building, my approach to prototyping, and the end-top-end build process. If you’re interested in learning more or just want to bounce ideas around to build confidence, find me on twitter @mrlincolnlogs.
Happy clacking ✌️