YouTube. It's a great way to waste a lot of time. Especially when ill and you can't do anything else.
I've watched loads of car, ASMR cleaning, tech and purely random content over the last 18 months. Recently I've watched a huge amount of 3D Printing content (because of my new toy - I want to learn how to use it right).
And... Keyboards. I'm a geek, unashamedly, and watching people build and mod keyboards is awesome! The difference that you can make to a keyboard just by a few simple things is amazing.
I did want to treat myself to a new keyboard - I've had my current Skarkoon Purewriter RGB for about 6 years now. Whilst it is great to usee, it can be a little finiky, and, well, I just wanted to try something different.
But... My budget is being spent elsewhere at the moment, trying to get a NAS big enough to store our movie collection, so that we can watch them without having to sort through the discs... Ho-hum choices have to be made. Luxury problems, I know.
Instead I started thinking about other options. What changes can I make to my current keyboard to make it better. There are lots of limitations:
- It is low profile, so there are limited choices in hardware, and I wasn't sure if I could even change my switches
- Sharkoon use Kailh switches which mean my choice of keycaps is limited
- I have no money to spend so I have to start off with things around the house before I move onto actually byuing anything
Oh, and my brain means that I don't plan these things. I had the idea at 11am and by lunch they keyboard was in bits - so no pictures I'm afraid (it really should have been a video! I can always take it apart again, let me know if it would be fun to watch).
Dismantling was easier than I expected. I removed all the keykaps (after taking a picture so that I could put them back in the right place) and undid some screws. The top plate then just lifted off and I could see what what inside.
However, this is where the problems started. The switches are soldered, so I couldn't do anything with them. They also seem to be soldered from the other side of the top panel - so I can't even take out the PCB... Hmm...
And lastly, the stabalisers look nothing like I have seen on any keyboard channel - so I assume that they are not interchangable with other sets. My options are looking more and more limited.
Literally the only thing that I could so was add sound deadening material to the base and see if I could change the clacky sounds to more of a thonk.
So I thought about what I could fill it with. I had some sticky door edge draft excluder (rubber foam stuff - technical term) left from some DIY... That covered about half the bottom of the case.
Put it back together and OMG! The difference was night and day. All of a sudden all of the hollow clackyness had gone and some satisfying thonking (more technical terms) had replaced it. All whilst still keeping the clickyness of the clicky switches that I love! But it wasn't perfect. In the spaces wehere I has no rubber foam you could hear the difference in the sound of they keys. So I had another look and... Bubble wrap was all I could find - from some printer parts that were delivered.
So I cut that into rectangles to put into the rest of the keyboard base and BOOM! the rest of it sounded pretty similar. At some point I will get some more draft exluder and stream replacing the bubble wrap - but for now... I'm over the moon with the difference in sound!
Oh, I also took the time to clean the keys with alcohol. Wow, 10 years of grime! Considering that they didn't look dirty, they were actually pretty gross judging by the cotton buds at the end 🫣
For now I'm done with this keyboard. The only other thing I can think of is adding some Modge Podge/PVA glue to the keycaps to make them more solid. But that is for another time.
I do think that I am going to revisit the custom keyboard idea later in the year to see what options there are to really make a personal keyboard! There are some beautiful options out there!
If you want to look at how you can improve your keyboard then here are some awesome channels that I can recomend following:
https://www.youtube.com/c/HipyoTech
https://www.youtube.com/@SwitchandClickOfficial
https://www.youtube.com/@Keybored
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