Beginning Geek..

[Tiramisuu]

Can I buy a gon universal plate and hand wire matias quiet click switches to it or am I limited to cherry mx's ?   Are torpre switches buyable without keyboards?

For a 60% build if I have to maintain the switches it would be nice to pop the top without desoldering.   Do any of the plates allow for this and still allow for hand wiring or is an either/or kind of decision?

Is there an easy way to cut acrylic or something else findable at home depot etc for prototyping?

....   Is the a newb link I should be reading? 

[dorkvader]

Can I buy a gon universal plate and hand wire matias quiet click switches to it or am I limited to cherry mx's ?   Are torpre switches buyable without keyboards?

For a 60% build if I have to maintain the switches it would be nice to pop the top without desoldering.   Do any of the plates allow for this and still allow for hand wiring or is an either/or kind of decision?

Is there an easy way to cut acrylic or something else findable at home depot etc for prototyping?

....   Is the a newb link I should be reading? 

you cannot use a cherry plate with ALPS or matias switches.

Topre switches are not buyable outside the keyboard, except in the case of a non-functional keychain.

Lots of cherry plates support switch top removal without desoldering. It is not recommended for hand wiring unless you glue the switches to the plate (or you will pull the switch out when changing keycaps, etc.)

Acrylic does not make a very good plate material, but is excellent for prototyping.

There are some newbie guides, but I will have to dig up the links.

[Tiramisuu]

thanks.

I'm thinking to order a bag of matias quiet switches.   Happily I am canuckistanian so shipping is cheap for a change.

I would like to play with various layouts before I commit. 

alps being plate mounted seems to be a bit of a challenge for one off builds.   Are there internet based services that will take a schematic of the plate and laser cut the plate for you like some of the pcb prototyping services?

[dorkvader]

Are there internet based services that will take a schematic of the plate and laser cut the plate for you like some of the pcb prototyping services?

Yes, emachineshop and bigbluesaw will do that, but I think they're more expensive than a local place. Once you have your cad drawing of your plate, you can usually send it to them for a quote

[Findecanor]

(never mind)

[epicepee]

Lots of cherry plates support switch top removal without desoldering. It is not recommended for hand wiring unless you glue the switches to the plate (or you will pull the switch out when changing keycaps, etc.)

I'm designing a plate-mount, hand-soldered board.  What sort of cutouts should I use so that the switches stay in firmly?

[technomancy]

Supposedly it's possible to make a switch plate that's both Matias-compatible and Cherry compatible:

http://geekhack.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=60268.0;attach=69978;image

However, most of the existing designs you find on this site are not likely to work that way. I am working on a design that does this, but I haven't received the cuts yet, so I can't comment on it from first-hand experience.

I disagree that acrylic does not make good plate material; as long as you get something thick enough it works great. I type on a board with a 4.5mm-thick acrylic plate every day. It might be a problem for a full-size board, but for smaller designs it works great. The one gotcha is that most plate-mounted switches assume a thinner plate, but you're going to need to glue the switches in place anyway if you're not designing a PCB, so it's really not a problem.

[cinnamonrollz]

mmm matias.