Hello from Scotland

[Davidn7777]

How's it going people?

Recently got into the hobby and have the parts for my first build looking to come through over the next month or so. I'm a recent engineering graduate constantly looking for ways to expend creative energy and decided that investing a little into building a nice keyboard would be a decent way to do that. However, to my dismay there appears to be not that much love for the larger board layouts like TKL's and Full-Size or at the very least finding decent parts proved to be a challenge.

In the end I settled for 75% with a separate numpad but I've since been inspired to try designing some of these parts myself (not for any expected monetary gain just simply out of general interest). I have many years of both CAD and general design experience and I'm looking to start by generating potential case designs for some of the less common larger boards like TKLs, 1800 Compacts and Full-Size. I currently have no intention of actually manufacturing any of these designs (I imagine not many manufacturers would wanna take on one-off jobs like this) but I think it will be a more interesting way to learn about the compatibilities with all the different PCB/plate types and styles while also giving me something to procrastinate with when I should really be applying for jobs.

I am currently trying to source the dimensioning and tolerance information about a lot of the different case/plates/pcb types to start drawing up renders but I am struggling to find the information. If anyone has any suggestions as to where I would be best looking for this information or even just general design advice please lemme know. Additionally, if anyone has suggestions for more niche layouts that I should check out again feel free to hmu.

[an_achronism]

Feel ye on the lack of interest in full size boards, it's killin' me. I can't stand wee tiny boards where loads has to be done on layers to get around not having enough keys. Just gimme more keys, damn it. "But ergonomics! My shoulder!" My body is crumbling either way, my shoulder won't notice the extra 3 inches it has to reach to get to the mouse, gimme the num pad back!

... I mean, hello, nice to meet you.

[Davidn7777]

Yeah, it's a struggle for sure. Ended up settling for a 75 for the time being and i'll probably end up just building a separate numpad at some point.