Interested in a modular keyboard?

[beigeandbrown]

I just recently got into this hobby because the tinker-ability rating of keyboards and all just seemed off the charts. It's the same reason my other hobbies include pc building and overclocking, rc cars, real cars, and woodworking. Although my crux has always been my lack of real disposable income, although the uber eats driving is really helping fund my latest keyboard endevors.

Anyways sorry for the long introduction, I wanted to talk about a project I've been working on quite a bit to create my dream keyboard and also learn basic 2d cad in the process. I'm not looking to release my files yet because I don't know if anyone would be really interested but what I've created is a gasket mount keyboard similar to a keycult mounting system but with a case that is seen in lots of ortholinear or ergonomic builds. It consists of five layers that can be easily cut from any material and is held all together by m4 screws and a nut to capture it all. I've had all the parts I need ordered, but I've only received the brass plate. The material I chose for the case was originally steel, but after trouble finding a quick vendor, I decided to order my design in black pom/delrin from ponoko. I plan to also order nice sorbothane to mount the brass plate and use titanium screws to really bling it out and make it look premium. I know this is a common style of designing cases but I haven't seen a gasket mount version of what I'm creating so I took it upon me to create it. Additionally I really like the idea of being able to possibly switch the top layer with interesting materials such as stainless steel, maybe cold blued steel, and one of my favorite ideas, a deep amber tortoiseshell acetyl to match my glasses. Sorry for rambling, but if you read this and are interested at all in the design I'd love to send some pictures and possibly the files to create it. Again thank you for taking the time to read this, it means a lot.

[suicidal_orange]

Welcome to geekhack

I'm interested but unless you can do one of those fancy gifs where the board pulls itself to pieces to show off the mounting it would probably be easier to see your idea when it arrives.  Unless you're putting black sorbothane in a black case and mounting a black plate on it - hopefully your desk is not black or there will still be nothing to see

[beigeandbrown]

Not really an update, just waiting on my final parts to arrive so I can finish this project and share it to you guys. But seeing how easy it was to design this board has made me want to make a sort of open ended modular keyboard project. As I said before I designed mine to be gasket mount, but I could easily design a sandwich mount style plate. The whole idea would be is a large thread of how to make the keyboard you want using ponoko and laserboost. I would have a multitude of case designs with instructions on how to order and assemble the parts needed along with the dxf files needed for each design. I see this as being an awesome way to allow people to create custom cases that expensive and exclusive, and also prevent the year long wait times some wait to get a case they want. In a week or two I'll post the pictures of my completed gasket mount version of this project so people can see what they think of the idea. Then I might start compiling some more files and create a thread if there's enough interest.

[elysiumstarz]

I'd like to see this come to fruition!