Hi all,
I am building my first mechanical keyboard and am just about to get my plate cut.
Extra information: I will be using Alps switches, therefore plate mounted (steel plate, 1.2mm), there is no PCB, I am doing hand wiring, and the buttons in question will all be hit with thumbs.
There is, however, one part of the plate where I am not sure if I want to go with three 1u keys, one 1u and one 2u keys, or two 1.5u keys, as shown on the image below (I put it all together but each row is one possible configuration).
swillkb comes up with according layout:
I don't think I will know which one works for me until I have tried typing for real so I would love to test all three configurations, however I would prefer not ordering three different plates just to figure out only one works for me.
Therefore, I was hoping I could come up with a plate layout that would allow some experimenting here and allow me to switch between those configurations, if not between all three, then at least between two.
Only solution I could think of is to cut one long hole for all three switches and then place switches in there differently for different combinations. However, for that I need them to be stable enough with just two sides holding them + I need to be very precise when putting them in in order to have correct spacing between them, and I don't know if that is feasible. I was also thinking about having small piece of metal that I would use as spacer between the switches, but that sounds flimsy and I am not sure how I could screw such piece of metal in, the screws would probably be in the way of the keycaps or switches hm.
Am I missing something here? Any advice is appreciated! Thanks.
