Up to a few weeks ago I had no idea diy mechanical keyboards were a thing. Now I want one! I am a fan of split/ergo keyboards so my current plan is a modified TKL layout with plate-mounted switches split between two plates (probably acrylic or aluminum depending on cost). I like the feel of Cherry MX clear switches but, being "frugal", I will probably jump in the gateron GB and pick up some browns. The case will be a simple sandwich using wood (again, "frugal").
For keycaps, I am fairly certain I wouldn't find value in top-of-the-line caps so my inclination is to start with one of the cheap $25 sets but I haven't been able to find any seller of those cheap sets that offers individual keys (for things like the 2.75 shorter "space bar," extra escape key, etc.). For that matter, I haven't seen any sellers of the expensive sets that offers the individual keys that belong to those sets, I guess maybe that is why we see so many blank key sets
. So, my current plan is to spend the money on a WASD 104-key custom set and buy the extra keys to the set from them as well.
So, before committing to having someone cut the plates for me (or jumping in and trying to cut them myself by hand) I thought I would put my plan our for critique to make sure I wasn't missing something or making some critical error.
Here is a link to the current layout idea (but split in two obviously):
http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/#/layouts/aba8cc31752da255e036157a3d8c1834and .dxf files for the two plates (from
http://builder.swillkb.com/ based on the layout from keyboard-layout-editor.com):
keyboard_left_1.dxf (14.33 kB - downloaded 100 times.)
keyboard_right_1.dxf (22.69 kB - downloaded 87 times.)
Thanks!
Michael
