Is putting together a custom keyboard hard?

[goobus]

Long story short: I have never soldered anything, have never built my own keyboard or anything, but am interested in doing so.

Do you guys think it would be too hard for a noobie like me?

[The_Beast]

if it's just switches, no, it's not really that hard


However, I would practice on an old radio or VCR before trying it on a keyboard.

[boogerlad]

It's not too hard, just very time consuming. The last time I soldered anything before my keyboard was 4 years ago. I haven't programmed my teensy yet, but I don't imagine it being too hard.

[dorkvader]

For a new soldering project,s a full-on (and expensive) mechanical keyboard is not really what I'd start with, but it's totally doable (to be honest, the first thing I ever soldered, was an expensive amplifier, and it worked for me, so I can't really speak)

That said, cherry switches are pretty "forgiving", and relatively easy to solder, so as long as the controller is already put together, it won't be too hard.

[vun]

If it's just putting together a board where you have the case, pcb and switches all lined up then no, it's not that hard. At least putting my eDox together was a breeze with minimal prior soldering experience. If you've got a half decent soldering station then it should be a breeze if you just watch a soldering tutorial or two first(I recommend the EEVblog ones).
Then again, the eDox did have very clear instructions, so idk if there's an issue with assembly quirks and lack of instructions with other diy boards.

[goobus]

Thanks for the replies guys! It's very encouraging that you guys don't think it will be too hard.

In fact, I have the perfect thing to practice on, my broken full size filco with brown switches from about 4 years ago.  I just desoldered about a quarter of the switches, which at first was quite hard but got easier (the first 2 switches took me 1 hour but then I did the next 20 or so in an hour!!). I'm using the copper braid that soaks up the solder, but I'm using up quite a lot and wil probably run out before I go through all 104 keys...I should probably get one of those suction tools that suck up the solder, but I'm not sure where to get one in Hong Kong.

I also have a bunch of clear switches coming in from 7bit, so I will try to make ergo clears!  But then I will need to buy krytox and stuff.. And I also don't have switch stickers so maybe I'll hold off until I get those.. Do we know of any GHers in the region who could help me get those things?  I've been speaking to gon but I don't think he sells that kind of stuff separately 

EDIT: need to figure out a better way to post images. On my phone since work blocks gh - imgur probably works better, but it's a pain to do on phone..will fix the pics when I get home.

[jdcarpe]

You should talk to tinlong117. He's also in Hong Kong. You can find him often in the #geekhack IRC channel on Freenode.