Flexy Plate Material Opinions?

[SherlockBunny]

I’m still pretty new to the custom keyboard community and was wondering what the differences were between FR4, carbon fibre, polycarbonate, and POM plates in terms of sound and feel. I think I’d like a softer plate (my fingers hurt on an alu plate... I’m quite the heavy typist I guess) but I was wondering what it felt and sounded like to type on these plates. Let me know your experiences!

Just for reference, I’ll be using Alpacas (lubed and filmed) in an alu case with no sound dampening and Cherry profile keycaps (both ABS and PBT).

[hwood34]

PC is goated

[Jonnyswboy]

PC is goated

Care to elaborate? Currently debating 4.75mm PC or Brass.

[tp4tissue]

flexy plate is silly.

if you want dampening, adding something soft with give under a rigid keyboard is the same as using flexy material for the plate.

[hwood34]

flexy plate is silly.

if you want dampening, adding something soft with give under a rigid keyboard is the same as using flexy material for the plate.

but it's not for dampening, it's to stabilize plate-mount switches while maintaining a flexible, pcb-mount feel

PC is goated

Care to elaborate? Currently debating 4.75mm PC or Brass.

polycarb is just a great flexible and cheap material for plates. even though brass is comparatively much softer than aluminum, for a plate they're both in a different category from polycarb/acrylic in terms of softness. I also haven't used those ultra-thick plates like you're looking at, but I'd assume that's going to lose you a lot of a the flexibility of a standard thickness plate

[treeleaf64]

Check that you have good mounting method. Alu on top mount feels a lot nicer and even than tray mount.