I bought my first mechanical kb 4 years ago, that is the Filco Majestouch with Cherry MX Brown. At that time Cherry Red MX are not yet released and Brown is the only choice between Blue and Black. I've grown to love it till I got my hands on Red with my Poker II. It's Red that I truly want, so I purchased a bag full of Red MX and went on swapping the switches.
I have never opened the Filco before and I struggled to get the top cover removed, those damn latches are the worst. After opening it up, I unscrew the base cover and removed the plate plus PCB.
The plate is heavy and PCB is thick. I could clearly see the daughter board on top of the direction keys. I slowly examined the PCB and carefully detached the cable out of its socket. I can see that there is no two tiny holes for the Cherry MX switch legs, which I find quite common in mass produced keyboards. Yes, Poker II switches are no exception.
I flipped the slowly lied the PCB on top of a soap board to avoid scratches to the board and go on preparing the solder iron. Once the solder tip is hot enough, I places it on two solder points on each switch and used the sucker to suck up melted lead. Took a while to get all desoldered.
Next, I used a flathead screwdriver and flip the switches up by inserting it in the latch at switch's base. I did the same for another latch which is opposite then slowly pull the switch up. FYI, I only desolder alpha keys, leaving the rest Brown MX
Moving on to installing new Red MX. I clipped each switch legs and snapped each it in the hole on the plate. Finally once all done, I carefully solder each through holes.
Testing step is easy with OSX Input Key Viewer, once QA passed. I reinstalled the cable, the base and then removed the stock daughter board and inserted the HID Liberation daughter board. This would allow me to remap my keys, I have been curious about Colemak.
Top cover was the last part to be reinstalled. A sweep with soft toothbrush and my Filco is now pimped up and ready to inspire me again.
I am planning to purchases the Lacquer KOBO case and the Filco SPH key set to complete the project.
I never realised that it is quite easy to mod Filco. I highly recommend you to give have a go, you will enjoy the process and learn to love your kb more
