I've been taking pics of the entire process so I can post a build-log, but I've not been sure if I should wait until it's done or to update as I go. What do you think?
I'm ok waiting, I'm just interested to see what kind of work it required.
I can definitely tell you it's not for someone without dedication. It was hell! Mainly because the sockets that work for Alps are bigger than the switch mounting holes, so I literally had to bore out every single one. I bought a dremel drill press just for this purpose and it worked well. Furthermore, the Duck Eagle PCB doesn't have as many layouts for Alps as it does for MX. At first, I was going to settle with that, albeit with disappointment, but then I said screw it, I'm not going to settle, and so I drilled out positions for EVERY MX position on the board and then mounted the sockets. I didn't realize that the copper layer would contact the sockets and so many of these positions did not work until I went back and made sure the copper ground plane was not touching any of the sockets. Some of these positions needed to be reinforced with epoxy as well.
It is definitely not as easy as slipping in a socket and being done with it. Especially since Duck's PCBs have frustratingly terrible durability when it comes to pads. Just putting the sockets in caused some pads to lift.
This would be much easier with MX, as those sockets can fit without any drilling.
A huge amount of time went into hand drilling (with a pin vise) the bottoms of every linear switch for LED legs to slip through as linear Alps still does not contain holes for the LED legs on the switch's bottom housing unless it came from the factory with an LED. I also took the time to lubricate every spring for each switch in order to kill the horrendous ping that Alps always tends to have.
Overall, I've poured 30+ hours in this already, but I think the hard part is pretty much done. Now it's just getting the carbon fiber plate to mount the switches, putting it in a case, and throwing caps on! Cherry stabs will work with the recent DCS Alps caps.
Did I mention that I grinded the flanges off of 480 2x5x7mm LEDs this morning?