Sweet man, I can't wait to see Mike put his Leeku Alps build together. Someone else has to do it!
I hope it'll fit together in the Avant Prime chassis.
Haha I cant wait either. Im sure it will fit in the avant prime just fine, probably minimal modding needed. Im thinking of hotswap modding it, just in case I want to swap switches later on. Since Im already pouring so much money and time in it why not go the extra mile.
Here's what you'll need:
For drilling, this is what I've used:
https://www.amazon.com/Dremel-220-01-Rotary-Tool-Station/dp/B00068P48O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1470287496&sr=8-1&keywords=dremel+drill+pressbits:
https://www.amazon.com/Dremel-628-01-Piece-Drill-Bit/dp/B0000302Z3/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1470287518&sr=8-1&keywords=dremel+drill+bitsSockets:
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/8134-HC-12P2/8134-HC-12P2-ND/2188089 for switches, though you might want to go tin to save some cash
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/6-1437514-6/A107431-ND/2135765 for the LEDs; same as above applies
In general, just check out my build log on my hotswap Eagle for a good idea of all that you'll be in for:
https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=77497.msg1952047#msg1952047Fair warning, it is a lot of work and you will need a heaping helping of patience to get it down. Buying a conductive ink pen for repairing traces is a good idea, because you will ruin some traces and pads. Make sure to not accidentally bridge the ground plane with any connections to the switches. This can be a huge pain in the ass, but I DID look at the Leeku PCB before I built it and I think it'd be easier than most to hotswap mod. The traces are out of the way, so you won't have any crazy repairs or reroutes to do. Not many at least.
Also, use a blunt soldering tip to insert the sockets with heat as it makes the PCB more malleable. I tested out the sockets on a vintage PCB first. It snapped it. Modern double-sided PCBs should be safe, but use caution; none of the korean PCBs I've done this on have had an issue where it seemed they'd break.
Some kind of glue like Loctite Ultra Control Gel is a good idea for securing sockets. I actually used Aves Apoxie Sculpt for this for the Eagles and Loctite for the Orion v2 and Lightpad. The epoxy will ensure a pretty much permanent hold. The glue works well, but this epoxy clay is good for building up more material for the sockets to adhere to, which is good for the MXAlps kinds of PCBs that have a bit of empty space in account for Cherry MX switches.
You can expect to pay ~ $130. I just added 220 of each socket type and it totalled $135 before shipping.
I decided against it for my NCR because this was a board I was damn sure of when I built it, haha. The Orion probably won't ever be anything but SKCM Blue, but admittedly, I hot swapped that one just because I thought the gold sockets would look really awesome with the acrylic bottom.