Author Topic: CANADA Soldering and Modding Services  (Read 6091 times)

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Offline user 18

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CANADA Soldering and Modding Services
« on: Wed, 23 April 2014, 19:55:46 »
Closed while I'm at school and have to fit my whole life in an 8x8 room

Hi there everyone, I've recently gotten into keyboard modding, and have done some boards of my own, and have some more in the queue from family members. I find myself enjoying this sort of work, and am willing to offer my services to the GH community at competitive prices. I'm located in Southern Ontario, near Toronto, and am accepting work from any Canadian, or anyone else who's willing to pay for international shipping.

Services offered:
  • Switch swap (raw switches or from a donor board)
  • Spring swap
  • LED mods
  • Controller swap
  • Lube jobs
  • Switch Stickering
  • Cleaning and General Maintenance
  • Keyboard Repair

Note that pretty much any of this will void the warranty of the keyboard in question. I do not have any formal training in soldering or electronics work, although I haven't broken anything yet. I do this work at below minimum wage, and because I enjoy helping out the community. In the event that there are problems with a board in my possession, I will contact you and we can work out some form of compensation. I will only be accepting one board at a time, and would ask you not to ship your board until I have shipped the previous board to its owner.

I am planning in the near future to offer custom paint jobs for cases as well, assuming I can get a proper painting setup that can give me the best results possible.

If you're looking for a keyboard related service that's not on the list, feel free to contact me so we can discuss it.

For all soldering tasks, I use industrial-grade Weller equipment. I have a DS600 desoldering station with an integrated vacuum pump solder sucker, and a WTCP-TC202 temperature-controlled soldering iron.
For application of lubricant, I have access to medical-grade sterile syringes and needles, to ensure that the debris entering the switch is kept at a minimum.

If you're interested in any of the above, feel free to drop me a PM. I usually respond within 24 hours, and often sooner.

I'll be adding some pics of my equipment and my current personal project in the near future, once I have access to the nice camera again.

Got some pictures, sorry it took so long. All the equipment shots are courtesy of my sister, who is a much better photographer than I.



Desoldering station, Soldering iron, Multimeter



Desoldering station


Desoldering tip detail. I have a couple different sizes of these, this was the one I used for my QFR switch swap.



Soldering station


Diode tester. It works on resistors, capacitors and other small components as well, but I mostly use it to make sure I hook up LEDs in the right direction. It can be useful for knowing what resistors to use to match LED brightness too.


Spring swap in progress. I ended up swapping these springs back, as I was happy with the heavier clears.


And some WIP shots from my QFR:


First switch coming out!


About halfway done with the desoldering process.


Everything out. I soldered in the four corners before I was done taking all the blues off so my PCB didn't separate from my plate.


Clears, waiting to be converted to plate mount.


I forgot to take a picture before I had all the keycaps back on, so I pulled some off again for this shot.


Detail from the back on some of the solder joints. I didn't bother cleaning the flux off because the board was going back in the case immediately. Q looks a bit like a bad joint in this picture, but it's just the lighting.


I haven't soldered the LEDs back in because I'm planning to move them to a different location on the case, as the keyset I'm going to put on here isn't windowed. I'm looking at the feasibility of putting them in the same place they are on a filco. Got to figure out if there's a good way to route the wires though. If there isn't, I'll probably end up putting the LEDs back where they were originally.
« Last Edit: Thu, 24 July 2014, 23:43:41 by user 18 »
Please PM me if you are waiting on classifieds approval or have a question about the classifieds rules. | geekhack Terms of Service

Max Nighthawk x8 (MX Brown) | CM QFR (MX Blue) | CM QFR (MX Clear) | RK-9000 (MX Red) | Model M 1391401 | Model M SSK 1370475 | CM Novatouch | G80-8113 (MX Clear) | 60% (85g MX Blue) | Whitefox Aria (MX Clear) | CL-LX (MX Clear) | Mira SE (MX Clear)
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Offline user 18

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Re: CANADA Soldering and Modding Services
« Reply #1 on: Wed, 23 April 2014, 19:56:12 »
Can't imagine needing this post, but I'll hang onto it just in case.
Please PM me if you are waiting on classifieds approval or have a question about the classifieds rules. | geekhack Terms of Service

Max Nighthawk x8 (MX Brown) | CM QFR (MX Blue) | CM QFR (MX Clear) | RK-9000 (MX Red) | Model M 1391401 | Model M SSK 1370475 | CM Novatouch | G80-8113 (MX Clear) | 60% (85g MX Blue) | Whitefox Aria (MX Clear) | CL-LX (MX Clear) | Mira SE (MX Clear)
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Offline GSimon

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Re: CANADA Soldering and Modding Services
« Reply #2 on: Tue, 29 April 2014, 21:14:00 »
Awesome! I'm waiting for an Ergo-Dox keyboard kit that I purchased from a group buy and might hit you up!
« Last Edit: Tue, 29 April 2014, 21:18:13 by GSimon »

Offline user 18

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Re: CANADA Soldering and Modding Services
« Reply #3 on: Mon, 16 June 2014, 17:27:01 »
Thread unlocked, accepting PMs again.

Locked again.
« Last Edit: Fri, 25 July 2014, 00:04:37 by user 18 »
Please PM me if you are waiting on classifieds approval or have a question about the classifieds rules. | geekhack Terms of Service

Max Nighthawk x8 (MX Brown) | CM QFR (MX Blue) | CM QFR (MX Clear) | RK-9000 (MX Red) | Model M 1391401 | Model M SSK 1370475 | CM Novatouch | G80-8113 (MX Clear) | 60% (85g MX Blue) | Whitefox Aria (MX Clear) | CL-LX (MX Clear) | Mira SE (MX Clear)
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Offline munch

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Re: CANADA Soldering and Modding Services
« Reply #4 on: Thu, 11 September 2014, 13:05:20 »
this thread doesn't quite seem locked yet...
is there any chance of having keyboard modded around xmas? or will you be in school even then?
I'll be moving back to Canada, to BC in nov-dec (from Sweden), and was really hoping to get my switches lubed + spring change + stickered.

thanks! :)

Offline user 18

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Re: CANADA Soldering and Modding Services
« Reply #5 on: Thu, 11 September 2014, 17:40:11 »
this thread doesn't quite seem locked yet...
is there any chance of having keyboard modded around xmas? or will you be in school even then?
I'll be moving back to Canada, to BC in nov-dec (from Sweden), and was really hoping to get my switches lubed + spring change + stickered.

thanks! :)

whoops, looks like I forgot to lock. I'll take a look at what I've got going on -- I do have three weeks off of school at xmas, and I will be home, but I'm also talking to some people about work during that time period and I'm not sure how much free time I'll have. I'll be in touch.
Please PM me if you are waiting on classifieds approval or have a question about the classifieds rules. | geekhack Terms of Service

Max Nighthawk x8 (MX Brown) | CM QFR (MX Blue) | CM QFR (MX Clear) | RK-9000 (MX Red) | Model M 1391401 | Model M SSK 1370475 | CM Novatouch | G80-8113 (MX Clear) | 60% (85g MX Blue) | Whitefox Aria (MX Clear) | CL-LX (MX Clear) | Mira SE (MX Clear)
Avatar by ashdenej