Hey guys! I got started with mechanical keyboards last year some time, and I've mostly been on reddit (pls no flame, we can all get along) and I'm trying to branch out a little. Every time I research something keyboard related some thread from Geekhack comes up, and the site has been a huge help, so I wanted to contribute a little something of my own.
Pretty new to the forum layout, so if i commit any atrocities, mea culpa.
The Story:
I really liked the Ergodox design, but am not a huge fan of cherry switches, so I wanted to try to put Matias switches in one. I looked for a tried and true method of doing so, but all I could find was one or two posts of people with PCB mounted versions, which simply would not do (I don't do things the easy way). So I decided to just pull the trigger and start ordering components, and hope that I could figure things out.
The 'Dox kit was ordered from FalbaTech, the switches from mechanicalkeyboards.com, and the caps from eBay.
Fast forward a month or two, and I had all the components, and so I had to try and figure out how to make these switches fit in the plate cutouts. I thought about machining the plate, but that seemed like it was going to be too involved and complicated, so I decided to hand file each individual cutout to make them fit.
Filing:
It took a while, but every switch fits nice and snugly.
Naked:
Some of the pins had to be bent a bit to fit the PCB, but all in all I couldn't believe how well it all went together.
End Product:
https://imgur.com/a/oZSbo - gallery with a few more pics
All in all a great first experience with building a keyboard, and I've got my first real custom in the works because of it.