Turning a Chinese Caterpillar into an American Butterfly. Ajazz AK33.

[pyrolovesmoney]

Hi All, long time lurker, infrequent poster here at GH. I frequent reddit but wanted a long term and ongoing place where I could post updates and upgrades  I make to my Ajazz AK33...

Now at this point you might be thinking... Why in the world would you invest so much time and energy into customizing a cheap $45 dollar keyboard?

Well, here are my somewhat sane reasons

• Even though the keys are non-standard sizes, I just love the layout. It's technically a tenkeyless but has a footprint that is just bigger than my pok3r. It even fits in my pok3rs travel bag
• I lack technological proficiency. I cannot solder, hand-wire, program or design CAD. If I screw up the board trying to solder in new switches... I just order another one from amazon
• The next board I get will be probably 100% custom, but this board is very close to what I would have made any way.

Humble Beginnings

The ajazz ak33 is a cheap chinese clone of the KBT Race 2. It's layout is somewhat confusing but practical and useful for someone like me.

Here's how it comes shipped. I bought it on ebay for $53 shipped. It comes with thin cheap keycaps and a skyblue backlighting. It has cool lighting effects, but I don't use any of them.

• Shipped from China: My caterpillar arrives

The PCB


as you can tell, the packaging is surprisingly impressive. The lighting is attractive enough and man, I just can't get away from how much I love that layout.

The transformation begins, changing the outside first

I have been a long-time fan of backlighting. I have a decently nice Pok3r that I made custom dyed caps for. I also own a QFR-i that is pretty customized. But I recently got a Fc660c for my birthday and the fact that it wasn't backlit made it feel far more professional for me so I decided that it was time to find the happy medium: UNDERGLOW.

With that in mind I set out to make a custom set of caps. I wanted to try a new profile so finally, I decided on... PBT SP DSA. That's a MOUTHFUL! I wanted to try a new cap profile, have a color scheme I WOULDN'T have to dye on my own and for the first time in my keyboard career... I needed *dramatic music* blanks. So I set out to create a set and obviously I needed a bunch of blank varied sized caps.

• The custom cap order

After waiting patiently for a week my caps arrived

Heres the naked ak33



and here it is WITH CAPS!!!



Next to its pok3r step brother



I love how the caps look and feel, particularly the profile is fun for typing. I switched back to my Fc660c today since my ak33 is currently in pieces (next bullet point)

• My first custom wooden case

On top of having zero electronics talent, I also have zero woodworking and tooling talent. I have always wanted a board with a wooden case, but wasn't in the mood to spend $100 for one.

so I went to lowes



If you want to get some funky looks, take a keyboard into a hardware store. This was my first case, so as much as I wanted purple hear or zebra wood or some exotic african hardwood import, I  decided to go with good old american redwood. I have no clue if this is a good material for this, but for what it's worth, it looks good unstained.

the pattern on my wood. This will be the bottom


the result of 4 hours of chiseling. My next case will 100% be made using a router, but I decided to be a hasidic this time and go through the pain of hand chiseling the case out.


the case so far


So now for the case to be done I need to shave off half an inch off the bottom, sand the entire thing and cut a USB port-hole. All of that will be done Thursday since I am off for the day. Overall making the case was a satisfying experience.

Making the caterpillar a butterfly

These are the plans I have left for this board

• Learn to solder and swap the switches for either Zealios, Cherry Clears or Tactile greys
• Learn CAD and make a CNC-able 3d model for a carbon fiber top plate
• Possibly upgrade the LED's so that qwer 1234 and DF have different underglow (still debating)

Thanks for checking out this post and please feel free to give me any feedback or suggestions you feel would help me out!

Update #1

When I texted my dad that I needed to shave a half in off the case he offered to help. The case is at a perfect for me 3/4 of an inch high. Gonna sand and stain tomorrow.

[Badwrench]

Looks good.  Great way to make the board something you will appreciate.   

[SpAmRaY]

What are those purple stemmed switches?

[pyrolovesmoney]

What are those purple stemmed switches?

The AK33 comes with either linear or clicky Zoro switches. I got the blue which are clicky but the larger modifiers, the ones that require stabilizers all have pink switches. They feel a little stiffer when pressed without a cap but also feel not great with a cap on. If the entire board was uniformly the blue variety, I may have considered keeping the zoro switches.

[mrhead]

Looks good - I've debated on doing this exact thing, but I really can't bring myself to start yet another 'I bit off more than I can chew' project.  I don't know if that wood in particular is at risk, but keep in mind that it may split (I believe they call it "stabilization").

[pyrolovesmoney]

Looks good - I've debated on doing this exact thing, but I really can't bring myself to start yet another 'I bit off more than I can chew' project.  I don't know if that wood in particular is at risk, but keep in mind that it may split (I believe they call it "stabilization").

Yeah, I already figured that this case may not be my long term case. I definitely need some practice and for the next one I will probably use walnut since it's my favorite. For now though, I can def make this work. as far as "bit off more than I can chew" I felt that exact way 3 hours into chiseling.

[suicidal_orange]

Not just dedicated arrows but jumbo sized ones - you weren't joking about this having a strange layout!

Good work on the case, looking forward to updates

[pyrolovesmoney]

The hardest thing to get used to is the delete key being in the top right corner 

[pyrolovesmoney]

Successfully cut the case to about 3/4 of an inch! Picture posted in main comment.

[pyrolovesmoney]

Finished staining the case and making a usb cut out.

It's far from perfect, but for my first attempt I very satisfied!

[mrhead]

I like it.  Kind of like a cozy for the keyboard.  Thanks for sharing!