Mechanical Keyboard - SiCK-68
Made by cfcheung, uploaded
Description
Printed with Prusament Galaxy Black, with the engraved logo.
Switches are Gateron Yellows lubed with Tribosys 3204
Keycaps: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32889404103.html
I added some 3mm neoprene foam on the inside of the case, though I don't really notice a difference in sound. Most of the sound dampening comes from lubing the switches and the stabilizers.
I also had to add a small spacer to one of my rubber feet for the keyboard to be level.
This is my first custom mechanical keyboard, nice design!
Print Settings
Printer Brand:
Printer:
Rafts:
No
Supports:
No
Resolution:
0.1mm
Infill:
20%
Notes:
The sockets for the switches came out a little too loose, so removing the keycaps pulled out the switches with it. I put two layers of electrical tape on the left and right sides of each socket to pad it out, most switches now fit in tightly enough to stay in when removing the keycaps. This leaves me with the option to replace the switch if I need to since it isn't permanently glued in.
Wow, just commenting to say I am impressed! Nice work!
Woah awesome job man! It must be a hell of a job to assemble all that electronics and make it work properly, you'r a patient man!
I cant get over how cool this is! I already have and am typing with a mechanical keyboard this instant. If I print the key-caps individually are they compatible with standard swap-able switches such as the Logitech blue switches or cherry mx red mechanical switches? I was thinking of printing out like arrow keys or function keys in a different color them putting them on my keyboard!
I'm sorry, I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but what's the point of printing a keyboard and doing all the work when you can buy one cheap. Is there an advantage I'm not seeing?
Are you familiar with the term hobby?
Are you familiar with the term waste of time and material?
Surprise, there is a limit....
A lot of people would consider this a great way to spend time, and learn a bit about different styles of printing/electronics. Literally the sole reason this exists I would bet. I personally think it would be awesome to see somebody my PC, with my freaking 3d printed keyboard. Pure insanity.
I think the primary advantage for him to build his own keyboard is the joy of creating the coolest project I've seen in years. Kudos to the cfcheung!
I assume you are talking about buying a cheap mechanical keyboard - there are many advantages in terms of membrane vs mechanical keyboards that I could go into but that can be quite easily searched for if you are interested.
Standard cheap mechanical keyboard offerings are usually blue (clicky), brown ("tactile"), or red (linear) switches. I used to use a cheap mech with blue switches. Building your own keyboard allows you the freedom to choose whatever switch you like - there are many choices with different feels, weights, sounds etc which are hard to describe but is very noticeable when you try it.
Many of the cheap mechanical keyboards that you see come with keycaps that are the same across brands, models, etc. There is a whole subset of custom keyboards which is the keycaps - you can have different profiles (shapes), colours, material, doubleshot/dye sub (basically how the different colours are created on the keycap), etc. The keycaps affect the feel and sound of the keyboard as well. You have the option to choose exactly how the keyboard looks. Personally I use my keyboard a lot so it is worth it to me to make it look nice.
Having to hand solder a keyboard also allows you to gain a better understanding of how it all works - personally as a result of this project I researched how switch matrices work, why you need diodes etc. I enjoy soldering so this was a fun project to hone my skills.
Building custom mechanical keyboards is a hobby for many people (see /r/mechanicalkeyboards), but for me, most of all it's about the satisfaction of printing and building something that is functional. I enjoy using this keyboard on a daily basis, and it is a relatively cheap and interesting introduction to custom keyboards.
Hopefully this answers your question :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHt01D6rOLI
This is great timing. I was thinking to create small board for Fusion 360 shortcuts to use it with multiple keyboard driver from https://mediachance.com/multikeyboard/
I should look closer how you did the things to get ideas.
That mechanical keyboard looks awesome. Nice work!
Impressive!
Great looking build! That filament looks awesome.
Weird the sockets came out small. For all of my builds so far, they come out too tight and I have to trim them a bit with a Razer. I guess that's just printer to printer.
o-rings on the keys also help a bit with sounds. Just like the neoprene, its not much, but all together it makes a difference.
You're probably over-extruding a very small amount so the sockets are too tight. The author of this post is probably under-extruding :)
There's a REALLY great extrusion test print and calibration excel file you can use to plug in the measurements from the print and it calculates the perfect extrusion multiplier for your setup: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1622868
rather than calbrating using extrusion multipliers you would be far better off doing a proper estep calibration and hard setting your esteps to the correct distance.
Bare in mind even the amount of torque on the extruder grub screw, the wear in the teeth, variance in the machined parts, the resistance in the bowden etc... All of these things make small impact on the estep calibration but add it all together and you can have quite the dramatic shift.
Thank you for the suggestion, I will give it a go!