Any good tenkeyless kits? Or should I just fall for the 70% meme. I guess I only need home and end keys, and print screen
Lincoln Roberts
Anyone have recommendations for DIY keyboard kits that aren't gonna hurt my wallet too much? I've been looking at maybe making an ergodox but I really don't wanna have to spend $300 on it.
Can I clean my abs keycaps in a big bowl of water and liquid hand soap? Do I leave them there overnight or what
Ryan Howard
>Budget $150 ish >Location USA >Preferred switch type Unsure, first mechanical keyboard. Mostly used for gaming, I was told to look for mx reds? >Layout Not sure what this means exactly. QWERTY? >Form factor 100%, and either a slider or buttons for audio volume is a big win >Backlight Yes, don’t care about which color as long as it’s not too sparkly or flamboyant. >Current keyboard Logitech G110, I don’t want those damned extra macro keys on the side wasting space, or any of the xtra fluff nonsense on that keyboard
mechanicalkeyboards.com Just pick a Ducky keyboard that you like. Use their advanced search to narrow down what you want
Elijah Hernandez
No no your supposed to pick it FOR me! I’m too dumb to use all that nonsense.
Ethan Myers
0 reason to spend $150 if you just want reds in a board. On the cheap side you could just get a reddragon or something off amazon with outemu reds, there is a gigabyte full size board with cherry reds for $40, and if you want to get fancy get a coolermaster pbt s with cherry reds for $70. Alternatively you could get a good stock linear(v rare) like a kailh BOX black but to do that you'd need to buy a naked glorious modular mechanical keyboard and drop in the switches yourself.
Alexander Scott
Why is everyone freaking out all of a sudden over the supposed cracking of keycap stems caused by box switches
Tyler Cook
Are there better switches for gaming? That’s all I’ll really be doing that I give a shit about
Robert Foster
You can, but water should be warm at best, ABS warp at high temps.
John Powell
Your inputs will get to the game regardless of the switch. The only switches that would cause any issue are very heavy ones like a mx clear or maybe box navy but even then some people don't mind them. I would seriously just pick up a cheap board with outemu or gateron reds from china on amazon or aliexpress. I don't see any reason to pay $150 for a board with reds when the same typing experience is available for $40.
Aiden Collins
>coolermaster pbt s with cherry reds for $70. Or ikbc. Cherry switches, boards itself are just as decent as Ducky, but a bit cheaper. MX Blues/Greens hysteresis can cause issues in games where you need to mash keys repeatedly. >I don't see any reason to pay $150 for a board with reds when the same typing experience is available for $40. PBT caps and not fucking "floating keys" case design tho.
Samuel Price
Yeah that's fine. Leave them in a towel for a couple hours, shake em a couple times to move them around.
I'd recommend scrubbing the tops with an old toothbrush if they're really dirty.
Reds being a gaming switch is a meme, they're just bad switches with no feedback. I'd recommend blues if you have no problem with being noisy, or browns otherwise. If you like to type heavier try clears or greens.
Ducky keyboards are pretty shit desu senpai.
Asher Russell
Yeah good caps and bezels are desirable. If it's a first board though he's probably just going to end up getting another one in the future with different switches. With a budget of $150 I agree that ikbc or cm pbt s is a good middle ground. Could even get some nice aftermarket keycaps with the left over money. CM pbt s chassis is awesome and the stock keycaps are PBT but the legends are shit and can fade quickly.
Leo Allen
>Ducky keyboards are pretty shit desu senpai. What's not shit then?
Leo Walker
Vortex, Leopold and Filco are pretty good.
Kevin Jenkins
>Vortex Same shit, desu. >Leopold Actually true. >Filco Filco quality is a meme. Mediocre boards with shit keycaps, overpriced for no reason other than being Japanese (made in Taiwan).
Ian Ward
I got a corsair with cherry browns, it's also got the knurled volume roller. How did I do?
Carter Collins
Could've done better for less money.
Noah Barnes
show me the light
Jack Jones
How are Duckys shit? They have doubleshot PBT, five programmable layers, programmable media keys, and steel construction
Bentley Stewart
>>Vortex >Same shit, desu. My Poker II has been rock solid since I bought it on release.
>Filco quality is a meme They're good, not great, but better than ducky.
Luis Smith
Shitty plastic housing, the soldering on the boards is sub-par, and they have shit aesthetics.
Ethan Bennett
Try the not-actually-an-XD75 on massdrop right now. Or a tada kit from KBDfans. Whichever layout you prefer, they're both around $100.
Cameron Reyes
Yeah, speed ones. I genuinely like gaming on them. But keep in mind everyone who's tried typing on them hated it so make sure you have a better way to type handy if you want to do a lot of that (if you just shitpost on Jow Forums and play games you should be fine).
Jonathan Rodriguez
>MX Blues/Greens hysteresis can cause issues in games where you need to mash keys repeatedly. Wrong. I have blues and you can easily hover around the actuation point before the clicking mechanism resets and double tap repeatedly. I find it easier to do on blues then reds because you can feel the clicking mechanism so you know when to double tap
Gavin Nguyen
The plastic housing is solid and their soldering is one of the best. Minimal aesthetic are God tier, unless it's the shine 6 which does suck ass
Dominic Gomez
Why do I feel like you're part of Ducky's marketing department.
Fuck off with your shilling. I've had to fix cold solders on 3 separate ducky boards and seen another 2 with cracked casings.
They aren't even great minimal aesthetics, they're just standard garbage.
Nathaniel Walker
>They aren't even great minimal aesthetics, they're just standard garbage. Said the man shilling Filco, lol.
Henry Murphy
Also, tell me how's pad printed ABS is a good aesthetic.
Daniel Walker
You might notice I didn't complain about the PBT.
It's objectively the best plastic, especially when it's double shot. But Ducky's fonts are shit and so are you.
>Poker II You do know that keyboard was made by Ducky. Ducky is one of the largest OEMs in the keyboard market. They make all the Vortex, IKBC, Mistel, MK, and Varmilo keyboards.
Evan Price
And standard fonts are shit.
Yeah man, gamer fonts are really cool
I'm just going off experience here. I've had to fix a fair few ducky boards but never a Vortex.
Joshua Peterson
And in my experience Ducky keyboards are great. I bought one to try out cherry switches and found that they suck. So I threw the keyboard into an industrial metal shop without protection and it's still hear after two years.
Hudson Richardson
Wait what
Samuel Gonzalez
A question for those bintage Model M and the like connaisseurs - how do you deal with not having a super key?
Jason Stewart
Not a model M, but I remapped my super key to an Fn and I don't miss it
Brandon Hughes
I don't need two alt keys so one of them is rebound to super
James Brown
Reason i'm asking is because i've been think about getting a Compaq MX11800 but it doesn't have one
Varmilo have their own production. Ikbc is chinese, Vortex is their parent company and OEM.
Parker Reyes
IKBC is just Ducky's Chinese agent since Ducky is a Taiwanese company and can't operate in china. Leopold used to be Varmilos OEM, but last year they switched to Ducky
Oliver Ramirez
Former Ducky agent in china was called Magic Duck, and now its Akko. As for ikbc >Regarding your question about the relationship between Vortex & iKBC, Vortex is the parent company of iKBC, and the latter designs and produces the keyboards. source: geek whack . org/index.php?topic=85068.msg2279406#msg2279406 (fucking spam list)
Justin Jones
Weird since Ducky has referred to IKBC as their Chinese agent, and IKBC also sells rebranded Ducky keyboards, and Vortex Pok3r keyboards contain Ducky OEM parts. I say they're all same since they use Ducky's factories
Gavin Thompson
Apart from ikbc switching from vortex doubleshots to ducky on latter versions of F models, they dont have much in common I believe.
Joshua Jenkins
Their RGB keyboards are just shine 5s in a different case
Dominic Ward
how's the cushioning/damping on mx silent?
Wyatt Carter
Since we're talking about ducky, anyone know what type of LEDs ducky one 2s use? Since there are literally no good tkl kits that arent $225 I'm thinking about resoldering the switches on a ducky.
Nolan Jones
>0 reason to spend $150 if you just want reds in a board Enjoy your ABS keycaps.
Adam Price
My box Navys came in!
I love these, they're so tactile yet smooth, the sound is great.
So now that reddit seems to have discovered that some BOX switches crack PREMIUM ABS keycap stems, imma have to find a new board to put my laser memes on. Any recommendations for board and (linear) switches for a 68-75% ish size keyboard? Budget's not really an issue, but don't wanna do more than 300$ board and switches inclusive if I can avoid it.
You could just sand either the cross on the switch stems a bit, or the inside of the stems of the keycaps. That or just don't fall for the GMK meme.
Evan Bell
>crack PREMIUM ABS that doesn't make sense. ABS is much stronger then PBT so if anything people should've noticed the PBT stems cracked like some of the cheap ones already do
You tell me. I've even a switch in a switch tester, with a shitty abs cap on it, it's cracked. My board has 2 different sets of pbt on it, none are cracked. Also it seems it's not snap in twain like your pic, but stress fractures along the stem.
No u. Sounds pretty impossible to sand the insides of stems or caps. You got experience with that or what?
Jack Carter
>ABS is much stronger then PBT Akshually, pbt is stronger, but more brittle.
Isaac Perry
You can just cut a small piece of sandpaper and use that (maybe use a utensil or something if you want the rigidity). Doubt you'd need to sand it much at all to fix whatever tolerance issue there might be.
Angel Barnes
ABS is often mixed with polystyrene to make it much more durable and stronger. That's why it's common to find cracked or damaged PBT keycaps
Eli Howard
I mean it could work. But how would I know when they'd have had enough sanding?
Fool me once... Guess I could just flip it for 2x on mechmarket or something, but I've been heavily invested in the vapor aesthetic for years now. Probably wont be a similar set ever. Maybe tai hao will copy it in the future.
Jacob Ramirez
>But how would I know when they'd have had enough sanding? You'd try the keycap on the stem, and see how tight it feels. Maybe put small pieces of sandpaper on tweezers or something.
Got the first one, sorta wrote the second one off when they hiked the price after reddit aught wind. Maybe I should get them.
Jackson Nguyen
someone wanted a laser set for his topre keyboard, so he made one. It's very easy to dye-sub your own keycaps, but most people just pay someone else to do so
David Adams
But how are the legends made? Where does one go to pay someone else to make it, or learn how to do it yourself.
I don't have either, and that's a pretty large expenditure for a one off thing.
Chase Gonzalez
Polystyrene is a softer, weaker plastic and are usually found in the high impact variant which is softer and more elastic
Jordan Hernandez
Duck, so it's not compatible with box switches? I've heard 1.8mm barely fit as is
Justin Turner
You can, but I doubt you'll make a lot since the cost of starting up is relatively low so others can easily invade your space Buy a used printer off Craigslist for 50 bucks
weird Wikipedia says polystyrene is a hard but brittle plastic and is usually mixed with other plastics like ABS to make them harder, but I guess I shouldn't trust them
Dylan Jackson
>Buy a used printer off Craigslist for 50 bucks I don't live in the US of A. No used ones for sale on my craigslist thingies.
Well noones doing it right now, so i'm sure you can make money by not having scruples. I imagine the set makers might hate you tho
Blake Baker
set makers don't care as was seen with all the chink knockoffs on aliexpress
Juan Young
So you are supposed to put your own sticker for the key label?
Juan Long
If you're looking at commercial goods then yea you shouldn't trust wiki
William White
Hiked up the price? They're less than $50 on Amazon. I'm not talking about the Reddit meme ones, I mean the ones from ymdk.
Anthony Murphy
My bad. Anyway I remember the reason I didn't get any of those sets. Got a 2.25u shift and a 1u R1 that most normal sets don't cover.
Alexander Carter
Weird the deskthority wiki says the same thing too
Liam Turner
Shows their low quality
Grayson Reed
Weird McMaster also says the same thing. I guess all those places are wrong and some user on Jow Forums is right.
Robert Ross
What do you buy if you want that oldstyle grey keyboard feel?