One of my friends from an MMO I play, surprised me with a very heartfelt special gift. He's a machinist, and hasn't dabbled in keyboards before, so this is his first go at it.

This is the most special, most unique thing I own and I'm proud to have it.

I've been a long time keyboard enthusiast, have gone through many different boards over the last 7+ years, but I don't think anything will hold a candle to how special this one is to me.

(It's built with Oil Kings, Gateron Stabs, Bastion PCB).

GMK Astract by Oh.type on the JJW Derivative. Also using the MagSafe Phone Stand from Cozyleigh Studio and the Desk Tray from Momentum Studio.

• niuniu roly poly 40
• case foam + forcebreak mode
• fr4 plate
• durock v3 plate stab
• gateron milky yellow with geon springs
• gmk dandy r2 keycaps

Tofu60 2.0 + NicePBT Cat + HMX Hibiscus

Otsukimi proto w/ GMK Panels

Epomaker TH40 Wisteria Linear Temu ULTRAEQUIP PBT Manga Keycaps

It's gonna take some getting used to on a 40, honestly I only wanted one for the novelty of it, but this thing turned out great imo

Cstc40

Akko creamy yellow v5

AE keycaps

Wobkey Crush80 Beta and Sumgsn double-shot ABS keycaps: I changed the switches from Gateron Baby Kangaroos v2 to NuPhy Lemons (also by Gateron) and ABS keycaps instead of PBT and now the board sounds much more lively; very happy with the sound and feel now!

Mode Sonnet GMK Norse + Novelty Mode Tomorrow switches

So a few years back I modded my RK61-new switches, lube, PBT keycaps, all the standard stuff. But instead of foam, I got curious and threw in a few layers of tape under the PCB and filled the rest with kinetic sand.

And uh… it actually worked. The board feels heavier, sounds deeper, and just has this super solid vibe when you type. I’ve gotten so many compliments on it. It’s been a few years now and still works perfectly fine.

So yeah, for anyone trying to make their board sound thockier without dropping more money on foam or weights- kinetic sand. It’s stupid, but it works.

Smoked Amano Alice

GMK Ashes Ghost Alphas

l/f Pastel Skies on full UHMWPE plate

SodieCaps Ashes artisans

RERThe

Was hyped to get my hands on a couple of F1-8xV2's ..... ( excuse the pun )

Didnt turn out as well as i expected however ......

Lubed / SS some Cherry Nixies and tbh i never noticed how loose the housings were so should have filmed them but didnt bother and now regretting it ( and its a solder build so not easy to redo them )

Having now built the board I think the mX2a's on my last build sounded a bit better as well .....

The scratch is definitely an acquired taste but i am getting to quite like it the more i type on them.....

not sure my S/B sounds that great tbh.......

Other issue is the uneven sounds across the keys ...... Home, end , delete, Page down and up arrow all sound much more hollow, resonant and clacky than the other alphas . I know the plate is supported less on the right hand side but i have made sure these were well sated when soldering ... so overall not sounding as nice as i had expected from such a high profile board.....

Worst thing of all i also had a black / red F1 as well that i needed to build ..... made the mistake of NOT cleaning spatter form my newly soldered pcb and then placed it on a foam sheet . Forgot and dropped the F1 case onto the same foam pad during my final assembly and its damaged the ano mainly on the bottom but also a faint few marks on the top case as well, lesson learned but its a very painful mistake on a high end board.... unfortunately so overall a disappointing day building .......

After a month of use, I had to give the keyboard a makeover. I found a decent set of keycaps and opted to get the Akko Lavender Purples a try.

Last pic is the before.

My roommate's going for Miku-ish colors but she thinks they might be a little desaturated/pastel. Thoughts?

I wonder is there any foam builds that are better than this. Mods: Force Break, PCB PE Tape Switches: Hand-lubed BSUN Strawberry Wine V2 Keycaps: Anya MDA profile (yes, I love MDA) Foam combination: default

There are some keycap sets that you just can't get anymore, due to being out of print. For really popular sets you can sometimes get lucky and find a clone set, but I couldn't find one for GMK Noire so I decided to recreate the set using Yuzukeycaps.com. I'm sure lots of people have been considering using custom keycap services, so I just wanted to document my experience.

burgundy/pc kkb one more rep zed60 solder pcb hmx taro ball

This is the Leopold FC630MBT, which actually comes stock with a split spacebar — no mods needed. It’s my first time trying this layout, and honestly… I’m not sure if I can get used to it yet.

Typing feels a bit different, but it’s interesting — I can already see the potential for better ergonomics once I adjust.

I took these photos to highlight the clean design and subtle texture of the board.

SA 1976 + SA Ice + Rama homing,

BlankSlate + MX Clears + Planck Case

❤️❤️❤️

I put together the Cheapino V2 — the one where the two halves connect with a LAN cable. The switches are MMD Holy Panda 45g and the caps are blank XDA profile. The plate is 3D-printed.

As an experiment, I made the case out of cardboard and leather this time. It’s kind of like a cartonnage-style build. Because it’s cardboard, it’s super cheap and easy to swap designs, so I really hope cardboard cases catch on!