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Build-A-Board Workshop

Oct 15, 2024745 VIEWS

That would be a cool shop to go to in a mall. In some of my past posts and reviews I’ve written there have been requests to walk through my own process for building a keyboard for myself. I’m fortunate in that I get to build many keyboards. I haven’t logged every single keyboard that I’ve built, that would have been great, but hindsight is 20/20. The vast majority of the builds that I do are for other hobbyists. I built a small name for myself doing commissions and build services specializing in leveraging my extensive knowledge of the hobby to help acquire unique boards, make recommendations in build materials, and providing a truly personalized board for those who might not have known much about mechanical keyboards before reaching out to me. I started doing this service back in 2018, and now, being a dad, husband and full time IT specialist, I tend to only accept a couple commissions at a time. I’ve got my own backlog of boards, my collection seems to continually grow, and I don’t have a ton of time to build. While I have the intention to build all my boards, life has a way of weaseling its way into disrupting your plans.

Please don't judge on the number of unbuilt boards sitting in their cases in this photo. I don't know if saying that this isn't all of them makes it any better.

Not today. It’s time to build one of my personal boards. While I love the end results of the majority of the keyboards that I build, I often take far too long deciding how I am going to build the board and what components I’m going to use. I compare with keyboards that I’ve already built, and boards that I have solid plans to build in a specific way. The board that I’m going to build isn’t one of those preplanned out keyboards. This was more of an impulsive acquisition for me. I’m not the person to fall for FOMO (fear of missing out) but I am from the midwest, thus susceptible to a ‘good deal’. For this article you are going to be getting a two for one deal. I’m going to walk through the process of building and planning my new keyboard, as well as taking the time to utilize Drops’ variety of options to build my “Drop Dream Board.” Who knows, maybe I’ll actually build it myself. I’d let it skip the queue ;) This keyboard came to be when I was casually hanging out on a private keyboard discord, when a good friend pinged me with a photo and a price. The board was a Matrix Magic3 60 WKL in Linen, and the price was good. Well under retail, and that’s what I like to see on a keyboard with two hotswap PCBs and two plates. Matrix boards are pretty divisive, but I think the Magic3 60 is overall a pretty unique and good looking board. For me the deciding factor was the layout combined with the colorway. If you’ve read any of my previous articles, you know my favorite 60% layout is the HHKB layout. However, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the top case engravings on the HHKB version. They felt a little too gaudy for my liking. On the WKL the large Magic3 logo is replaced by a cute rabbit accented by the bottom of a screw, which is incredibly clever. It was impulsively decided that I was adding this board to my collection. I had always wanted a Matrix because their designs are unapologetically in your face, I was just waiting for the right design for me.

This is my favorite Matrix board.

The Matrix Magic3 60% in the linen colorway is phenomenal. I’ll be honest, I generally hate red on a keyboard. It was something that growing up when gaming computers first started to become more mainstream that did it for me. Anytime I saw red peripherals, I immediately associated them with red LED gotta go fast gamer builds. The linen colorway has a couple splashes of red, but done in a way that’s not so in your face. The best part of this board in my opinion is the finish. It’s a warmer McFlurry styled finish. It’s somehow soft but at the same time rough, and in my opinion adds a very organic feeling to the keyboard, like a sand tumbled stone you’d find on a beach. The back weight is adorned with warm fall browns and sprinkled with orange, red, and turquoise. The result is a very warm feeling weight that is highlighted with a mirror cappuccino brown weight. For me this board really captured the fall cozy vibes I’ve been craving as summer comes to an end. It’s a board that reminds me of brisk days, warm cups of coffee, and a cacophony of colors as the leaves change at various paces. The second part of the keyboard that I quickly fell in love with, top of the board, where the cable is plugged in. The greeble filled top reminds me of Star Wars, Tatooine specifically. It’s the perfect amount of balanced chaos.

This decoration on the top of the board give me Star Wars Greeble vibes.

This leads me to the most challenging part of the build for me, selecting keycaps. For what it’s worth, I really don’t like to look up what other people have done on a board that I’m building. I feel like it stifles my own decision making because when I see something I like, I’m less likely to explore more options. I first grabbed GMK Cafe, GMK Hanok, GMK Yuru, DMK Silent Forest, and a set of CRP keycaps. Honestly, each of these sets fit well with the sandy cream finish of the keyboard. I loved the brown of Cafe, but the Cream accents didn’t sit right with me. GMK Hanok was an early front runner, but did like Hanok better on the Caerdroia it’s been used with as of late, or did I like it on the Matrix better. It’s back on the Caerdroia, it’s too perfect on it. I loved the all maroon look of Yuru on it, but I like having accent keys and the teal just wasn’t doing it for me. DMK Silent Forest was too green, and while it worked on the frontside of the board, it didn’t match the aesthetic of the back. While you don’t see the front and back at the same time, to me, a keyboard is the whole package, and it’s gotta fit the theme. At this point, I went back to the keycap closet (shut up) and looked through my collection again. In my stack of old plastic GMK tray sets, I saw a set that I had picked up in plans to replace the PBT set on my wine CW88. KKB Mixed Retro Lights, a group buy set that had flown completely under my radar, and a set that I owe a close friend endless thanks for acquiring it from a local Thai vendor when visiting family, and then flying it back to ship to me when every single vendor that shipped to the US was completely out of stock. This set was absolutely perfect for the Matrix. The warm color tones absolutely match the fall hues of the Magic3. But more importantly, it matches the controlled chaos design language of matrix boards. I’m no photographer, but I think the photos speak for themselves.

Now that the aesthetics are out of the way and decided, it was time to look at the internals of the board to determine what I was going to do for typing feel. I knew that I was going to be running my traditional WKL setup with split right shift and split backspace. For more info on my personal setups check out my last article, Leveraging Layers. My last few boards had been linear builds. I did a TGR Jane v2 ME with Gateron Minks, a OC-62 with Gatereon Deepening switches, a Safa TKL with Gateron Oil Kings, a AKB Caerdroia with Gateron Lunar Probes. Okay, that’s a lot of Gateron linears, I swear I was not paid, but I apparently have a type… Well, I hope you enjoyed reading this, I’ll see myself out now. In all seriousness, I wanted to go tactile. As much as I love linears, I actually am a faster typist when I’m using tactiles, which I attribute to all the years I daily’d my HHKB Pro 2. I planned that I was going to use this board for work and some typing focus activities like writing articles and reviews like this. Granted, my tactile switch bucket (shut up, again) is lighter than my linear switch bucket, but I have been starting to add some to the collection when I find ones I might like. Even though completely hidden, I had gone so far with the theme of this board, I needed to maintain at least the color feeling when choosing tactile switches. I recently received a set of Oak switches from Loobed Switches and was told that I needed to try them bone stock. I threw them in my tester board, my Fjell, and actually was really happy with how they felt and how they sounded, being cream colored was the cherry on top. They remind me of a less intense version of my favorite tactile, the Zealios v2.

I’ll be the first to admit, stabilizers aren’t anything special for me. I know that some hobbyists swear by TX stabilizers others Durock, but to me, as long as they are able to be modded to be tickless, I’m happy. I did have three Knight Stabilizers sitting in my box, so they were an easy choice, since I only needed three stabilizers for the build. I did my standard 205g0 on the housing and the stem, and then threw some BDZ-XHT on the wire. It’s my recipe for foolproof stabs, and it doesn’t let me down here. Two remaining choices remain for this build, and both are going to affect the final sound. I need to decide what, if any, foams I’m going to add to this board. I typically don’t like a heavily foamed keyboard. In my opinion it takes away from the uniqueness of each board and lends itself to a very consistent marbly sound. I did decide that I didn’t want too much resonance in this board as I planned to type on it during Teams meetings as well as throughout the day. A more muted board might be easier on the ears, so I chose to include the case foam only. Just to take up that space between the PCB and the case. Finally I had to pick between an aluminum plate and a polypropylene plate. Aluminum would make the tactility more pronounced and polypropylene would help to mute the sound and provide a slightly softer bottom out. I didn’t want to make the tactiles feel any more pronounced, as I’ve been into an ergo tactile phase, and I wanted the board to be more muted overall, so polypropylene was a solid choice. I have a lot of experience with the material, as one of my favorite boards, the Prophet, is built with Marshmallow switches on Polypropylene.

With all decisions being made, all that was left was to build it. Most of the time, my own personal boards are solder pcbs, but this being hotswap allowed me to build it in no time at all. I absolutely love solder boards, there’s something artful about making perfect little volcanos all while trying to not splash any flux on the back of the board. I like the hands-on experience of soldering and sometimes miss that with hotswap boards. I do think they are great for the community in general, but after having to solder so many boards, it almost feels like a cheat code to be able to change things up so easily. One of the reasons I’ve put so much effort into the planning of my boards is so that I don’t have to desolder later. In that way, I feel like hotswap boards diminish the importance of getting it right the first time, but I look back to when I was new. I definitely would appreciate the ability to easily change my boards.

In my opinion, the Matrix turned out fantastic. I love the muted tactile typing experience. It’s not so harsh that it tires my fingers out over long sessions and the polypropylene plate provides a soft bottom out. Combined with a nice desk pad, the warm light of my logitech light bar, and the brown hues of my barnwood desk, the Matrix is right at home in my cozy setup. The star of the show is KKB Mixed Retro Lights. The colorway of this set is just fantastic. It’s controlled chaos that meshes so well together. The fun accents of the transparent keycaps alongside the McFlurry like coating gives so much texture to the board. Adding just case foam turned out to be the right choice. It removed the resonance present when the board was built without it. I’ve attached a sound test for you all to hear!

If I was going on a shopping spree at Drop, with the ability to build any board I wanted, I think I would probably lean towards the Rohan themed Lord of the Rings keyboard, but that’s because I love reading Tolkein. That isn’t building though, so instead I’d pick up the IDOBAO ID 80 v2. There are two reasons for this choice, first it has a thick plate. This is reminiscent of boards around 2019-2020 when integrated chonky plates were common. You don’t really see this now a days.The second reason is it has a polycarbonate bottom which adds to a deep sounding keyboard. As for switches, I’m definitely grabbing a set of Drop Holy Pandas. Not only are they one of the best sounding tactiles of all time, they have a rich history of broken molds, and inflated pricing. I have a set of original Holy Pandas in my Satisfaction 75 and by far it’s one of my favorite typing experiences. I’ll pick up a set of Gateron stabilizers. They use the Durock v2 wire clip in, which is more secure. I also know they mod well as I would be using my standard 205g0 and XHT-BDZ to keep them tick free. Lastly, I need some keycaps. With a white case, I have plenty of options that will match great. Because this is another tactile board, I’d use it while working which means that I think I have to go with DCX Solarized. I use the Solarized theme across my workspace and matching to my digital workspace would be fantastic. I really do appreciate the number of products that drop keeps in stock. I really do think their Lord of the Rings collaborations are fantastic. Their theming is on point. I hope that you enjoyed getting to take a look at my approach for building keyboards. Even though I build tons of boards, I do take the time to really build a theme or feeling around each board. It makes them more special to me, and in my mind, they tell a story. I would love to hear about a build you’ve done that special, and why! I am a firm believer in the journey being just as important as the final project.

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cobertt

Keyboard Club Member

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Greywolf

Dec 29, 2024

I like the number of boards you have that use a split upper-right ("split backspace") layout, and I must commend the one or two I see with split-right-shift as well. I wish there were more like this actually available in the wild; I'd love to have one without the top Fn row on it but still have the 13-key cluster at the RHS, with the top 9 shifted down one row [I want to have a modular Fn key array]. Nice write-up; congratulations on dad-hood!

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