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Keyboard Tips & Tricks - Volume 1

HubertTheMad

289

Keyboard Club Member

Mar 11, 202586 VIEWS

CTRL + F to quickly skip to each tip/trick below:

Tip #1 - Cheap Dust Cover (Shower Caps)
Tip #2 - Upgrade Your Wire Keycap Puller to Plastic
Tip #3 - Test Your PCB/QC Your Board Before Building

Soldering-Specific:

Tip #4 - Take Your Time. Set Yourself up for Soldering Success
Tip #5 - Using the Right Size Soldering Tip
Tip #6 - Soldering Loose Switches/Plateless Builds - Rubber Bands
Tip #7 - Fixing Crooked Switches After Soldering
Extra Tip - Test Your PCB After Soldering… BEFORE You Put Away Your Soldering Equipment

Intro & Disclaimer

A recent mistake. Mixed three sets of beige PBT keycap sets and spent a good while having to separate everything...

“I wish I had known about this sooner…”

I can’t tell you the amount of times that I’ve said those words out loud, or thought about them when it comes to the keyboard hobby. Whether it’s what someone in the community has told me, or something I found out myself, even things that may seem so simple as using shower caps as dust covers blew my mind. Today, I thought that I’d write up a few that I thought would be useful to others and write an article that’s a bit more… “laid back” than my usual articles! With that being said, let’s quickly touch on a few disclaimers that I have before starting with the first tip. These tips and tricks have either saved me a lot of stress, effort, and time, or just basically are quality-of-life improvements, however, that doesn’t mean that you might think that they’re important or worth knowing. That’s okay! These things definitely aren’t ground-breaking, and you might already know some or all of what I’m going to bring up, so don’t feel like you have to read every single section. No matter what, I appreciate your click - even if it was just for a second. I’ve tried to somewhat group these tips so that similar ones are one after the other as well. While the first three tips are not soldering-specific, the rest of the tips are, so I totally understand if you just actually look at the first three and stop reading! For the second and third parts of this series, I will be including more general info since not everyone has the equipment to solder or wants to solder. Also, please don’t think that the way that you’ve been doing things is wrong. If something works for you, and you haven’t had any issues or want to change your workflow, don’t change it! What works for me might not work for you. Honestly, you may even have a better alternative or streamlined method for some of these tips compared to me, and I’d love to hear your own tips and tricks, so feel free to chime in, either in the comments section below or shooting me a message on Discord (HubertTheMad#0073). Last but not least, if I recommend a specific brand or item, do know that I don’t get any sort of kickback or benefit. I can only speak on my own experiences with specific things that I’ve tried, and if you have to go with an alternative due to availability, or you have something similar already, that’s great. Do know that no one’s paid me to sell their products, and I never make money off of referrals. These are my honest thoughts and experiences, and I only bring up things that I’ve personally tried versus theories or guesses. Tip #1 - Cheap Dust Cover (Shower Caps)

It may not look the cleanest, but it works as protection against dust! My wife uses shower caps, both the cheap disposable variety and the washable ones, and I know that we may be killing sea turtles or something (although my wife always makes sure to cut the shower caps so small animals won’t get caught or something, IDK), but this tip specifically refers to the cheap disposable ones. Please don’t feel like you have to buy these from Amazon, because I’m 99% sure that my wife actually bought them from Walmart a long time ago when they were on sale and she just bought a bunch, but I just wanted to use this Amazon listing as an illustration. Amazon definitely does not have the best prices on these.

Just an example of what I mean. Again, Amazon does NOT have the best prices for these, so do some research! Whatever brand you can get for the least amount of money that has the most amount of shower caps, and making sure they’re large enough is what you want to go after. I’m pretty sure that once my wife goes through all of the shower caps, we’ll get a thousand pack or larger from some warehouse or wholesale store/website or something. Again. This picture is just for illustration purposes only. Don’t buy from Amazon unless you can’t find a cheaper and more accessible way to buy these! As you might’ve guessed, this tip is basically putting the shower cap around your keyboard when not in use to prevent dust from accumulating on your keyboard. Especially those that are on stands, on wall displays, and basically any keyboard that you aren’t actually using or have at your desk. If you don’t have boards that come with dust covers, don’t want to keep your boards in carrying cases or boxes, don’t have microfiber cloths to “clothe” your keyboards, and want them somewhat displayed, and also don’t care about a bit of ruffles (I don't knot what the scientific term for this, but you know how there are a few creases when you deal with plastic bags), I think these shower caps are a great and cheap way to cover your keyboards!

It looks a tad worse than in real life since the camera light shone on the plastic. Now, the one drawback with shower caps (unless there is a size that I’m unaware of that people use) is that I can’t get them to fully cover a board with a huge forehead or bezels or full-sizes, so this tip won’t work in every single case. For example, my QFRL100, Muramasa, and the Long Boi all are hidden with CannonKeys microfiber cloths or a washcloth. Maybe I just need to find where they sell shower caps for elephants or something, but yeah. For the majority of boards, however, a shower cap works wonders! And even if you tear one, you got dozens, if not hundreds more. Tip #2 - Upgrade Your Wire Keycap Puller to Plastic

These keycap pullers with soft plastic bottoms tend to be gentler on keycaps. This is something I had always thought about, but never realized could be done in a DIY fashion. I don’t know about anyone else, but when I first started using a wire keycap puller, I realized that unless I wasn’t careful, I could either damage the keycap itself or the top case of whichever board I had at the time (my friend also learned this the hard way recently). I thought, “Imagine if someone created a wire keycap puller, but the wire part was made of plastic so it wouldn’t damage the keycap or keyboard case.” Yes, you can always just buy a keycap puller that doesn’t use a metal wire like those Gateron ones, but if you have one of these cans laying around, you can upgrade your wire keycap puller. A few weeks ago, a Discord friend of mine told me that one of his friends plastic-dipped his wire keycap puller, which reminded me that I had liquid electrical tape in the garage. Now, I won’t guarantee that this will work for every brand, and maybe you have access to something similar that does the same thing, and it’s not necessarily liquid electrical tape, but I had a little canister of Star Brite liquid electrical tape that people usually use to seal wires or cables.

Make sure you do this in a well-ventilated area. All I did was shake the container, coat the wire end of my wire keycap puller with the brush (for this Star Brite brand, it’s part of the container cap itself), let it sit where it wouldn’t be jostled, and came back to it a day later. Keep in mind that you should read the instructions of whatever substance you have, and MAKE SURE you don’t leave it out where a pet or small (or large) child can lick it because I’m pretty sure it’s not intended for consumption. When it fully cured the next day, I had a rubberized wire keycap puller that no longer damaged my keycaps or keyboard case! It wasn’t super thick either, so it could still slide underneath a keycap or fit between the top case and keycap for me to remove the keycaps.

It doesn't have to look perfect. It just has to be functional and cover the parts of the wire that touches your keycap!

Tip #3 - Test Your PCB/QC Your Board Before Building

Using tweezers with an is0GR PCB. I combined these two tips into one since ideally, you’d do both prior to building. I understand that you may be excited to build a board when that kit arrives in the mail, and while generally, you won’t have issues, be aware that depending on the vendor or item, if you don’t catch an “issue” before you fully build a board, you might be out of luck when it comes to realizing there are defects or QC issues with your PCB or board. Well, first of all, just make sure that you got all the pieces of kit that you were supposed to get. Feet, gaskets, or screws, basically everything the listing states comes with the kit (unless it’s fully built already of course, but even then, there are usually accessories or something). Then, take some time to look your board over! Keep in mind that there is usually some sort of “Acceptable Standards” or QC document for the keyboard kit on the website where you bought it, but if not, just check to see if the board is damaged in any way. Maybe it was the shipping courier. Maybe it’s actual factory issues or something that slipped past QC, but whether it’s anodization streaking, corrosion, scratches, dents, internal or external damage, mismatched top and bottom case anodization colors, and so on, take some time to look everything over.

A QC document of a popular board. Most of us can see damage or scratches, so don’t feel like you have to just pretend that everything is fine unless it’s something like a prototype run where issues between you and the designer/QCer were communicated. This also applies to the PCB. Are diodes missing? Is there damage on the PCB itself (gashes or scratches, especially on or near traces)? Most of the time, if you’ve already built the board or removed the shrinkwrap, it may void whatever warranty the board has, or result in you being responsible for the damages. When it comes to the PCB, do yourself a favor and also test the PCB. If you’re using a soldered PCB, use tweezers and insert the tweezer ends into where you’d normally insert the metal switch pins (making sure that the PCB is plugged in of course. Depending on the PCB, you might need to connect it to a daughterboard, or, it’ll plug in directly to your computer with whichever cable it supports). A lot of times, if you find issues with the PCB AFTER soldering, you won’t be able to get a replacement. With a hotswap PCB, I also use the tweezer method, but I’ve had people tell me that they just insert switches (without the plate) and that it’s easier for them to do it that way.

Then once you’ve connected your keyboard to your computer, pull up whatever software you’d like to check that each key registers. I used to use keyboard tester, but there are many that work. No matter what strategy you implement, look over your kit and everything that it comes with! Familiarize yourself with a QC document if the listing has one and/or if you realize there are issues.

Visual example of testing a PCB. Alright, now we’ll be heading into soldering-specific tips! Even if you don’t solder yourself, it may be worthwhile or fun to read, but regardless, I appreciate you all sticking with me! Tip #4 - Take Your Time. Set Yourself up for Soldering Success This is basically a catch-all tip instead of making 2 or 3 separate tips. Now, I know what you may be thinking. You just had a long day at work, you come home and check your mail, and you find the keyboard that you’ve been waiting for. I’m not telling you how to live your life. If you want to have a bit of happiness to end your day, by all means, go for it! Build your board! Or at least open it. Just know that it’s totally fine to wait for a day or time when you feel fully refreshed, especially when it comes to soldering. You can absolutely do everything but solder and leave it for the weekend or for when you know you can concentrate, and maybe soldering actually brings you peace, but I’ve had situations where I’ve rushed soldering instead of taking my time. Nowadays, I make sure I have the bandwidth to pay attention when soldering, can put on some headphones or earbuds to listen to music or a podcast, and actually can enjoy the process. For me, the build process really is important, and while the end result of having a usable keyboard is fantastic, I really make sure to enjoy the process itself!

Enough space to solder and the right mindset really makes the soldering process very therapeutic. I do get into the zone when soldering, and it is a fun and peaceful aspect of building keyboards, but I’d be lying if I told you I skipped important steps or rushed through them prior, such as:

Making sure switches are sitting flush and seated fully into the PCB.
Checking that when installing the switches, I didn’t bend any pins.
Having enough space to solder and making sure I have enough solder, tip tinner, my soldering iron works, my fume extractor turns on, and so on.

Personally, I like to do as much as I can before the build actually arrives. I’ve lubed my switches and lubed my stabs (I have switch testers courtesy of Hype Keyboards where I’ve already lubed and tuned stabs for future builds), I make sure to check the PCB and QC the board, I select the keycaps I want to use, and then I save building the keyboard or soldering for the weekend or when I know I’m fresh.

I get so excited about builds that I prep my stabs in advance of actually receiving the board! Again, it’s your life, and there’s nothing wrong with soldering whenever you want! I just know that I’ve rushed the build process a few times, and even when everything goes smoothly, I don’t really stay “in” the moment, ya know? Being present and taking everything in has become something that’s really important for me when it comes to building keyboards and life in general. Tip #5 - Using the Right Size Soldering Tip This was something that I had to learn the hard way (AKA splashing solder on my PCB and my skin). Maybe I just had bad luck, but no matter what I did, when I learned how to solder, I had my fair share of solder splatter. It definitely can happen at any point, but I was getting it for every single switch that I soldered. Even after making sure that I wasn’t feeding the solder directly on the tip itself, making sure that the temperature was correct, not feeding the solder wire too fast, allowing my soldering iron tip to heat up the solder pad and switch pin, and actually having contact with the solder pad and switch pin, I was still getting solder splatter. I thought I was going mad! But then… I realized that I was using the wrong soldering iron tip size. What you have to know when it comes to soldering is that heat transfer is extremely important. If you have too small of a soldering iron tip, sure, you may heat up the pad and the switch pin, but it’s not as efficient as a tip that’s just right. You don’t want to keep your iron on the PCB for too long as that can damage the PCB or lift the pad, but without the correct tip size (and shape), you might not be able to heat up both to the temperature that’s needed for the solder to flow without putting your wire directly on the soldering iron tip.

The left is what I'd consider a too small soldering tip. The right is what I'd consider to be a perfect size for heat transfer. And if you use too big of a soldering iron tip, you can heat up your pad or PCB to the point where it damages the PCB or pad. I’ll leave it to you to decide what shape of tip is best for your specific soldering situation, but I like to make sure that my tip is as wide as the solder pad. I also love using a chisel tip. Depending on what you’re soldering and how much space you have, a different shape might be necessary, but talking strictly about soldering switches, I have had great success with a chisel tip.

Too large of a soldering iron tip that may result in you damaging your PCB or burning a pad. I also found out that using a thinner diameter solder also helps prevent solder splatter, but unless you solder a bunch of boards, you don’t necessarily need two different types of solder, or to buy thinner solder if you already bought a thicker diameter solder (I Mill-Max a lot, and I’ve flooded sockets way less with a thinner diameter solder, so that’s why I have two different diameters of solder, but I still use my thicker diameter solder for normal soldering without needing Mill-Max). Try it yourself! Carefully, of course, and with a PCB that you don’t mind damaging. Use a smaller tip, use a larger tip, and use a tip that’s roughly the same width as the soldering pad! Try different shapes, and find what works best for you. Tip #6 - Soldering Loose Switches/Plateless Builds - Rubber Bands Say that you’re using switches that have thinner legs or don’t necessarily stay seated in a soldered PCB, even when using a plate. Or maybe you’re doing a plateless build and your switches keep falling out when you turn the PCB over to solder them in. What have I done in the past? Rubber bands! You can use clamps as well, but you have to make sure that you’re not damaging the PCB with too much clamping force, so that’s why I use rubber bands. The idea here is that you place your switches into the PCB and plate, then use rubber bands to secure the entire unit together as you turn the PCB over to solder. Make sure that you don’t solder the rubber bands and move them as you solder each section of the PCB.

Yes, you heard me right. Rubber bands! I've found that most of us have rubber bands lying around, and you can make use of them to help you when soldering. If you’re building a board plateless, similar concept! Depending on if you actually have a plate that matches up with the switch locations on your PCB, you can actually place the plate on top of your switches, then rubber band the whole thing together. If you don’t have a plate that matches up, find something flat and somewhat rigid. I’ve used cardboard that I cut to size, placed on top of my switches, and rubber banded the whole thing together. Anything to keep those switches from falling out of the PCB.

If you don't have a plate (plateless), find a flat and somewhat sturdy surface to place your PCB switch-side down and use rubber bands along the entire structure (indicated by the red lines for example). I used to have a super sturdy, yet thin piece of wood that was the perfect size for TKL PCBs, but I misplaced it. Here, you can see me using a box, but depending on the size of rubber bands you have and the materials you have on hand, you may have to get creative. Tip #7 - Fixing Crooked Switches After Soldering Can you guess how I found out about this? Because I messed up on tips 4 and 5! Even when I was super careful, especially with plateless builds, when I put keycaps on my switches, I sometimes found that my keycaps were crooked. Well, what do you do? Do you have to desolder the switch and resolder it? Nope! Simply find the switch that’s under that crooked keycap, heat up the solder joints until you see the solder liquefy, then press the other side (where the keycap is) in order to seat that switch into the PCB.

One hand on the switch/keycap and the other with your soldering iron. Liquify the solder and then press the switch/keycap. Some people even purposely only solder in one switch leg and then solder the other, but for me, personally, I like this method since I only require the soldering iron. Sometimes, you’ll hear a resounding “Click” which signifies that the switch seated itself flush into the PCB, but as long as your keycap is no longer crooked, you’ve done your job. Extra Tip - Test Your PCB After Soldering… BEFORE You Put Away Your Soldering Equipment I can’t count the number of times that I’ve soldered everything (or thought I did), put away my soldering equipment, and plugged in my PCB only to realize that I either forgot to solder a switch or that I had a switch that had one bent pin. Maybe you want to sanitize your soldering space, or at the very least, wash your hands, but before you put everything away… plug that PCB in and see if everything works.

It’s not a huge deal to put everything away and get it back out of course, but if I can save you a few minutes, that’s why I’m here. You can absolutely turn off your soldering iron after extended periods of it being on to take a break, or do half of your soldering (or desoldering, or even Mill-Max) job on one day, put everything away, and then bring everything out the next time you finish up, or you may even have a dedicated workbench where you don't have to put everything away, but for those of us that have multi-purpose desk areas, while you may want to clean off your desk ASAP, check that PCB to make sure you've soldered every switch correctly! Conclusion And there you have it. A very soldering-heavy tips and tricks article, but the next compilation will have a lot more non-soldering tips for sure. While some of these may definitely be classified as “Duh, everyone knows this,” they’re things I either was too nervous or hesitant to ask, or things that I simply came across myself. I’m not saying I invented or came up with these ideas, especially the soldering tips, they’re honestly just things I realized and thought, “Wow… I wish I had known this earlier!” and figured it might also help others out there. As always, I appreciate the time you’ve spent out of your very busy lives to give this article a look through. While I don't necessarily aim for a specific number for words or characters when it comes to articles, I do understand that it can be nice not to have to slog through walls of text and enjoy reading lighter articles, which is what this hopefully turned out to be. At the very least, I didn't hit the character limit like I did with my Content Creator article! Thanks for reading, I love you all, and catch you next time!

(Edited)

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