Desoldering, Mill-Maxing, And Why You Might Want To Learn Both
Thanks to StoryboardTech’s fantastic article, you finally learned how to solder! Or at least, you’re committed to learning. So, what’s next? Well, if you’re brave enough, why not learn how to desolder as well? And when you feel confident with that, how about Mill-Max? You don’t necessarily have to know or learn how to solder before learning how to desolder or Mill-max, but in my opinion, getting comfortable with soldering is a great step towards learning how to do the other two, and if you know how to solder, you can practice desoldering and mill-maxing to your heart’s content since you’ll already have the tools from learning how to solder! Well, at least most of the tools. Let’s start off with the good ol’ disclaimer section first, however. Disclaimer These are my own opinions and my own thoughts, and if I’ve learned anything in life, it’s that we all do things in slightly different ways. Whether it be deadlifting, desoldering, Mill-Maxing or even baking...
Jan 13, 2025
I went ahead and broke open my KBD19X kit I've been sitting on meaning to build that I bought specifically for GMK Laser when its drop started, and ironically I never got around to building it in time, lol. I kept telling myself, "you have plenty of time!"...days rolled to weeks...months.... and now GMK Laser is sitting on one of the worktables in the shop, unopened, and collecting dust. Hahah. One of these days I'll get around to it! --probably when the drop for the KBD19X PCB shows up, that is.
So I went ahead and designed and made an acrylic-cased deck using the PCB I have from the kit, using lubed ZealPC Zilents with 63.5g springs (85g on spacebar), ZealPC PCB-mount stabs, pink 1.8mm LEDs, and a gradient Cherry profile PBT keycap set I've been sitting on from KBDFans that went great with the theme I wanted to go for. GMK Laser would also work on it too, but that's still going on the main deck. ;) This one I'll use as my work deck for the time being.
Enjoy!