Well shoot, now I need to make a COWABUNGA novelty keycap.

I thought a tombstone or a boogieboard. 🤣

More seriously, things get weird when you want to go no-stabilizers but don’t want to buy a custom set of blank keycaps. This one only uses the 1.25u to 1.75u keys from a standard TKL or full size.

I am currently typing on my one and only red-switch board, and I am mis-hitting keys like a mofo, and bottoming out even harder than normal. I don’t type anywhere near correctly, but I make up for it by typing enthusiastically, and whatever the category, my favorites are always heavy.

From my keebtalk post, which also has more pics:

It’s early obviously, but I’m optimistic about this one. It feels pretty nice, and the Jades are almost as nice as the Navies, just missing that slight “kerchunk!” that the Navies have. The Jades are a bit snappier, and I agree that they may be ever so slightly louder, but I don’t think they dethrone my dark blue fingerbreakers.

After my last set of keycaps came out with some fairly obvious alignment issues, I rethought my jig and made a new one that could support 26 1u keys, plus one of arbitrary width. I also went with corner legends instead of centered, as that punishes a lack of accuracy much less, if you can at least get your setup repeatable. Then, I did clusters together in batches (i.e. all alphas in one run, all F keys together, etc.). The result is a much less jarring alignment situation. It would be ideal, if the plastic itself had cooperated. This PBT recipe didn’t like the infusible ink nearly as much as the DSA keycaps on my other no-stabs build. Legends are not as crisp as I’d like, and the colors are pretty muted, but the improved alignment makes this a modest victory.

Overall, I like (though not quite love) the way they came out, and the overall effect for the board, between the layout, case, and font, is a bit “Apple meets Logitech,” which may or may not be a good thing, but it’s always satisfying to wrap one of these up.

Ergonomics are great, very gentle. Feedback and performance slightly lacking. 🤣

My first two DIY builds were orthos, but it sort of didn’t take. I did realize that while I don’t type properly or even all that well, I still don’t particularly need a full size spacebar as I almost always land in the same spot with my right thumb or (forgive me) index finger. I use KMK for my boards, and the debounce is good enough that if I happen to double tap the two spacebars, it won’t register two taps. The rest of the longer keys don’t REALLY need to be that long, and everybody hates lubing and tuning stabs (or they damn well should) anyway.

Enter is going to be the biggest keycap at 1.75u. You get a little wobble (box/dustproof switches can help some), but nothing structurally problematic. Most boards only start with stabs at 2u.

I’m currently using this one’s FRL ancestor, and the only real issue I have is that it uses a 1U LShift with another 1u between it and the ‘Z’ key (kinda ISO-ish), and I just can’t quite get 100% used to it, hence the “tombstone” layout on the new build.

If we’re just trying to keep it simple with a single, reputable vendor:

Keychron v3 barebones TKL
White on Black “OSA” keycaps, which look “swoopy” and modernly retro, but mostly feel like regular OEM on your SteelSeries
Gateron Black switches.

EDIT: Nordic makes it a little more expensive at Keychron and with fewer options, but it’s still doable. If you get one that’s QMK compatible, any ISO can be Nordic, and you just need to source keycaps, which they do have though I don’t see them in white on black.

The sense I get is that it is more lazy than anything. The verbiage feels like the fact that designs were public documents was tacked on last minute to satisfy some desire for market segmentation or to create a parts and design library to draw traffic. It would make sense that the company hosting the software would not want the headache of being unable to use your stuff commercially or even of parsing what they could use, since in some sense they always are using everything commercially. Refusing the to thread the needle with their verbiage, though, has left a situation where the Terms of Use say clearly that (1) a design is Content, (2) a free user’s Content is a public document, (3) a free user cannot use their own public documents for commercial use, and (3) a free user grants EVERY OTHER USER a license to sell their public documents.

1. “End Users’ files, designs, models… (collectively, “Content”).”
2. “All documents created by a Free Plan User, and all Content contained therein, is made public and therefore considered a Public Document.”
3. “If you intend to use the Service outside a trial context to create and/or edit intellectual property for commercial purposes (including but not limited to developing designs that are intended to be commercialized and/or used in support of a commercial business), then you agree to upgrade to a paid subscription to the Service.”
4. “For any Public Document owned by a Free Plan User… Customer grants a worldwide, royalty-free and non-exclusive license to any End User or third party accessing the Public Document to use the intellectual property contained in Customer’s Public Document without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Document, and to permit persons to whom the Document is made available to do the same.”

The only possible wrinkle is that the ToU distinguish between a “Customer” and an “End User,” so maybe you the customer can grant you the End User the same commercial rights that Joe the slightly shady CNC machinist in Peoria has when he downloads your widget to fabricate and sell. Something tells me that PTC’s license compliance folks don’t interpret things that way, though.

The issue with FreeCAD is that all the workarounds (so far) are manual. Other apps may well be doing similar things, but they’re doing them behind the scenes and the user doesn’t have to (for instance) specifically set up a datum plane offset at the exact same distance as the face you want to sketch on and either manage it by hand or use an integrated spreadsheet to set up and reference variables.

I like what I see coming out of FreeCAD these days, but stuff like that is… umm, a lot.

The dirty secret of FreeCAD is that most drawings that look okay will extrude even if unconstrained. You just lose the ability to leverage the history tree and the model will be as brittle as any direct modeler’s.

FreeCAD is on its way, it’s attracting a little more money and attention, and I’m using it more and more, but I often still feel like I’m fighting it.

If you are comfortable with all your models being available for download and some wonky Terms of Use that may let random internet people profit off your designs but not you, then OnShape in a full-screen browser feels about as good as F360 does. I guess you could also pay for it, but despite finding it pretty nice, I am iffy about paying Solid Edge prices for something browser based. I understand SolidWorks has slapped together a browser version as well, but nobody likes it.

Linux wise, there’s just not much outside FreeCAD and SolveSpace. BricsCAD is an okay evolution of AutoCAD, and VariCAD is a less good one.

I may have done a longer writeup than anybody needed the other day.

“A lot” is always relative, I guess. I feel like I type a fair bit, and I do some gaming, and I can say I’ve never got tired, though to be honest I’ve never tried a commercially available keyboard or component that was enough to make me tired. I’ve noticed the extra effort after using something lighter for a while, but I quickly readjust and heavier just feels more natural. To the extent I use them, I prefer my linears and tactiles to be heavier as well.

The potentially big caveat is that I don’t properly touch type, and even composing from scratch I top out at about 70 wpm.

Agreed they’re nice. If they were to become standard on introductory boards instead of the blue click-jackets, I think many more people would stay on Team Clicky.

Also in pic: that feeling when you got too cute and your own bespoke layout has a shift key you can’t quite get used to.

Box whites are a very nice light tactile switch.

I know what you’re thinking, but I said what I said.

I have Box Navies in a DIY aluminum sandwich board that’s about the size of a TKL, and before that they were in an FL-Esports FL980, which is an 1800 style, so very nearly full size. I’ve heard the Jades are ever so lightly louder, but I like heavy switches, so the Navies are perfect. They’re very snappy, and in the DIY board bottom out is almost rumbly if I don’t use a deskmat. It has been decades since I used buckling spring, but I find the Navies come closer to my memory than any other switches I’ve tried (though still not the same). I prefer them to Box White, Gateron Green, Outemu Green, KS-3 Gateron Blue, or various commodity blues I’ve tried.

I think most of these have made their way to Fediverse at some point in the last year, but brought them all out for an end of year photo.

• “Planck+3” ortholinear (3d-printed plate, maple base)
• Experimental custom ortho split (3d printed)
• Kiddo’s macro pad (3d-printed from a Thingiverse download)
• Custom Retro TKL (outsourced laser-cut plate, DIY wooden sides)
• Same plate, but 3D printed sides and springs as flexible supports for the middle
• Custom no-stabilizers mini-1800 style build with DIY laser dye-subbed keycaps. Plates and sides are home-lasered hardboard. feet and port cover are 3D printed.

Next project is using the last of the three TKL plates with a spray-painted, 3D-printed case.

My office has a “workshop” side with three cube-farm desktops salvaged from an office park refurb. Under those, I have 4 cheap drawer units and one matching shelf unit. For now, the boards themselves are on the shelves, and keyboard stuff occupies three drawers. Keycaps stay in their boxes, extras are married into the “nicer” boxes, and it’s all labeled on masking tape. Switches go into old coffee jars that hold 50 switches very easily, also labeled. Empty Keyboard boxes get stashed in one of the less accessible drawers. Keyboards share space with 3D printing, soldering/electronics, office supplies, and my “inside” tools.

GH Thread.