
How I built a keyboard by hand - rhinoceraptor
https://jacklew.is/keyboard/
======
trevize
Have to give a shoutout to keyboard.io -
[https://shop.keyboard.io](https://shop.keyboard.io). Backing this project and
watching the process and creation of this keyboard has been very rewarding.
They are creating band new keycaps, not just modifying the inlays - but the
full custom shapes as well. Watching the process of getting mass fabrication
setup in China has been especially interesting as well.

One quality example blog post:
[http://blog.keyboard.io/post/148699005129/day-420-hinges-
and...](http://blog.keyboard.io/post/148699005129/day-420-hinges-and-feet-and-
keycaps-and-pcbs)

~~~
ChuckMcM
Wow, $330 for a keyboard. I love the passion and the thought they put into it,
and I expect that for the small quantities they expect to produce that is the
right price to sell it at, but at the same time it seems to cross into the
unsustainable price point.

~~~
overcast
People pay thousands of dollars for a virtual weapon in online games. That a
week later, is deemed worthless by the next expansion release. I think you're
vastly underestimating what people will pay for, if you think $330 is in the
realm of "too much" for a hand made keyboard.

~~~
ChuckMcM
I need to be clearer, it isn't "too much" for a keyboard, the question I have
is if it is sustainable. Or put another way will the keyboard.io folks ever
get the chance to make a 'model 2.0' ?

This is my reasoning on that. As a bespoke item it carries a premium price for
folks who value its design points.

A short anecdote; I have a pair of Roger Sound Labs studio monitor speakers
that I _love_ , probably paid twice what similar high end studio speakers cost
but the folks at RSL were passionate about speakers and made the kinds of
quality choices I would make when building speakers myself. That quality is
evident in that here it is 30 years later and the speakers still sound _great_
and still as they did when I bought them. Sadly, RSL no longer exists.

I think about that and similar vendors where I have gone out of my way to pay
a premium to get a product that isn't working so hard for profit margin that
it has compromised the durability or quality of the product. Those vendors are
fragile.

If they make a really high quality product with the best components and
engineering margins to insure decades of service, you only buy one unit and
your done. Others will buy the same unit, but once the market is saturated you
are stuck, you aren't selling any more, you still have bills and staff to pay.
You need to either move on to a different thing, or shrink dramatically in
size to be the maintenance organization.

A Bosch engineer was talking to me about predicting whether or not a
particular spare part would be available 100 years from now. For things like
machine tools, there are lots of them that have been in service for 100+
years. However, if you collect old computers, you know just how hard it can be
to find parts to repair an S-100 machine like an Altair or IMSAI, or Apple II
or PET parts. Forget finding a new set of DTL transistors for a PDP-1. Even
the Alto project that kens and company are working on, that machine is 20
years old and you can't buy new disc packs for it or r/w heads for the drive.
(both considered 'consumable' parts by the Alto)

So at the end of the day, can a company like keyboard.io survive by "only"
charging $330 for a keyboard that they have nominally already sold to 2,000
backers. What is the total addressable market for that keyboard? 5,000?
10,000? And it serves a market (desktop computers) which is in steep double
digit declines.

Even with big budgets such niche products find themselves lost (I've got a
Microsoft 'commander' here you can play with :-))

My thinking then on this artisanal keyboard is whether or not they made the
right choice by going to China. It seems like something you will sell a few
thousand of, tops, and if you can make/keep all of the tooling in house you
can control your supply chain fully.

Anyway, while I can't go that high for a keyboard, I know folks who will. I
won't be surprised to find out they are already backers of this project. But
from a long term "these guys will be impacting the way we think about
keyboards for the next 30 years" I don't think they have set themselves up for
even a shot at that. For that, it would have to sell for $1,000 each. That
would give them the extra runway to develop additional fabrication
capabilities in house and push the envelope on all sides.

~~~
cstejerean
I think you underestimate the market for high end keyboards. Kinesis has been
doing this for a while for example and they don't seem to have a problem
sustaining themselves or coming up with new versions. I bought a Kinesis
Advantage 10 years ago for $350. They recently announced the Kinesis Advantage
2 for a similar price point. [http://www.kinesis-
ergo.com/shop/advantage2/](http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/shop/advantage2/)

I'm sure it's not a huge market but it's enough to sustain a company that
wants to focus on making premium accessories. I don't think keyboards are
going anywhere anytime soon. Sure, the consumer market is shrinking but the
average computer user was never going to spend $300 for a keyboard. People
spend that when they do serious amounts of typing all day, and there doesn't
seem to be a decrease in the number of people that need to type for a living.

------
theophrastus
This is a very impressive effort! And I can't help but think it recalls an old
heroic trope wherein the development of the true hero involves wandering off
to forge one's own sword, (a theme which was more recently picked up on in
Star Wars). I hope it encourages others not to necessarily settle with the
blister pack handed to them.

~~~
pimlottc
ObTVTropes link:
[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AMasterMakesTheir...](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AMasterMakesTheirOwnTools)

------
libraryatnight
This is a fairly common sort of occurrence in the mechanical keyboard hobby
community. The geekhack forums are filled with useful info and links to kits
for this sort of thing.

~~~
wastedhours
Yep - great to see someone follow through on it as well, I've got a pack of
110 Gateron Browns in the drawer wondering when they'll see the light of day.
My 3 manufactured mechs and full-time job will probably mean they stay there
as well unfortunately.

------
kakkun
Welp, might as well hop on the bandwagon, and share mine as well.
[https://imgur.com/a/SP4Ng](https://imgur.com/a/SP4Ng)

I used a pre-made PCB, so not quite as hand made as the OP's, but it's
something I'm still quite proud of.

~~~
mastazi
That looks neat! Do you have a link for the PCB?

~~~
kakkun
Yeah, here's where I bought it:
[https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_det...](https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=536)
and here are the instructions:
[https://deskthority.net/wiki/Phantom_instruction_guide](https://deskthority.net/wiki/Phantom_instruction_guide)

~~~
mastazi
Great, thank you!

------
agumonkey
OP should talk to [https://twitter.com/adereth](https://twitter.com/adereth)
(see: [http://adereth.github.io/blog/2014/04/09/3d-printing-with-
cl...](http://adereth.github.io/blog/2014/04/09/3d-printing-with-clojure/))
and have pure fun together.

ps:
[https://twitter.com/adereth/status/784870134502465536](https://twitter.com/adereth/status/784870134502465536)

~~~
Adrock
Thanks for the mention! For anyone interested, all the source and models for
the Dactyl keyboard are available here: [https://github.com/adereth/dactyl-
keyboard](https://github.com/adereth/dactyl-keyboard)

There's also a talk I gave a Clojure/conj about it here:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk3A41U0iO4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk3A41U0iO4)

~~~
rhinoceraptor
Thanks for your work! I love the dactyl (my main board is an Ergodox). If/when
I finally get a 3D printer, I will definitely build a Dactyl.

------
pkamb
Cool to see a keyboard without a big spacebar. I've thought that that would be
a good way to put multiple additional modifier keys on your thumbs, for things
like controlling the arrow keys from the homerow without overloading the
standard modifiers.

I even purchased the [Japanese version of my daily keyboard][1] to try this
out. Haven't planned the functions or made the switch yet though.

[1]: [http://i.imgur.com/9LaxboJ.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/9LaxboJ.jpg)

~~~
devereaux
We do have very similar tastes :-) I have the exact same one, only with a
trackpad and PS2 connectors, because it was so cheap it made sense to reuse my
old PS2/USB converters. Thinkpad keyboards are a rare and expansive luxury
these days.

The fast tab switch keys next to the arrow is something I need in every
keyboard or laptop, to the point I won't buy if there is just the inverted T
without any key I can remap to fast-tab switch.

I love this keyboard, what I find disconcerting however is the Japanese
writing. I would like to replace all my caps by brand new english caps.

~~~
auganov
A reminder for people considering it: the trackpoint on these is an old
version with a lower resolution/sensitivity. If you have multiple displays
there's a high chance you won't like it. Even on a sufficiently high res
display, it can be somewhat disappointing.

If you want the newest trackpoint you'll need to get the new chiclet usb
one[0]. There's a jap version too.

[0] yea, with the inferior (for many) layout unfortunately ;c

------
chromaton
I think that most people go with waterjet or laser cutting their keyboard
plates. The SwillKB Keyboard Plate and Case build really helps with the
design: [http://builder.swillkb.com/](http://builder.swillkb.com/)

~~~
VLM
To get OP out of hand filing all those corners I started researching the
current year price of a 14mm sq punch (greenlee style) and then gave up and
tried 9/16in instead, prices have gone up a bit since my dad was making vacuum
tube projects with greenlee punches...

Its probably cheaper to watercut than to buy and use a punch (and hope for
perfect alignment)

The problem with lasers is heat distortion that is a huge amount of cutting
and the odds of it not turning into a pretzel are not so good.

A weldment with CNC carved rows and columns welded together hopefully into a
square array is not ridiculous. In fact its probably the cheapest option. And
you could use a nice aluminum and then anodize it some crazy cool color. If
not aluminum and tig welding, maybe a somewhat less ambitious steel and silver
"solder" (brazing, really) would be more realistic.

~~~
convolvatron
i was thinking 'water jet' too, but i think your welding process is
potentially just as nice with a lower bar of entry (assuming you have a tig
sitting next to you). you'd have to find a really friendly water jet shop to
set up such a small run. if you had a mill, even a little one, you could take
aluminum flat and cut channels so that the flats interlock. at that point you
could just put down some tacks or even use fasteners.

if we want to lower it further, i think your brazing suggestion is good to.
brass is easier to braze with a small hand held propane torch than steel i
think. also more local hardware stores carry products like stay-brite and
appropriate fluxes for copper alloys.

is there way to use half thickness so the top tab grabs on two edges and the
bottom guys on two others?

~~~
chromaton
It's possible to get waterjet cutting in low quantities with small setup
charges. We have a good number of people ordering custom keyboard plates and
cases from us at Big Blue Saw.

------
tjic
This is neat, and I don't want to diminish that, but when I saw the headline
"...from scratch", I wasn't expecting that the starting components would
include "a full set of keys".

I'm reminded of an old Disney cartoon (maybe WWII era ?) where goofy invents
artificial rubber. The catch is that it requires rubber tires as an input.

~~~
DanBC
There are many projects where people have built their own keyboards.

Do you know of any where the people built their own switches?

~~~
ffreire
I've seen a fair number of folks in the mechanical keyboard community
(admittedly rather small already) that customize their switches. For example,
a common mod for mechanical switches is to replace the springs in the switch
housing, which affects how much force is required to depress the switch.
Others replace the stem, which is the colored part of the switch, changing its
feel (tactile vs linear, smooth vs course).

Given that, would you consider someone building their own switch as someone
who's created a custom switch from these components? e.g. I've read of folks
putting Zealios stems in Gateron housings with 80g+ springs to create their
ideal switch type.

~~~
wastedhours
Yeah, have seen a lot of people mod their switches, but not seen someone
create them from scratch - think customising them and blending components
steps it up a notch, but isn't any more "from scratch" (although, in my
opinion, getting the switches bought in is as "from scratch" as is logical).

------
Zikes
> If you wish to make apple pie from scratch, you must first create the
> universe. - Carl Sagan

I see a lot of builds similar to this on /r/MechanicalKeyboards, but which use
pre-made cases or other kits. This is more "from scratch" than many, due to
hand-cutting the case.

Every time I see one I get the itch to try it myself. The guide he links to
makes it seem tedious, but relatively straightforward.

------
bjpirt
Wow, drilling and filing all of those holes by hand makes me glad I've
discovered laser cutters. That's dedication!

------
qwertyuiop924
Neat project. I'll stick with my Unicomp for now, though. As much fun as it
would be to build this, and to say that I'm typing on a keyboard I built, even
the MX switches don't feel quite as satisfying as the click of a Model M, and
I'm not making buckling-spring switches myself: sure, it might not be too
hard, but even if it isn't, you have to make a ton, and then you have to make
the keycaps.

Queue keyboard hackers arguing over whether buckling-spring is really better
than MX.

~~~
aidenn0
I've run into quality issues with Unicomp recently (my last one only lasted 18
months). I'm now using a keyboard with Cherry Greens (CODE 104 key), and it's
pretty darn close, but not the same (plus a bit quieter, which my wife likes).

Regardless of which is better, feeling familiar is nice. Those of my age who
grew up using Apples are likely to prefer the Matias switches; I grew up with
an IBM keyboard, and the Cherry Green is the closest I can find that isn't
made by Unicomp.

~~~
qwertyuiop924
Hey, I grew up with dome switches. I've tried the MXes, and they just don't
feel right to me.

------
APosMot
Jesus H. Christ what a lot of negativity from a neat project. And the same
quote from Carl Sagan is a nice asshat touch from people that probably don't
make anything at all ever.

Great work op, don't let these pedantic asshats keep you down.

------
jsoltren
I mean, sure, this is pretty neat, but par for the course with the excellent
projects posted every day at sites like deskthority.net and geekhack.org. I'm
surprised this one made the front page. It's neat but not the first of its
kind.

There are folks on these sites who are re-creating IBM capacitive buckling
spring keyboards "from scratch": new molds for all the components. Also,
keyboard.io is a keyboard project complete from scratch (except for the
switches) from some friends.

Kudos to the OP for building a keyboard! It's great fun and very instructive.
Head to the forums I linked above if you'd like to see more.

------
akssri
This is probably the only project which goes about building a backplate from
household tools, rather than having it milled.

------
trymas
[https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards](https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards)

------
scaradim
First keyboard built by hand for me was a ZX Spectrum 16k keyboard replacement
made of door bell buttons. It was back in 1986 if I remember well. Result was
a matrix of about 1m/50cm. We've actually broke the keyboard of our teacher
computer because we were a full classroom playing Jetpack on it. All class has
participated - of course with teacher's help. hehe...

~~~
alasdair_
Did it have those obnoxious rubber keys like the original? :)

------
trishume
shameless plug:

If you're looking for more keyboard build logs, I wrote one about my custom
keyboard. [http://thume.ca/2014/09/08/creating-a-
keyboard-1-hardware/](http://thume.ca/2014/09/08/creating-a-
keyboard-1-hardware/)

~~~
9fiftyfive
Interesting read!

------
WalterBright
I made my own keyboard in college for the simple reason that I couldn't afford
to buy one. You couldn't get one at Goodwill for $1.99 in those days :-)

I salvaged the keys from some IBM device. Drilled a bunch of holes in a
fiberglass board, mounted the keys in the holes, connected them in an XY grid
with diodes, and used a 6800 processor to poll the grid to see which key was
pressed, and send the corresponding ASCII value to a serial port.

It was a simple design, and worked well. Later, I connected a 6845 video
controller chip, some code, and a display, and voila! a VT52 clone.

Sadly, the thing got lost in one of my many moves.

------
GrinningFool
Thanks for posting this, looks like it was a fun build.

What's the split keyboard you previously had, shown in the background of the
first photo?

~~~
sturmdrang
Looks like an Ergodox (Infinity?) with full hand case.

~~~
jbondeson
Definitely an Infinity Ergodox, the full hand has the I:C logo on it.

------
nickpsecurity
So he built part of a keyboard. The best application I see of this, other than
a startup for retail or Wall St keyboards, is for secure input. A secure
keyboard has to (a) be immune to code injection, (b) no leak anything over
power supply, (c) be TEMPEST shielded, and (d) optionally encrypted input
directly to input subsystem in CPU if anything else on I/O bus is untrusted.

For this, the keys can usually be second-hand but everything else is custom.
Mainly the MCU, power filter, material around it, etc. One might similarly do
a wireless keyboard that encrypted its transmissions.

------
j45
Inspiring!

I currently own a number of ergonomic keyboards. Kinesis Freestyle 2 at
office, Microsoft Sculpt Ergo at home and I've discovered my ideal keyboard
would be a mix of the two.

Would love any ideas on how a custom keyboard could reasonably (time wise) be
designed to combine the best aspects of both keyboards:

\- separated halves of the Freestyle2,

\- wireless bluetooth for both halves instead of the wire the Freestyle2
requires,

\- curve like the Microsoft Sculpt Ergo keyboard.

\- Ok with either full keys or scissor keys.

~~~
jetpacktuxedo
Separated halves is the easiest of your requirements. That is a pretty well
solved problem in the keyboard community (see ergodox, etc.).

Having the halves communicate wirelessly is a bigger challenge, but still
potentially solvable. The easiest solution would be to have each half register
as a separate board. Then because it is wireless you have the issues of
batteries and charging and stuff.

The curve might also be tough, especially when combined with the wireless
part. The easiest solution would be to have a plate cut, heat it up to soften
it slightly and then bend it into the curve that you want. There would
probably be a lot of trial and error involved in that though, and it may be
faster (though a lot more expensive) to design the final 3D version of it in a
cad program and have it milled as one big block.

Standard cherry-style keys will be much easier to source than scissor keys.

This geekhack thread might give you some ideas:
[https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=70221.0](https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=70221.0)

~~~
j45
Awesome, thanks!

Some inspiration:

\- As a prototype... I'm wondering if the MS Ergo Sculpt keyboard could be cut
in half and rewired.

\- Maybe two keyboards with two sets of wireless dongles could communicate via
the same 2.4 ghz wireless dongle from "their half".

\- Maybe even 1 battery each.

That's a great link, thanks I'll see what might be possible.

------
DanBC
I'd be interested to see how comfortable the grid layout is.

The only keyboard I used like that was the Sharp MZ80K. It was unfun, but that
used square and flat keycaps too.

~~~
rhinoceraptor
My main keyboard is an Ergodox, so non-staggered keyboards are what I'm used
to. Plus, the grid layout made it a lot easier to build.

------
0xdeadbeefbabe
How about a porcelain or plaster board that fits your hands precisely. They
did that in the soyuz, but not for hands, and for other reasons too.

~~~
zafka
I have thought of making ceramic electronic components. A keyboard would be a
great start.

~~~
zafka
If done carefully some of the wiring could be painted on as an oxide and then
reduced to the metal in the firing.

------
tomcam
It was obvious from the title and its posting on hacker news that this would
be some kind of slick 3-D printer article. I was, very happily, wrong. Bravo
for a much more interesting take on this project.

------
stuartcw
That's cool. I supported an IBM/PC clone keyboard firmware developer in the
1990s. Having an open source USB based firmware has really changed the game as
it was a nightmare to clone the IBM XT/AT keyboard controller with all it's
quirks.

------
burnbabyburn
I've built a similar keyboard, called atomic keyboard, I love it, even if it
was pretty pricey.

------
glup
Does anyone recognize the metallic split keyboard in the background? I have
been looking for a high quality wired keyboard with separate left and right
panels and hoping I don't need to build one (plenty of other things to build!)

~~~
rhinoceraptor
It's an Ergodox Infinity with full hand mod, it's a kit keyboard sold through
Massdrop. You get the PCBs, switches and caps and assemble them. I would look
at the Ergodox EZ if you want a pre-made one.

------
bentpins
That looks like a mini USB extension cable not a micro. Neat project though

------
koffiekop
Looks like a preonic. Nice work. :) I couldn't type on a ortholinear keyboard
at all... Switched back to a happy hacking :)

------
9fiftyfive
Saw this on /r/mk. You did a very nice job on the keyboard. How is it typing
on an Ortholinear-like keyboard?

------
enimodas
i wonder why people still use teensy boards, when similar chinese boards can
be bought for a couple dollars each instead of $20.

~~~
jrockway
Cheaper shipping / faster arrival for quantity = 1? QA/binning done by
manufacturer instead of you?

------
pareidolia
What is rollover going to be like on a project like this?

------
mamcx
Exist a whole of crazy sub-culture about this:

[https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/](https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/)

[https://geekhack.org/](https://geekhack.org/)

[https://www.massdrop.com/mechanical-
keyboards](https://www.massdrop.com/mechanical-keyboards)

I'm almost build one, because I need a replacement for my MS ergonomic
Keyboard:

[https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=79603.msg2053482](https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=79603.msg2053482)

In short, MS hate me. He refuse to build a mechanical keyboard and also build
the most nice Ergo (to me) but each iteration is far less durable. My actual
one have several keys fade-out, and the palm rest is kaput. The original one,
was rock-solid:

[https://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-A11-00337-Natural-
Keyboard-...](https://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-A11-00337-Natural-Keyboard-
Elite/dp/B0000642RX/ref=sr_1_7?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1476133766&sr=1-7&keywords=microsoft%2Bergonomic%2Bkeyboard&th=1)

(I have see it at around US 300!)

So, I'm in the weird spot of:

\- I like this keyb too much

\- I can buy a more durable, but PS-2 antique, version

\- I can buy a more up-to-date but cord-less (hate to recharge stuff!) and I'm
confident it will break faster

\- I can buy from the mech community, but do you remember? This community is
CRAZY, and the options get weird and weirder!

\- I can buy a commercial gaming keyboard and make my life easy. But I wanna
ergo.

\- I can build it myself, but do it curved is challenging, and I need to buy a
custom keyset, so I need to convince like 20-30 people to do it so it not cost
a eye.

Yep, this _is_ nuts. I'm already > 1 year holding off this project, waiting
for a reasonable compromise

(Not get wrong: I can settle for less. Is not that I can't, is that I _wish_ a
nicer option!) \---

The options in this space (Ergo+ Mech+ NOT CRAZY) are very limited. VERY.

You can get stuff like

[https://shop.keyboard.io/](https://shop.keyboard.io/)

or even more popular

[https://www.massdrop.com/buy/infinity-
ergodox](https://www.massdrop.com/buy/infinity-ergodox)

But that keyb is a example of how crazy people are. Note that is not only a
weird layout, have less keys than a normal keyboard.

I could buy it instantly if a least is a "normal" tenkey-less.

Right know, is _SUPER-HOT_ to make the keyboard with the less possible amount
of keys, where 60% is like the most popular, like this

[https://www.massdrop.com/buy/kbp-v60-plus-mini-mechanical-
ke...](https://www.massdrop.com/buy/kbp-v60-plus-mini-mechanical-keyboard)

This mean a lot of material to DIY is biased torwards 60%.

~~~
Kliment
Get the antique and replace the electronics. Seems like the most reasonable
middle way. I'm happy to help you if you need assistance with that.

------
fixxer
Very cool, but to anyone considering this endeavor, I gently suggest buying a
Poker2 instead.

~~~
lorenzfx
I wouldn't, notice the different key arrangement.

~~~
fixxer
I was referring to building a keyboard in general, not the ortholineal layout.

------
acz
Oh these emacs users

------
RyanRies
Great job!

------
jInflux
To anyone nitpicking, unless the headline has been changed since submission,
the author actually says they built it "by hand", rather than "from scratch".

~~~
rhinoceraptor
I changed it after the initial feedback.

------
sly010
If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch...

------
Tepix
Spoiler: Did not build from scratch, used keycaps and keyboard switches.

~~~
no_protocol
This complaint makes me uncomfortable on behalf of the project creator. He
didn't set out to create switches from scratch, he wanted to create a
keyboard. You didn't care that he used a prebuilt microcontroller or USB
cable.

Switching from keycaps to some substitute wouldn't be technically harder to
pull off, it would just reduce usability. Same for switches -- the
input/output of these switches is created with keyboards in mind, other switch
choices including a homemade version would be possible, but he didn't set out
to create 100 switches, he wanted to make a keyboard.

~~~
nickpsecurity
He built a keyboard without the keys or switches. That would be the most
useless keyboard ever made until... he obtained pre-made keys and switches
from a keyboard vendor. The gripe stands despite this being cool. A more
honest description would be he made part of a keyboard or maybe the frame of
one.

~~~
no_protocol
All the switches do is close a connection between two wires. He could have
used bent paperclips and taped cardboard on top of each one for the keys.
Would you be happy then?

~~~
nickpsecurity
That would be a fully-custom keyboard. So yes.

