ErgoMechKeyboards

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Ergonomic, split and other weird keyboards

Rules

Keep it ergo

Posts must be of/about keyboards that have a clear delineation between the left and right halves of the keyboard, column stagger, or both. This includes one-handed (one half doesn't exist, what clearer delineation is that!?)

i.e. no regular non-split¹ row-stagger and no non-split¹ ortholinear²

¹ split meaning a separation of the halves, whether fixed in place or entirely separate, both are fine.
² ortholinear meaning keys layed out in a grid

No Spam

No excessive posting/"shilling" for commercial purposes. Vendors are permitted to promote their products/services but keep it to a minimum and use the [vendor] flair. Posts that appear to be marketing without being transparent about it will be removed.

No Buy/Sell/Trade

This subreddit is not a marketplace, please post on r/mechmarket or other relevant marketplace.

Some useful links

EMK wiki
Split keyboard compare tool
Compare keycap profiles Looking for another set of keycaps - check this site to compare the different keycap profiles https://www.keycaps.info/
Keymap database A database with all kinds of keymap layouts - some of them fits ergo keyboards - get inspired https://keymapdb.com/

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PLA for keycaps - Bad idea? (lemmy.world)

submitted 3 months ago by paradoxicator to c/ergomechkeyboards

7 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Hello all,

After trying to find good choc v1 compatible keycaps, I found some STLs on GitHub for some Chicago Stenographer ones.

My 3D printer is just an A1 mini (can only print PLA and PETG - maybe TPU?). Do you think it’s a good idea to use PLA for keycaps?

Have MBKs right now on my Chocofi but was hoping for something more sculpted to get a little less fat finger typing.

I know most people order Nylon SLS prints from online but since I already have a 3D printer I was hoping to avoid that.

Bad idea?

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[–] TootSweet 8 points 3 months ago

Honestly it doesn't seem like there's a lot of risk with giving it a try. If it doesn't work out, you can always buy regular commercially-available keycaps later.

You mentioned the potential of stems breaking off in the switch. I kinda doubt that's terribly likely. (If they break off, I'd think the chunks that broke off would be big enough that they wouldn't end up in the mechanism of the switch and could just be shaken out or retrieved with needle-nose tweezers.) That's just speculation on my part, but I have plans to print myself some self-designed keycaps (and a self-designed keyboard base, in fact) at some point out of PLA and I'm not terribly concerned about that potential issue. I also don't really mind buying more keycaps later if I need to, though.

3D-printed keycaps can also be replaced easily. If you're concerned about them breaking, you might want to print some extras up front so you don't have to wait for a print to finish before you can use your keyboard again. (And so you don't have to try to use it with one keycap missing. Lol.)