this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2024
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Mechanical Keyboards

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Time+3D printer+laser engraver=keeb

I had these cheap clone keycaps lying around, and I've been wanting to try a southpaw, as well as a no-stabs board that can accommodate sculpted keycap profiles, so here we are. Had to make a few compromises on layout to fit the keycaps I had on hand, but it's feeling pretty usable so far. Outemu dustproof green for MOAR CLICKY.

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[–] glimse 4 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Am I blind or is there no spacebar/enter keys?

[–] CsXGF8uzUAOh6fqV 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Not OP but probably just the key next to the "' key. The text on keycaps are just labels and do not dictate what the key does.

[–] wjrii 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Right. For some of my other weird layout, homemade boards, I’ve done all the keycap legends myself, but for this one, I wanted it to be able to use sculpted key cap sets where each row has a different shape, and using “normal” caps necessitated a few compromises.

[–] wjrii 1 points 5 months ago

Functionally, this is not meant to be a particularly weird board, well apart from the numpad being compressed and on the left. No single key is more than 1.75 times the width of a normal key, which means I did not need to use any stabilizing hardware under them.

As somebody else noted, the second “caps lock” is really enter, and then I just have the four upside down ones on the bottom row mapped as space bars. A more generous set of keycaps could have the exact ones you might need in size and shape and label for even a weird layout, but this cheap set from Amazon worked out mostly OK. Flipping the space bars also helps with the typing angle, when you don’t have proper space bars for the size you need.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Hey why the four upside-down ones in the middle on the bottom?

[–] CsXGF8uzUAOh6fqV 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

This changes the angle at which they meet your thumb. Many find this configuration more comfortable when they use mods instead of a spacebar kit. I do this too.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

That makes sense. Thanks

[–] wjrii 1 points 5 months ago

Yep. Especially for a profile like cherry, this seems to work better. It also adds just that little bit of visual differentiation.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I'm a fellow lefty, but I think it would take me some time to get used to that numpad.

[–] wjrii 3 points 5 months ago

I’m not actually left-handed, but a lot of people like the southpaw style to keep the num pad around and integrated, but allow the mouse to stay close to the right side of the keyboard. I’m not sure what I think of the concept so far, but it came out pretty well, given the constraints I gave myself.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] wjrii 1 points 5 months ago

For a junk board made of cheap components and materials, it turned out really well!