wooo
After much research and deliberation, I decided to make my first custom keyboard! I was super excited to put it together. I wanted to dip my toes in, so I bought fairly budget (but good) options.
Case / Kit
For the price, this is pretty much everything you’d want for a basic layout. You don’t have to add or change anything, it’s ready to go minus switches and caps. The keyboard body is solid CNC’d aluminum, it’s very sturdy and hefty. Gives a good premium feeling and helps dampen sounds more.
The Amazon listing was out of the black option, so I bought the lightest color and just spray painted the aluminum in a matte black.
The kit came with a bunch of foam to dampen the sound coming from it. Seemed to work well. You can check out all the layers here, it’s pretty well put together. I even learned about layer thickness in how it effects keyboard sounds. I had no clue people were so in-depth with keyboards, it seems like such a simple topic lol NOPE
Switches
I was trying to go for deep and satisfying keys, buuuut idk I’m still new at this lol The Akko V3 Piano Pro switches I used are a little more high pitched and clacky naturally it seems. I might upgrade switches eventually in the future, but tbh I like the piano pros! Very poppy and satisfying to type on.
Keycaps
The keycaps I used are dye-sublimated PBT, and, idk what that means, but the video I watched said it’s a good material for satisfying keyboard sounds lol. They are rounded and cute, they also have some Japanese-inspired elements I really like. It came with quite a few cute keycaps, but I decided to use an origami bird macro, ramen bowl windows key, fish kite shift key, and a sushi second windows key. The font is also rounded to match the vibe.
Tape Mod
I also did a keyboard mod with electrical tape. If you don’t know what the tape mod is, you literally just put tape on the back of the keyboard PCB and tada you have much poppier sounds. I used electrical tape because I am not about to catch something on fire with painter’s tape lol
Parts List
- Case / Kit ($60): EPOMAKER x Feker Galaxy80 Barebones
- Switches ($28): Akko V3 Piano Pro (Pre-Lubed)
- Keycaps ($27): WOMIER 定食 TEISHOKU MOA DYE-SUB PBT
Total → $115
Audio Sample
I can’t just tell ya’ll about this keyboard and not give you an audio sample right??
I captured the sample with my Rode PodMic. This is a dynamic mic for speaking into, not sure if something like this would have any effect on the sound? Probably not? I know most keyboard YouTubers would use a condenser mic for something like this instead to get the best sound quality. They are the optimal choice for music and sounds with their cardioid sound pattern. Anyway! I digress.
Thoughts? Would you use this keyboard? 
love the ergo look tbh it’s so unique. Also thank you I tried xD
they really are terrible