Should You Build Your Own Keyboard?

Summary

The video discusses how the mechanical keyboard building hobby has become more accessible due to increased inventory, cheaper pricing, more variety of parts, and abundant helpful online information. It highlights how group buys and limited stock used to be barriers to entry but now in-stock options at various price points allow more people to get started. Experienced builders and content creators have made guides and videos to help newcomers learn what parts work best. The host encourages anyone interested in building a custom mechanical keyboard to dive in and enjoy the process.

Takeaways

• 😊 Mechanical keyboards are more accessible and easier to get into than ever before
• 👍 More keyboard parts are available in stock now compared to the past
• 💰 There are more affordable options nowadays for keycaps, switches, kits etc.
• 🔧 Assembly is easier with helpful build guides, hotswap PCBs, pre-lubed switches etc.
• 🛒 Group buys and limited quantity raffles are less common for getting keyboard parts
• 📈 The popularity and competition in the hobby continues to grow
• 🎨 There is more customizability and variety when building a mechanical keyboard
• 😇 The community is welcoming and creators are happy to help newcomers
• 📺 There are many great YouTube channels and online resources to learn from
• 👣 It's best to take your time and enjoy the process when getting into this hobby

Q & A

What made the author first interested in mechanical keyboards?

The author first got interested in mechanical keyboards through using gaming keyboards that had mechanical switches. He started realizing enthusiast-grade keyboards were built better than just gaming keyboards focused on flashiness and marketing.

What issues did the author initially run into when trying to get into keyboard building?

The author had difficulties finding parts in stock. Many components were only available through raffles, group buys with long wait times, or were expensive and hard to obtain.

How has inventory and availability changed recently in the keyboard community?

Vendors are now better able to keep popular items in stock due to increased demand and capital. There are also more budget-friendly in-stock options available.

How can beginners now more easily build their first keyboard?

Options like hotswap PCBs, factory pre-lubed switches, and step-by-step build guides have made the assembly process much more beginner friendly.

What fully-built keyboard options exist for those wanting an easy entry point?

Fully built keyboards allow new entrants to get a solid functioning keyboard out of the box without needing to source all the components separately.

How can people customize and improve a pre-built keyboard over time?

Pre-built keyboards can be upgraded gradually, with new keycaps, switches, cables, deskmats, and other accessories allowing customization.

What YouTube channels and online resources does the author recommend?

The author highlights creators like alexotos, Taeha Types, hippotech, dailyclack, randomfrankp, badseedtech, and glarses for guides and info.

Why does the author think now is a more accessible time to get into keyboard building?

Along with improved availability of parts, there is also vastly more helpful information online from enthusiastic creators willing to assist new community members.

What tip does Andy from Omnitype have for new builders?

Andy suggests not rushing for your endgame right away and instead enjoying the process and journey into the hobby.

Where can you see and hear more of the author's keyboard builds?

The author mentions starting an Elemento Keys YouTube channel for posting keyboard sound tests and streams.

Outlines

00:00

😀 Introduction to getting into the mechanical keyboard hobby

The first paragraph introduces the video, which aims to explain why the mechanical keyboard hobby is more accessible now than ever before. It provides background about the host's journey getting into mechanical keyboards through gaming keyboards. It also mentions the difficulty initially finding parts due to limited availability.

05:02

😊 More available inventory and cheaper pricing makes entry easier

The second paragraph explains how more brands are producing mechanical keyboard components at scale and accessible prices. Vendors are also listening to hobbyist demand to keep popular items stocked. Cheaper in-stock options allow more beginners to start building keyboards, further increasing the hobby's popularity.

10:03

😃 Wider variety of parts caters to different needs and budgets

The third paragraph discusses the wider variety of mechanical keyboard parts now available to suit different budgets and needs. Options range from expensive premium keycaps to more affordable PBT alternatives. More components being produced means greater chances of sales for expensive items. Pre-built kits also allow easy entry without picking individual parts.

📚 Abundant helpful online information and guides

The fourth paragraph highlights the wealth of helpful online information, videos, communities and build guides compared to the past. Several YouTube channels and creators are mentioned which focus on different aspects of mechanical keyboards. These resources allow easy education and decision making when selecting parts.

💡 Tips for getting started - enjoy the process and don't rush endgame

The final paragraph shares tips for getting started from experienced hobbyists. The key advice is to enjoy the process and not rush to endgame immediately. Taking the time to appreciate each step leads to fulfillment.

Keywords

💡mechanical keyboards

Mechanical keyboards use physical switches under each key to register key presses, as opposed to rubber dome keyboards. They are known for superior typing feel and durability. The video discusses the growing accessibility of custom building mechanical keyboards as a hobby.

💡keycaps

Keycaps are the plastic covers that sit on top of the switches on a mechanical keyboard. There are many materials and design options for customization. The increased availability of keycaps has made the hobby more accessible.

💡group buy

A group buy is a limited quantity pre-order system used in the mechanical keyboard community. Custom keycap sets and keyboard kits are often sold via group buys. The video says in the past, group buy wait times discouraged beginners.

💡PCB

The PCB (printed circuit board) is the circuit board inside a keyboard that registers key presses and connects switches/keycaps. Hotswap PCBs that allow switch swapping without soldering make building more beginner-friendly.

💡switches

Switches provide the physical mechanism for key presses on mechanical keyboards. Increased switch options and availability, including pre-lubed switches, have made custom building more accessible.

💡lubing

Lubing involves applying specialty grease/oil to the moving parts of switches and stabilizers to improve smoothness and sound. The video says lubing is optional for beginners aiming for easy builds.

💡stabilizers

Stabilizers provide support for larger keys like space bar to prevent tilting. Lubing stabilizers can improve feel, and is covered in numerous online build guides.

💡gaming keyboards

Gaming keyboards cater to gamers with features like RGB lighting. However, the video argues many enthusiast/custom keyboards have superior build quality and customization options compared to mass market gaming brands.

💡vendors

Online vendors sell individual keyboard parts and full builds. Increased inventory levels at vendors have expanded new builder options.

💡content creators

YouTube, Twitch and other content creators publish helpful mechanical keyboard resources, reviews, and build guides, facilitating growth of the hobby.

Highlights

Mechanical keyboards are more accessible now than ever before.

Gaming keyboards introduced many people to mechanical switches, but enthusiast keyboards take things to another level.

Group buys and limited availability previously made custom keyboards hard to obtain.

More in-stock options at various price points have increased accessibility.

Cheap, in-stock keycaps like PBT are alternatives to expensive, limited GMK sets.

More competition and demand creates opportunities for sales on premium items.

Build guides, hotswap PCBs, and factory lubed switches simplify the assembly process.

Fully built keyboards allow easy entry for beginners without customization.

Small mods over time let you gradually customize a pre-built keyboard.

The wealth of online guides and communities provide valuable help for beginners.

YouTube channels like alexotos provide exceptional build guides.

Don't rush to end-game; enjoy the process and journey.

Consider a budget-friendly board to start and upgrade over time.

Pick keycaps, switches, and other parts based on your preferences.

Building a keyboard can be rewarding for gaming, work, or as a hobby.

Transcripts

I think getting into the mechanical

keyboard hobby is more accessible than

it's ever been let me

[Music]

explain I've been interested in

mechanical keyboards for a few years now

sort of interested being the keyword

there along with a lot of other people

out there I was first introduced to

Mechanical switches through gaming

keyboards like a bunch of different

gaming keyboards that I've used over the

last couple years but while working at

the mkbc studio we get a lot of random

packages showing up at our door and we

started to slowly get these really

highquality mechanical keyboards like

this key Cole and when I started using

these Enthusiast grade keyboards I

started to realize that all those gaming

keyboards even though they use

mechanical switches they're just built

to be flashy or highly marketable and

there's nothing wrong with gaming

keyboards there are plenty of people out

there who still love their Logitech G

Pro or their steel series Apex but

there's this whole other world of people

who are building keyboards and taking it

to a a whole new level and it's not just

customized to fit your style visually or

to look nice but to make your typing

experience feel and sound exactly how

you want funny enough right around this

time I did a little editing work for a

channel called ski with P he did live

streams of building keyboards and as

someone who loves tinkering with

electronics watching him meticulously

build these keyboards made me want to

try it myself but that's where I ran

into some issues as I started looking at

different keycaps and keyboard kits I

was very quick to realize that

at that time it wasn't that easy to just

buy the parts that you needed a lot of

these components you'd find would be a

raffle or they'd be out of stock or

they'd be really expensive or they'd be

in something called a group buy which is

essentially a Kickstarter where someone

would design something like a keycap set

but that order wouldn't go into

production until x amount of people

agreed to place an order and because of

that it could take months or even years

before you ever actually got the thing

you ordered so just as quickly as I

started my keyboard building journey I

ended it but now it's 2024 and there

have been a lot of changes to the

industry to the point where I think it

is easier to get into the mechanical

keyboard building hobby than it ever has

been and that's based on four different

reasons inventory pricing variety of

parts and the amount of helpful

information and just before we start

there is Decades of history behind this

hobby so everything I'll be talking

about is fairly broad there will always

be exceptions that I won't cover in this

video and just to back me up I invited a

few creat that I really respect to help

me explain a little better so like I

mentioned before it is really easy to

give up when you spend hours online

maybe days online researching for that

perfect keycap set or the right color

keyboard kit that you want only to be

met with like a low chance raffle or

really long wait time but some Brands uh

like will just use Vu or even qk being

Cordy keys out laabs stuff like that

they have done more stuff on scale at an

accessible price point uh the other

thing is vendors listening to the demand

of the Hobby and being like okay well we

can now get in stock product because

we've been running a little bit longer

we have a few extra dollars in capital

so we can invest towards that as well so

in today's world you have more of a

chance of researching parts and finding

things that are in stock and able to

ship out immediately cheaper options

that are in stock mean more people are

able to start their building Journey

which in turn creates more popularity

and more competition if you've ever been

searching for keycaps before you may

have seen the letters gmk and that's

because they're a super popular very

high quality very expensive ABS key cap

but as a less expensive option you can

look for something called PBT key caps

they're made out of a different material

and they're generally much cheaper and

there's some people out there who

actually prefer the sound profile or the

durability more than gmk but that's all

subjective but that's kind of the fun

part about this is everything is

subjective some people might like one

thing way better than the other and

that's totally okay and with more

companies creating in stock products you

have the better chance of something not

selling and going on sale in the future

so maybe that premium item you've had

your eye on will be on sale for a more

affordable price I've jumped on more

sales than I like to admit from places

like space cables drop kinetic Labs I

actually just used the novel Keys New

Year's sale and bought five pairs of key

caps for like a little over $200 there

are gmk sets that are $200 by themselves

so companies like Omni type had a lot of

of success with products like this the b

2 line which sold for over $500 and

there were super limited quantities but

through the success of this they started

working on this the Omni type power

light which is about a fifth of the

price and available in stock our b 2 run

we only we had 500 units

available and we had 8,000 people sign

up for our raffle form we couldn't make

them fast enough for the people that

wanted them well then the goal is to

make this lower cost injection molded

board as close to the experience of that

$500 board as possible um with the

constraints that it presents that was my

goal and I think in my opinion very

biased but I think I came pretty close

like I think it's pretty

close when you have it built and your

typing un it as far as sounds and

feel it's pretty comparable to

something that cost four or five times

more this is actually the first keyboard

that I've ever built from start to

finish correctly I lubed all the

switches I lubed all the stabilizers all

thanks to Alex's videos and Not only was

it really fun but the process of

building the keyboard made it that much

more special to me since I did every

single part by

myself and with a variety of Parts out

there the actual task of putting the

keyboard together is far less daunting

than it ever used to be the power light

came with a handy little build guide

with step-by-step instructions hot swap

pcbs are usually only about an extra $10

and they eliminate the need of having to

learn how to solder and most switches

now are Factory lubed and sound pretty

great out of the box and while I highly

suggest hand lubing your switches for

the best experience if you value your

time more than your money you can grab

something like these kinetic Labs Moon

V2 linear switches which are hand lubed

with krytox 205 grade Z and they feel

fantastic with zero effort

needed or maybe you finished this whole

video started researching some parts but

putting everything together still feels

very daunting and you just want a nice

keyboard a lot of keyboards have been

releasing as fully built kits where you

don't need to get your keycaps and

switches separately personally I think

this is a great thing as a ton of people

can get into the hob

for a lot cheaper and without having to

worry about group buys and worrying

about picking out Parts basically like

the entry way or the entryway drug and I

think going this route is a great idea

because you immediately get a keyboard

that works well straight out of the box

if you're going the pre-built route

there's probably going to be a couple

sacrifices you make but there are so

many great options at different price

points that sound really solid right

away this warier sk71 is under $100 and

sounds like this straight out of the

box but maybe after a little while you

want to change things up maybe you want

a new set of keycaps or you want to

switch the style of your switches maybe

you want to try tactiles or you want to

try linear there are so many different

small parts and mods you can do to your

keyboard to gradually make it fit

exactly how you want and even when you

think your keyboard's totally complete

there's also a ton of accessories you

can do to complement it custom cables

there's a ton of different desk mats you

can get some Artisan key Caps or you can

even get a macroad like this one from

Treasure which brings me to my next

Point available helpful information I

think it's not just a case

of things are now in stock and

affordable like switches key caps

keyboard kits pre-built kits even I

think it's also that there is so much

more information about what you should

buy and why you should buy it that makes

it so much more user friendly like you

don't have to go down some rabbit hole

of a page that was made in 2006 and has

four responses to find what you need in

the keep you looking to get the amount

of information on the internet now

versus say 10 years ago is just

exponentially higher there are so many

great YouTube channels Discord servers

websites build guides that have so much

information for you to look for and have

so many people who are willing to help

you try and find what works best for you

I've learned so much from so many

different creat creators online and each

person I've talked to just seems

genuinely happy to see more people

getting into the hobby there's creators

like alexotos and tea types who both

post some great videos on some of the

most premium keyboard builds you'll ever

see and they also both have some of the

best guides to lubing stabilizers and

switches I've personally used both of

them there's hippot Tech who focuses on

a ton of great budget keyboard options

and different ways that you can make

those keyboards sound and feel better

daily setup Tech has some great videos

one specifically where he made a

keyboard that Marquez actually used for

a while and it was under $100 there's

also people like random Frank P or bad

seed Tech that focus a little more on

gaming oriented mechanical keyboards and

then there's glares who actually visited

the studio pretty recently to make a

frisbee keyboard video and after having

a long conversation with him during his

visit that's what inspired me to make

this video and I even started a small

YouTube channel for keyboards um

Elemento key is now a channel where

we'll be posting just sound tests of

different keyboards we're working on and

I'll be streaming there from time to

time so yeah if you've ever been even

slightly interested in building your own

keyboard whether it's for gaming whether

it's for work whether it's just cuz you

think building things is fun I highly

encourage you to go check out some of

the creators I mentioned before and just

dive in if you had one tip for somebody

who was looking to get into to building

their first mechanical keyboard what is

the like the best piece of advice you

can give to them I think okay this this

might maybe apply for every hobby is

don't rush for end game like there is

absolutely no reason to rush enjoy the

process of the hobby like any hobby

right enjoy that process more than just

chasing that end goal but I mean if

that's your thing you want to chase an

end goal do you but I think enjoying the

process is way more important than

chasing that uh final keyboard that's

going to end the entire Journey for you

you know thanks so much for watching

please consider subscribing for more

awesome content from other people at the

MKBHD Studio and because every good

keyboard video Needs Some solid typing

sound tests here's a little Montage of a

couple of the boards I have in my

collection

is