How to--Kevin

 

I have been using a computer for as long as I can remember. Some of my earliest memories included me

playing on my parent's computer until they pried me away. Once the lockdown occurred during my

freshman year, I went back to that lifestyle but this time for work. The majority of my time was spent in

front of a computer typing my notes down for most of my classes instead of writing them by hand. As I

was working to write an essay that was due in an hour as everyone in my house was asleep, I was unable

to focus due to the keyboard being too loud and preventing me from focusing on the topic. When I

brought this up to my brother, he told me about how he picked up a hobby from his friend on building

keyboards. He brought home a Blade60 DZ 60 RGB keyboard that his friend built and let me try it out.

The sound was the opposite of what I currently owned and exactly what I was looking for. A quiet

keyboard that not only sounded smooth but was visually pleasing. After two years and 5 keyboards later, I

am showing the instructions on how to build the first custom keyboard I built if you suffered from a similar

problem.

Tools Needed:

- A Keycap puller

Why? This is needed because if a keycap is put on wrong, it will make pulling the keycap out of the

keyboard significantly easier than using your hand.

- A Switch Puller

Why? A switch puller is absolutely necessary to take out switches efficiently and without the fear of

damaging the switch.

- A Mini screwdriver kit

Why? A mini screwdriver kit will be needed as there are tiny screws we will need to screw into place to

hold the insides of the keyboard to the keyboard’s case.

Items needed to be assembled:

- Bright Pearl Black BLADE60 DZ60RGB V2 case or Lucid Nightmare Purple Case BLADE60

DZ60RGB V2 case

- A brass 60% keyboard plate

- 70 Novelkey Cream Switches

- Cherry Screw In Stabilizers Sets

- A 3 mm bottom foam

- Stealth Keycap Set - Kraken Keycaps

Detailed Step by Step Process

1. Take out the Cherry Screw In Stabilizer Sets

2. Attach the metal bars to each stabilizer by putting the stabilizer housing in one hand and the wire

in the other, have the stabilizer housing endpoint down and the edge with the gap face toward the

wire. The wire should be inserted into the topmost hole and turned 90% until a click is felt setting

the stabilizer housing in place.

3. Repeat this process to the other end and make sure the stabilizers are both facing the correct

direction such as on the left side of the picture.

4. The next step is to install the stabilizers into the PCB by sticking the holes of the stabilizers into

the PCB in groups of four. These holes should be in the spacebar, left shift, right shift, enter, and

backspace. Once these are in the holes, carefully turn the PCB upside down and screw them into

place with the small Phillips head screws. Be careful to not tighten the screws too tightly or they’ll

break.

5. After these are attached, you will put the brass plate on top of the PCB to fit with the stabilizers.

6. Once the brass plate is fitted on top of the keyboard, you will need to put the key switches into

each of the holes in the pc. It’s important to be careful during this step as if a metal piece is bent

while fitting the key switches into the PCB, the switch might not work properly unless bent back

into place. The key switches will have two metal prongs on the underside of each switch. These

metal prongs will need to be pushed into the metal holes in the PCB for each key slot while

remaining on top of the brass plate. There should be an audible click and a snap as each switch

fits into each hole.

7. After fitting the switches into the PCB, you need to put the PCB into the bright pearl black case.

The plug in the top left of the PCB should fit into the hole leading outside of the case and the 5

holes in the PCB should line up with the 5 holes inside the case. Once the holes are lined up, the

5 holes should be screwed into the keyboard case from above the brass using small Phillips head

screws.

8. After the PCB is screwed into the keyboard case, the final step is adding the keycaps to the

switches. Apply each key cap to each switch. There should be an audible click when the key cap

snaps into the switch. Place each keycap on the proper switch of a 60% keyboard similar to the

picture below.

9. Plug in the keyboard to your pc and confirm that every switch works. (If it doesn’t, then use the

keycap puller to take out the keycap, then use the switch puller to remove the switch that isn’t

working and replace it with a new one.)

10. Repeat step 9 until every switch works

11. Enjoy your new smooth-sounding keyboard!