So I am apparently the 100millonth person to build a GMK67? new keyboard build trying it out.

[atarione]

So curiosity finally got the best of me and so I went on Aliexpress and ordered parts for this keyboard.

I bough a GMK67 (no switches or caps.. hotswap with south facing LEDs) $30 and Outemu Silent Lemon V2 switches (about $19) and a set of PBT doubleshot keycaps also $19~.
Took a minute to get this built at first 3~ keys wouldn't work (switch pins got bent) fixed that and everything is working now.. I kinda like it, it is quiet and feels pretty good.. different than my Filco for sure need a few days with it to see what I like / don't... The hotswap keyboard kits have been peeking my curiosity for awhile so figured might as well give it ago.. for $66~ it seems like a pretty good little board.

 

[psy81]

So curiosity finally got the best of me and so I went on Aliexpress and ordered parts for this keyboard.

I bough a GMK67 (no switches or caps.. hotswap with south facing LEDs) $30 and Outemu Silent Lemon V2 switches (about $19) and a set of PBT doubleshot keycaps also $19~.
Took a minute to get this built at first 3~ keys wouldn't work (switch pins got bent) fixed that and everything is working now.. I kinda like it, it is quiet and feels pretty good.. different than my Filco for sure need a few days with it to see what I like / don't... The hotswap keyboard kits have been peeking my curiosity for awhile so figured might as well give it ago.. for $66~ it seems like a pretty good little board.

View attachment 594727View attachment 594730

GMK67 is pretty cheap so its hard to beat that price but for a little more you could have bought a KBD67 Lite which is much better sounding keyboard with the right switches. The rabbit hole is deep my friend. During the pandemic I bought 6 mechanical keyboards, 11 sets of switches, 4 different types of lube, lube station, brushes, switch film, keycaps, 5 different sets of stabilizers, etc... I had to stop myself from going further but still tempted at times. In the end I rotate my keyboards but my favourite is the KBD Tiger 80 Lite and QK65 which are both entry level mechanical keyboards.

 

[atarione]

GMK67 is pretty cheap so its hard to beat that price but for a little more you could have bought a KBD67 Lite which is much better sounding keyboard with the right switches. The rabbit hole is deep my friend. During the pandemic I bought 6 mechanical keyboards, 11 sets of switches, 4 different types of lube, lube station, brushes, switch film, keycaps, 5 different sets of stabilizers, etc... I had to stop myself from going further but still tempted at times. In the end I rotate my keyboards but my favourite is the KBD Tiger 80 Lite and QK65 which are both entry level mechanical keyboards.

Well yeah it does seem to be that messing about with keyboards is an excellent way to take up a lot of time and money.... Fair enough on the KBD67 but when I looked it seems like it is $109 for the base (no keycaps / switches) if it was instock as it appears not to be and it would have been about $80~ more than the Gmk67 I bought (which is more than my entire build which came out to $66 total shipped).

I watched many video of various awesome looking keyboards only to find they were some group buy that sold out a year ago and apparently will never be available ever again... Which is somewhat off putting to be honest.

I think if I do anything else it will be to find a pretty nice Hotswap TKL ... I have stumbled upon the MONOKEI Standard which is on sale for $99 w/ silent reds .. however shipping is then $47... which probably isn't totally unreasonable for a hotswap bt gasket mount TKL board (plastic case) .... but shipping being another 50% is rather annoying.

I probably will just wait and see if I absolutely fall in love with the 67 format or if I miss the TKL 80% more .. I also kinda like the idea of finding a 2nd hand filco (for cheap) and then mod it w/ millmax sockets? I would mod my existing filco but if i kill this one after using it daily for over 8yrs I would be very sad indeed.

 

[psy81]

Well yeah it does seem to be that messing about with keyboards is an excellent way to take up a lot of time and money.... Fair enough on the KBD67 but when I looked it seems like it is $109 for the base (no keycaps / switches) if it was instock as it appears not to be and it would have been about $80~ more than the Gmk67 I bought (which is more than my entire build which came out to $66 total shipped).

I watched many video of various awesome looking keyboards only to find they were some group buy that sold out a year ago and apparently will never be available ever again... Which is somewhat off putting to be honest.

I think if I do anything else it will be to find a pretty nice Hotswap TKL ... I have stumbled upon the MONOKEI Standard which is on sale for $99 w/ silent reds .. however shipping is then $47... which probably isn't totally unreasonable for a hotswap bt gasket mount TKL board (plastic case) .... but shipping be another 50% is rather annoying.

I probably will just wait and see if I absolutely fall in love with the 67 format or if I miss the TKL 80% more .. I also kinda like the idea of finding a 2nd hand filco (for cheap) and then mod it w/ millmax sockets? I would mod my existing filco but if i kill this one after using it daily for over 8yrs I would be very sad indeed.

Agreed, group buys are annoying and high shipping costs are another factor to consider. I waited 1.5 years just for keycaps on a group buy and won't be doing that again. Some keyboards are pre-order so the wait times are much shorter than group buys. It is nice though to have a multiple custom mechanical keyboards that I can rotate and play around with but I've actually took a step back from the hobby as I can't justify paying that much for a keyboard and keyboard parts anymore. These days you can find some entry level boards under $200 (no keycaps or switches) that sound and feel just as good as an expensive high end premium board that go for $500+ but yeah its more money.

Right now if I didn't already have keyboards and had a budget of $300, I would consider the Zoom75 which is on batch 3 pre-order arriving late 2023.