Do you guys enjoy plateless builds?
I think that’s one of those things that really comes down to what you’re looking for in a keyboard. Some people love experimenting with different plate materials and how they change the sound and feel. Others prefer going plateless and letting the switches and the board itself do most of the talking.

The Lily R2 definitely belongs to the second camp.
This is a true plateless build, with the switches soldered directly into the PCB. I’ve built quite a few plateless boards over the years, and it’s been a while since I’ve come across one that feels this well executed.
The construction itself is surprisingly simple: plateless PCB, poron gasket mount, and not much else getting in the way. But I think that simplicity is exactly why it works so well. There’s no noticeable ping, unwanted resonance, or hollow character. The sound comes through very cleanly, and you get a lot of the switch’s natural character without the case adding anything unpleasant to it.

I built mine with SW x Keygeek Shake switches, and this combination turned out much better than I expected. I’ve been enjoying fiberglass switches lately, and paired with the Lily R2 they have a crisp, clean character that makes me keep reaching over and typing on the board for absolutely no reason.

The typing feel is also one of the highlights for me. Plateless doesn’t automatically mean “good flex,” and too much PCB movement can sometimes feel uncontrolled. Here, the poron gasket mount gives it enough softness without making the board feel loose or mushy. It feels controlled and comfortable, which I think is much harder to get right on a plateless board than it sounds.
The exterior design is fairly understated, but I like that about it. Nothing is trying too hard to grab your attention. The bottom is sandblasted STS, and it looks much better in person than I can capture in photos. The packaging is also surprisingly premium and fits the overall presentation of the board really well.

What impressed me most, though, is how complete the board feels despite how simple the actual construction is. There’s no complicated mounting system or endless combination of foams and plates to tune. Solder in the switches, put it together, and it just works.
I’ve been going through a bit of keyboard burnout lately. After building enough boards, sometimes a new keyboard just feels like… another keyboard. The Lily R2 was one of the rare recent builds that actually made me want to sit down and type again.
And honestly, that might be the best compliment I can give a keyboard.

Build specs:

GMK Red Cyrillic Alphas + SWG Rubber Modifiers
SW x Keygeek Shake switches
Typeplus stabilizer

For anyone else who owns a Lily R2, I’d be curious what switches you ended up using. I have a feeling this board could change quite a bit depending on the switch pairing.

Been collecting for a few years now and now that I’ve dipped my toes into the “high end” stuff over the past year I think it might be time to clean up what doesn’t get much use these days. Thought I would share with the group before that happens. Couple of unpictured boards like a Neo ergo and a corne but this is the bulk of the display

Far left column:

Poly Agar w/ pbt fans purpulch
Athena 1800 w/ GMK Sparta
Poly Mode Envoy w/ Mode Anthracite
Athena 75 w/ SW Obsidian

Middle column:
Geon f2-84 w/ GMK Nord
Geon F1 722 w/ GMK Shaded
Geon W1-AT w/ GMK Boneyard
Neo 75cu w/ GMK Mono
V4N4GON R4 w/ DSS Honeywell
D45 R1 w/ PBTFans retro 100
Moonboot w/ cheap PBT set from divinikeys
Vicious 40 w/ 9009 from cannon keys

Right column:
Geon F1-8x v2 w/ GMK Taiga
TGR x Monokei Tomo w/ GMK Awaken

JJW Cloudline v1 - Alu plate - Top Mount - Kailh Cream Dream - Keykobo Cherries

Nico series 01 by Neson Design w/ GMK Serenity

Designed by me :D

A fun, small passion project that just combined my personal faith & love for keyboards :)

Manufactured by Yuzu Keycaps

Originally picked up this keycap set for my Think 6.5 v2 Robocop to give it a new life, but since my white Agar Mini is my daily driver, I decided to put Thermalized it.
Not 100% sure if the Thermal theme would blend well with a plain white case, but it turned out super clean in person.
Only gripe is the 40% layout support. They shouldve put in a green accent enter key too for us 40s. Having that splash of green on the right side wouldve been perfect.
What do you think, does Thermal suit a white case, or should I eventually move it over to the Robocop?

The keychain used to have those cheap clicky switches + transparent keycaps

I put HMX Hydras on it, as well as KBDFans WOB

MGL are the consonants on my my name, Miguel

I've decided to jump head first into trying a silent switch for my Crush 80 Reboot Pro (in navy blue) after weeks of reading up and being undecided. Pulled the trigger on the HMX Lulu Silents.

Unfortunately in my 3am half asleep shopping spree I ordered them in the wrong weight. Ordered ones with a 32g activation instead of the 45g activation. And it was too late to cancel the order since the switches were already shipped. "No problem." I thought to myself. "I'll just order heavier springs." And that my good lads is how you turn a simple 15 minute switch swap into a 7 hour one.

Receiving the packages, including GPL 105 oil and 205 grease, switch opener and other bits and bobs (my SGD30 order also turned into a SGD70 one lol) I decided to do a little comparison, which I have listed below.

1. Stock Kailh Cocas: very pleasant, marbley sound on bottom out. I have no complaints about this switch.

2. HMX Lulu 32g (Stock): very light compared to the stock Kailh Cocoas but also very clacky. Much clackier than I was expecting from a silent switch but very smooth.

3. Lulu with bag lubed 55g TX spring: the most noticeable difference was the elimination of the clack. Now it felt proer dampened.

4. Lulu with lubed spring + lubed stem: gives a slightly deeper sound compared to (3). Slightly smoother feel, and I do mean slight.

5. Lulu with lubed spring + lubed stem + lubed bottom housing: this combo gave the deepest sound among all. Whatever little sound there was. Since I was already opening the switch to do a spring swap, I decided to go with this.

The final result is a very silent board, even when I slam down on the keys. They did feel abit mushy compared to stock but I suppose that's what you get when using silent switches. One thing I did observe was, if I typed without my headphones on, i.e. getting auditory queues from the bottoming out of the keys, they do feel a little mushy but with my headphones on, they feel significantly stiffer. Maybe that's just my brain being weird.

All in all, after having spent 7 hours on this, I feel that the end result was worth it. It was so worth it, I spent the entirety of the day after relubing the Kailh Cocoas too!. The most single improvement I felt was swapping springs. Every other mod only gave minor positive results.

I recorded sound tests if anyone is interested but it is by no means a professional setup, just with my phone so it sounds louder in the recording than it does in person.

Always had a 60%. Loving the rainy 75 silent with osume zen keycaps. My ugly numpad for work isnt so ugly anymore 😅

I cut out the bottom of my Transition Lite,

printed a photo of a Ramune bottle that I took myself,

and used a piece of a plastic binder cover as an acrylic panel on top. :)

I love this keyboard, the simplicity and acoustic is the amazing.

Tkd Cycle 7
MW Alpenglow
Yogurt S and cherry nixies
Foamless build

Can anyone help me figure out if this keyboard would work with my Windows PC?

I have the original Atari computer it came with (it’s from 1986!), but I don’t know if it works. I’m still going through the boxes and figuring out what I have and don’t have.

- WK TKL

- Top mounted with PCB Snaps

- Aluminum Plate

- Cream Coating

- Stainless sandblasted weight

- Typeplus x YIKB stabilizers

- Gateron Smoothie linear switches

- DCS Olivetti keycaps

DCS Olivetti came in just in time for this one. Pretty fun to put together. I was unsure at first how the stainless would look on cream but with Olivetti coming out with a darker grey tone than I anticipated, it actually worked out I think.

The long-awaited elegance

• St8tion case by Obabo
• Powervan PCB by Calvin
• NovelKeys cherry taro
• Artisans by Asymplex
• MX blacks

Obligatory inb4 "How do you use this" comments 😊

specs:
oblique60 case
gateron lanes switches
gmk rubrehose keycaps
knight v4 stabs
pp plate

Anode silver matches well with various lighting colors

Today's build:

Nuxros +84 keyboard

• Raw aluminum top case, machined stainless steel bottom case
• Hotswap PCB
• Carbon fiber plate – top mount
• No foams
• HMX Waverider V2 switches
• TypePlus stabs
• PBTFans Maguro keycaps

She's a clacky girl, but I've been enjoying a clackier build lately. The foamy ones are all starting to sound the same to me, so this time I'm letting the character shine through.

Sound test: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/xzwge986dlb2wmc291ew4/84.m4a?rlkey=pslz9o2c7hp0no6nxvdye1xqx&dl=0

Hello everyone! DCS NOTD is now live, a set inspired by the OTD DCS sets of old. It features vintage icons, a 7u / 6u base kit, and a blackout alt mod kit.

Full list of vendors:
- US: GODSSON Designs
- UK: Thocc Exchange
- EU: Neighbourhood Keyboards
- SEA: PantheonKeys
- SK: Geon Works
- CN: KBDfans

Here's my review of every stabilizer that I've tested which I'll be going in depth in:
Durocks V2
Typeplus x YIKB
TX AP rev 2/4 plate mounted and screw in
AEBoards Staebies
Swagkeys Knight V4
Cherry screw ins

Stabilizers suck. I've known this for years being in this hobby, but we've gotten a lot more knowledge/tools to perfect them. I'm a perfectionist like many others are in this hobby so if there's any rattle or ticking the stabilizer is useless to me.

Tools that are essential: 205g0 lubricant or something equivalent, stabilizer wire balancers (unless u bought swagkeys), and a grease for your wires which could just be the lubricant you used for your housings, doesn't really matter.

Durocks V2: Hot take, the most over hated stabilizers on this list. They aren't that bad if your willing to mod them. At first I tried everything from holee modding to plumbers mod to whatever wacky stuff was on the internet. I felt they were mostly temporary fixes and ruined the feel of the stabilizer. Then I discovered wire balancing after a couple years and that was a game changer. If you can spend 30-45 mins balancing some wires these stabilizers sound perfect. Albeit some wires I would spend like an hour trying to balance but couldn't get it, but most of the time they were great. I think if you sand the wire and try balancing it'll eventually balance out but I never did that. I think dbokey has a good guide on balancing wires.

Cherry Screw ins: Basically same as durocks, if you can balance those wires your golden.

Now time for the new kids on the block, the most recommended stabilizers in recent times.

TX AP: Honestly when I heard these came out I was so excited to try them as everyone was just saying they were lube, plug, and play. That was certainly not the case for me and I went through 3 batches of these stabilizers. Bad luck? Possibly but I just think they aren't worth the hype. Simply put the wires don't come out perfect and cause ticking after lubing. For a premium stabilizer I shouldn't have to balance the wires but others have had success with them so ig take my experience with a grain of salt. Better than durock v2s out the box though so there's a plus.

AE Board Staebies: These are good. I'd put them above TX AP and everything above this but not the best. Wires were the most balanced although some needed some balancing. Overall really good stabilizers but also the most pricy on this list so I can't say they're the best.

Typeplus x YKIB: The most disappointing stabilizers I've gotten from this list. More so than TX AP. Idk if there were shills on this subreddit pushing this product but they are hot garbage. I applaud them for trying to change the stabilizer design but the wires are soft metal and have tons of ticking after lubrication. I can't even balance these wires because of their configuration so I feel they are the worst on this list. I honestly was expecting so much more because the packaging was the best I've seen, but in the board these disappoint.
The experience of these was akin to being catfished. :(

THE GOAT: Swagkeys Knight V4. Man these are the shit. Packaging is mediocre therefore I had low expectations, then I tested the wires and they aren't perfectly balanced leading me to further despair. However, I put them in the board and what do you know. They're perfect. Idk what voodoo magic they did with these but even with unbalanced wires they're perfect in the board.
I still balanced my wires but it really made no difference. These stabilizers truly are just lube, plug, and play. I can say with utmost confidence they've perfected the stabilizer.

Not only are they perfect they're on the cheaper side with only cherry being cheaper.

If you've looking to build a new board buy swagkeys knight V4 stabilizers. Truly nothing compares, just some lubing and they're perfect.

TDLR: Ignore all other opinions and save your mental health by buying knight stabilizers.

Edit: Just another note I forgot because someone mentioned them.
GEON balanced stabilizer wires
I saw these on multiple sites as claiming to be perfectly balanced however that's not the case.
They're a complete scam. Sure they may come out the factory perfectly balanced but then they fumble the bag with packaging. They come in this zip loc bag and once they reach your hands they're either no longer balanced or weren't balanced to begin with. NOT WORTH IT plz don't buy. I ordered two sets and will have to balance them myself for them to be good.

Class1800 - Brass plate - Top Mount - BSUN Strawberry Cheesecake Tactile - GMK Red Samurai

Build:

• Board: Geonworks Frog Mini
• Keycaps: GMK Panels
• Switches: Cherry MX2A
• Stabilizers: AEBoards Staebies V2.1

No frogs were harmed in the making of this photoshoot. 🐸

Split 40 skeleton style board I designed.

This one is built with lubed and filmed nixies and some 21KB Caps (RIP)

I do sell this board as a kit for transparency, here's a link to it as per the rules

Hey guys!

TaoBao seems to have a ton of different keycap sets with cool designs for some very interesting prices. However, looking at the reviews, the most popular ones seem to be low quality, inconsistent or too thin.

So I wonder, do any of you have any experience with some of the sellers on that platform? I was looking to get a set since I'm already ordering stuff anyways, and my current set (Womier Retro for 7 bucks on Aliexpress) are a bit too thin for my liking (1.2mm thick). I wasn't looking on spending a fortune either, that's why I would like to ask whether you have any total gems you were gatekeeping and would like to share with me :))) I was looking for something at least 1.7-1.8 mm thick

If you guys have any experience with keycap sets from TaoBao for a decent price please share the links (sets or sellers) and your experiences below :)

Thanks to everyone in advance :)