Best products from r/MechanicalKeyboardsUK

That iron isnt going to win any awards, but it will probably be enough to get the job done, I personally use a TS100 these days because I can power it off my LiPo Flight battery's in the field as well as off a laptop power brick. I still have my Weller station but it's seen decades of abuse by my dad before he gave it me, so i only use it when I'm at home with lots of big solder joints to do.

Get a decent tip cleaner those sponges are worthless and will cool the iron.[1]


Make sure your solder has good quality Flux core OR or you can buy some better solder / buy flux seperatly

I personally use this but you can get stuff cheaper

I can't stress this enough, If you have never soldered before, practice tinning wires/ soldering through hole connectors until your solder joints look neat and shiny and you feel happy, buying a couple of led's headers and protoboard will save you the pain of ruining your shiny new PCB kit.
Adafruit has some nice images to help compare good/bad solder.

[1] - added comment about sponges

If you do not want a Type-S, I would just order straight from Amazon.co.jp: https://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/offer-listing/B000EXZ0VC/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&condition=new

They are out of stock at the moment, but I would still guess it would be the quickest to arrive. They ship with DHL and mine was in my hands less than 48hrs after purchase!

A few things to be sure of:

• Click the globe that says JP in the right of the top bar, then there is an English option
  
• Make sure the order is fulfilled Amazon.co.jp seller - the one with the Amazon logo (this is second on my seller list at the moment)
  
• You need a different account to Amazon.co.uk/.com, so you will need to create one on .co.jp. There should be an option for international address, and if step one worked it should be in English
  
• Amazon will charge you for customs up front for the real price, this means no hold ups at the border
  
  Link to the white one (ships immediately): https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B000F1HWFU/ref=psdc_2151977051_t2_B008GXT6SK
  

If you were happy with razer switches then I'd lower your requirements to literally just any mechanical keyboard with whatever brand switches as you're gonna get the same experience.

The thing with prebuilt keyboards, is all the boards aimed at gamers made by Corsair, Razer etc are all WAY overpriced and the quality isn't exactly reflective of what you pay. You can get an identical quality experience from much cheaper prebuilts by the likes of Magicforce and Motospeed, or even just any random brand mechanical keyboard you can find on Amazon by Redragon, Aukey, HCMan etc. All these brands are basically offering the same board just with different logos on them. All generic but still very much usable mechanical keyboards.

There's a reason why even the cheap mechanical boards get good reviews on Amazon. It's because the vast majority of people will notice no discernible difference between a 25 quid mech and a 125 quid mech.

You can get this Motospeed CK108 if you want a fullsize board, with blue switches, metal plate and RGB for 57 quid. That keyboard would be identical in feel and quality to a Corsair board honestly.

Again, this HCman TKL board if you want TKL size. Only 27 quid and again with blue switches, metal plate and RGB. Or the same board with a black metal plate.


Also if you want to order from China to get more options (and a bit cheaper price), what about this Motospeed CK61 with Kailh Box Whites if you fancy a 60% board? I wouldn't change caps as those are probably the older box whites that will stretch caps, but the stock caps will last on them so long as they aren't taking on and off a lot of times. I did actually game on a CK61 for a while. The box whites are seriously satisfying gaming switches. They are clickbar clicky but they are so smooth for stock switches. They also did a CK62 with Bluetooth, but never tried that one. That one doesn't have Kailh Box switches.

You could get the Asceny One for $50 and then spend your remaining $30 on these keycaps. Not all white, but a really nice look, then save up for a cheap custom cable or some artisans.

Hope this helps

Unicomp Model M?

Leopold FC980m (1800 layout)?

G80-3000?

You'd probably have a few more options if you went TKL + Numpad. Also these are all pre-builts, there are a few fullsize kits, but you are looking at a lot more money though if you went down that route.

Thinking about it, Varmilo have pretty good customer support, you might be able to contact them directly and see if they have or will do you an MX blue VA109Mac.

Alternatively you could buy a VA 109Mac, buy the blue switches, and mod it yourself or pay someone else to mod it.

ooh this does look interesting (except RGB, but i hope i can disable it?) A couple of questions though if I may:

1. What's a decent price for this? Amazon has it for £126 is that what one would expect to pay for this?
   
2. How much are the replacement switches/caps? What i've googled it seems like at around £50?
   
3. By "making a custom" not sure what you mean. Does it mean that i'll have to map all the keys in some software?
   
   Thanks!

It seems to be a knock-off board, so wouldn't have much traction. Based on pricing, I'd assume its really low quality and probably not worth your money.

What you could get is a magicforce 68 which is a budget board recognized by the community for being a great bang for your buck.

You won't find many keyboards that size with RGB so cheap that aren't gonna either feel horrible or break pretty soon, so do consider putting some more money aside and getting something a little nicer. Corsair make some great budget mechanical keyboards that look pretty similar to this board, at about £70-80.

Don't know if you have sorted this yet and only just joined the UK page, but I went for this one the other week and highly recommend it. I got it from Overclockers UK, they don't seem to have the TKL one in stock on their site currently but have it available via their amazon store here. You can use the dropdown to choose the stealth version in TKL. I went the slim version so only 13mm thick but does the job perfectly for me.

Have you loooked at ReDragon Devarajas ? Cheap,great build quality,great doubleshot keycaps,brown switches from Outemu,replacable.
https://www.amazon.com/Redragon-K556-Mechanical-Keyboard-Aluminum/dp/B01NAI2TXC


I had it for some time,but went with a 75% one for fun and stopped using the bigger one. Was hard fore to sell it even tho I kept it in a box for over 5 months,because when I took it out to clean it I remembered how great it was. 10/10 would buy again if I needed a budget ,100% board .

You could start by getting this keyboard tester. I used it to see what keys l like but it's also a great wee fidgeting toy.

A bit over your budget, but I have this one, and I love it:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/HyperX-HX-KB1BL1-UK-A2-Mechanical-Keyboard/dp/B01NCZQ46W/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1542489574&sr=8-5&keywords=hyperx%2Bkeyboard&th=1

There are pudding key cap sets which are in ISO, but they are just lacking the uk £ symbol etc. It has all the necessary iso keys though.

For cheap iso keycaps, I would look at the tai hao website and all the shine-through pbt keycaps they have there. Make sure the set has the ‘8 key iso’ keys or find one which is iso compatible. Websites like overclockers uk have these tai hao keycap sets in stock.

Many thanks for the reply - my example keyset is not quite the aesthetic I'm after and also a bit over-budget (there's always the danger of customs rounding up close to £100ish) - in theory I'm doing this to get the keyboard I want rather than going down the rabbit hole that this making keyboards seems to be is... (that's what I'm telling myself anyway)

My plan so far...

• KBD75 from KBD Fans - this seems the better option over the XD84, folks seem to prefer the firmware
  
• But maybe the plate from KP Republic https://kprepublic.com/products/d84-eepw84-stainless-steel-mechanical-keyboard-plate-support-stainless-steel-plate-for-eepw84-xd84-pcb-75 - it seems to have the cutouts that enable switch top removal, that are missing from the KBD version? Hopefully it's compatible.
  
• Switches TBC - I'm using Cherry browns at the moment (in a Drevo Calibur) which I'm happy with but have ordered Cherry and Gateron samplers so will decide when I get them.
  
• Keycaps - yours is closer to what I'm after, I may go for this version https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07PHQFHJ8/ and live with the few wrong keys for now
  
• DIY case
  
  Feel free to critique/suggest since I also do not know what I'm doing...

Thanks. Is that this one?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00MRK233I/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_K3ODCb7JVZGWG

Got this for mine :)

The set YMD sells is supposed to have ISO support:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MXVNMVD/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_QJ6FDbSAGJC4Q

£25 cheap enough? Full-size for £30, too.

If you don't insist on ISO, then you have a few more options at lower price points (e.g. this one for £19 or this one for £20). I'd recommend learning ANSI layouts as it takes only a bit of practice and allows you to use many many more keyboards).

You do know that they make cables that do exactly that, right?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/AmazonBasics-USB-Type-C-Micro-B-Cable/dp/B01LONQ7R6

You could plug one end of this into the GMMK, then the other end into your Macbook. It's all "clean." The cable that comes with the GMMK isn't hardwired into it.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M2VO1XL/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1