Build specs:
- Mode Tempo with copper bottom and copper accent
- Gateron Type R switches
- GMK MTNU 800
- Alpha Keys Teh Tarik Keypora artisan
LotR Lothlorien desk mat from Drop (RIP); one of my last purchases from there. Pity I missed out on the Argonath one :((
Since the discovery of the LesserEvil Space Balls puff snacks, there have been several posts about them as more people find them in their area. Heck, they even just hit mine just a couple months ago after seeing them on here and I was able to finally try them after seeing them here for so long.
I wanted to make this post to let you all know that yes these posts are allowed. Some posts are by people discovering and joining this sub for the first time, then discovering what a jolly bunch of assholes every single one of us are this side of the nuthouse.
There has been some sentiment that I've noticed where some feel that the posts don't belong here or that they're posted too frequently of which I'm totally fine with. This is no different than us quoting the same lines over and over again, the same scenes over and over again, with the same replies over and over again. We post it/quote it/reply it because we love it.
Now, go in the back with Barf and crank up some Jon Bon Jovi, let's live a little.
AND MAY THE SCHWARTZ BE WITH YOUUUUUUUUUUUUU......
​
Fall cannot get here quick enough for my little camping heart. The current heat down here in the South is pretty in'tents....
**DISCLAIMER: Luminkey sent this to me for free and I don't receive any money, kickbacks, or partridges in pear trees for it.**
Built this with Cherry MX2A Oranges and topped with MTNU Susu. Lawd, it sounds good. It has not left my office desk all week since it landed after I built it last weekend.
I've wanted one of these for so long as I love the FRL1800 layout. The plus side is it's HHKB layout with a numpad so it's about to obliterate some office work. This green is GORGEOUS in person.
Happy Topre Tuesday!
EDIT: Also, phone camera, wth is that focus?? You disappoint me.
GMK DMG on the Arcane Arc60 is just pretty much a meme at this point. Because it's just. So. Good. 😭
DISCLAIMER: I received these keycaps for free but I receive no monetary gain, discount/affiliate codes, or partridges in pear trees. All thoughts are my own.
As a child, I grew up bewitched by various sciences anywhere from meteorology to geology. Some of my most favorite pastimes were walking down the dirt road where I lived kicking over rocks, seeing if there was anything new other than the small pieces of compressed red clay, granite, chert and the occasional white marble.
As I got older and got married, I was beside myself to discover my wife had a rockhound uncle that had mining experience. He would go out in search of various types of rocks, not so much someone that is mining for gold and jewels, but someone who mined for the sheer love of reading the geography.
After visiting him the first time, I was in awe. Curio cabinets filled to the brim with rare minerals, unique calcifications, various quartz crystals, geodes, and even some with their own phosphorescence under a UV light and would hold the energy to glow in the dark.
Heck, even our bodies need these minerals to survive; magnesium, carbon, iron, the list goes on. Something connects us to these like they are an extension of our arms, hands, fingers. Insert…metal keycaps.
Metal keycaps have been on the market for quite a while now from uber cheap to uber expensive. I would personally credit Awekeys for bringing them to such height that they are now because of the engineering and putting them in the path of every keyboard hobbyist out there. They are expensive, high quality, but not everyone received them well. The metal stems absolutely obliterate the plastic stems on a switch if you aren’t careful, plus they need a heavy switch spring in order to function well. Not to mention it sounds like you’re typing on a bed of pennies. Some love it, some don’t. I have a set of them and they’re fun.
Enter Meletrix.
I was contacted by Meletrix to test out the MCaps set (shout out to Miga, you rawwwk) and being the curious minded person I am, I wholeheartedly agreed. Plus I have a huge soft spot for Meletrix/Wuque Studios products so I definitely wanted to see what they had up their sleeves for this.
When they arrived, I opened the box to reveal a BEAUTIFUL teal/turquoise case containing the two kits I wanted for the Candy Red set.
The case is thick and protective with a thin paper under the lid including a “Secret Life of Walter Mitty”esque phrase that I adore: Dedicated to every special you, open your own universe and explore the infinite worlds.
Chills.
Under the protective tray is a black plastic/velour type tray containing the keycaps. I will add that I found it hard to get the caps out of the individual spaces as there are no finger hold spaces to pull them out, so take your time and don’t lose your patience. I do wish there was better access though.
COMPARISON TESTING
As I stated earlier, I already had a set of Awekeys Copper Eagle I used whenever they were initially released, but didn’t have them in my regular rotation. I pulled out a cap just to compare and there’s an immediate difference in weight, feel, and engineering at work here.
NOTE: Bear in mind that Awekeys keycaps are fully CNC’d while MCaps are cast aluminum. CNC uses a solid block of metal while casting injects molten metal into a mold, so cast will be lighter in weight and cheaper in cost.
The Awekeys Copper Eagle keycap is just solid metal all the way to the stem and I believe they use a type of clear coating for the metal finishing and protection. However, with MCaps they pressure cast the aluminum, polish, laser engrave the legend, paint the cap (I’m guessing some type of e-coating or enamel, it doesn't feel like anodization), and then they enamel fill in every legend on the keycap by hand; that’s kind of impressive. I can barely get a guitar string through the tuning peg without holding my mouth right.
The legends are clear, sharp, and have that enamel shine that I love. It’s perfectly level with the cap surface so no texture related issues there, it’s just smooth.
Underneath, there’s a major metal keycap improvement; the stem. While Awekeys utilizes metal all the way through as they are CNC’d, MCaps uses an injection molded stem separate from the cap that is then securely bonded within. Now, I don’t know how long the bond will last, only time will tell. But for now it feels great and inserted smoothly on top of the stem without issue onto several test MX switches.
The weight of single Awekeys keycap pushes close to 6 grams, I believe, but the weight of the MCap is around 3 to 4. They are lighter and feel really good to type on, not as metallic and cold. Not to mention you don’t have to put clicky Bic pen springs in your spacebar to make it return.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I will definitely be using these in other boards as I love the quality and feel. It doesn’t feel like I’m destroying my switches either if I want to swap something out. I forced the keycap kit onto my 40% and it worked, but I’m a touch typed and rarely look at legends, so having the wrong legend for the wrong key doesn’t bother me, but it may bother you; go explore your world.
I highly recommend these, they are a HUGE improvement and large leap forward in the metal keycap market. Don’t expect shine through though. Unless you have uranium switches and then you have a whole other mineral problem to worry about…
DISCLAIMER: I received these keycaps for free but I receive no monetary gain, discount/affiliate codes, or partridges in pear trees. All thoughts are my own.
As a child, I grew up bewitched by various sciences anywhere from meteorology to geology. Some of my most favorite pastimes were walking down the dirt road where I lived kicking over rocks, seeing if there was anything new other than the small pieces of compressed red clay, granite, chert and the occasional white marble.
As I got older and got married, I was beside myself to discover my wife had a rockhound uncle that had mining experience. He would go out in search of various types of rocks, not so much someone that is mining for gold and jewels, but someone who mined for the sheer love of reading the geography.
After visiting him the first time, I was in awe. Curio cabinets filled to the brim with rare minerals, unique calcifications, various quartz crystals, geodes, and even some with their own phosphorescence under a UV light and would hold the energy to glow in the dark.
Heck, even our bodies need these minerals to survive; magnesium, carbon, iron, the list goes on. Something connects us to these like they are an extension of our arms, hands, fingers. Insert…metal keycaps.
Metal keycaps have been on the market for quite a while now from uber cheap to uber expensive. I would personally credit Awekeys for bringing them to such height that they are now because of the engineering and putting them in the path of every keyboard hobbyist out there. They are expensive, high quality, but not everyone received them well. The metal stems absolutely obliterate the plastic stems on a switch if you aren’t careful, plus they need a heavy switch spring in order to function well. Not to mention it sounds like you’re typing on a bed of pennies. Some love it, some don’t. I have a set of them and they’re fun.
Enter Meletrix.
I was contacted by Meletrix to test out the MCaps set (shout out to Miga, you rawwwk) and being the curious minded person I am, I wholeheartedly agreed. Plus I have a huge soft spot for Meletrix/Wuque Studios products so I definitely wanted to see what they had up their sleeves for this.
When they arrived, I opened the box to reveal a BEAUTIFUL teal/turquoise case containing the two kits I wanted for the Candy Red set.
The case is thick and protective with a thin paper under the lid including a “Secret Life of Walter Mitty”esque phrase that I adore: Dedicated to every special you, open your own universe and explore the infinite worlds.
Chills.
Under the protective tray is a black plastic/velour type tray containing the keycaps. I will add that I found it hard to get the caps out of the individual spaces as there are no finger hold spaces to pull them out, so take your time and don’t lose your patience. I do wish there was better access though.
As I stated earlier, I already had a set of Awekeys Copper Eagle I used whenever they were initially released, but didn’t have them in my regular rotation. I pulled out a cap just to compare and there’s an immediate difference in weight, feel, and engineering at work here.
NOTE: Bear in mind that Awekeys keycaps are fully CNC’d while MCaps are cast aluminum. CNC uses a solid block of metal while casting injects molten metal into a mold, so cast will be lighter in weight and cheaper in cost.
The Awekeys Copper Eagle keycap is just solid metal all the way to the stem and I believe they use a type of clear coating for the metal finishing and protection. However, with MCaps they pressure cast the aluminum, polish, laser engrave the legend, paint the cap (I’m guessing some type of e-coating or enamel, it doesn't feel like anodization), and then they enamel fill in every legend on the keycap by hand; that’s kind of impressive. I can barely get a guitar string through the tuning peg without holding my mouth right.
The legends are clear, sharp, and have that enamel shine that I love. It’s perfectly level with the cap surface so no texture related issues there, it’s just smooth.
Underneath, there’s a major metal keycap improvement; the stem. While Awekeys utilizes metal all the way through as they are CNC’d, MCaps uses an injection molded stem separate from the cap that is then securely bonded within. Now, I don’t know how long the bond will last, only time will tell. But for now it feels great and inserted smoothly on top of the stem without issue onto several test MX switches.
The weight of single Awekeys keycap pushes close to 6 grams, I believe, but the weight of the MCap is around 3 to 4. They are lighter and feel really good to type on, not as metallic and cold. Not to mention you don’t have to put clicky Bic pen springs in your spacebar to make it return.
I will definitely be using these in other boards as I love the quality and feel. It doesn’t feel like I’m destroying my switches either if I want to swap something out. I forced the keycap kit onto my 40% and it worked, but I’m a touch typed and rarely look at legends, so having the wrong legend for the wrong key doesn’t bother me, but it may bother you; go explore your world.
I highly recommend these, they are a HUGE improvement and large leap forward in the metal keycap market. Don’t expect shine through though. Unless you have uranium switches and then you have a whole other mineral problem to worry about…
The XVX L75 Air low-profile tri-mode keyboard is a pretty good option for low-profile needs in the budget space.
DISCLAIMER: XVX was kind enough to send this out for me to check out and I've enjoyed using it at home for a while. The stock Jerrzi Air low profile switches are light and smooth (they were almost TOO light for me), the RGB is vibrant, and the all aluminum construction gives it stability while also being lightweight.
The only issue I ran into was when I went to plug in my personal USB cable to program it using VIA, there isn't much clearance between the top and the USB port, but no worries, it comes with its own USB cable that eliminates that problem. Just be aware in case you want to use a different cable.
The Luminkey Nova Kine hasn't left my desk in weeks (DISCLAIMER: they did send it out to me a while back to test, but it has gone from test to assimilation into my regular usage. Not sponsored.) Plain and simple. This has been a staple in my daily routine of office work so with the preprogrammed macro keys (which are fully customizable, btw), it hit the ground running doing exactly what I needed it to do.
Topped with GMK DMG from Omnitype with a cute little GameBoy artisan, I roll with those nostalgia vibes since it already looks like some awesome 90s tech brought to the future.
No fuss, no muss, all your base are belong to us.
I had a few minutes before bed last night to play around with some keyboard stuff so I decided to do a mashup of GMK Mitolet and DCX Cyanlet to create a colorway from the past on the Bauer Lite First Edition. NYEH!
UNTIL NEXT TIME.
I lost my dad unexpectedly on June 28th and it's been quite empty without him here. He was woven into so much I did throughout my days through random texts or things we both enjoyed together.
Sometimes I feel like rewinding time just for another hug, another I love you, just another minute to tell him again how much I appreciate everything he was to me. I told him often and I never left his presence without a hug and "I love you". I never said goodbye, it was always "see you later".
So as I look to the sky with a simple reminder of rewinding moments, I'll just simply say "I'll see you later, dad."
Board:
- Keycult 1/60, red mid
- aluminum plate
- GMK Rewind keycaps
- Cherry MX Ergo switches
SA Nuke Data on my new case for the Preonic from FNCTLCO. Dan is such a special guy to work with. His skill with design and CNC work fills the need in my little minimalist design heart.
I wanted to keep the bezels pretty thick with soft, rounded curves plus we added a tiny little "lip" to the front to soften the edge for the wrists and typing comfort. I am SUPER happy with this.
Board:
- OLKB Preonic
- Custom FNCTLCO walnut case
- SP SA Nuke Data keycaps
- Cherry MX2A Nixie switches
(reposted because I forgot the 2nd photo, OOPS!)
SA Nuke Data on my new case for the Preonic from FNCTLCO. Dan is such a special guy to work with. His skill with design and CNC work fills the need in my little minimalist design heart.
I wanted to keep the bezels pretty thick with soft, rounded curves plus we added a tiny little "lip" to the front to soften the edge for the wrists and typing comfort. I am SUPER happy with this.
Board:
- OLKB Preonic
- Custom FNCTLCO walnut case
- SP SA Nuke Data keycaps
- Cherry MX2A Nixie switches
Greetings, Assholes!
On the 28th of June, the great Mel Brooks will be turning 100, so on that day let's flood this sub with well wishes, memories, artwork, and all kinds of stuff to honor the great Mel Brooks!
Thanks for being here and let's make a ruckus!
I see that this lovely sub is fully automodded without human intervention, so I would love to lend a hand to this community to help.
I had to save this one for a "one more before bed" moment; it's the only way to do it justice lol.
