What a find! It’s hard to go wrong with any kind of IBM buckling spring.

I’ve got a kage with NOS blues and a dolphin with SKCL green. Both did cost me a hell of a lot of money, but these 2 boards are sort of the culmination of what I like about custom keyboards and were a couple years in the making from when I had the idea. There was an orange alps board planned but I’m not the biggest fan of tactile switches. That’s why I’ve been looking into topre, as tactile offerings from MX designs aren’t great, and alps are either expensive as hell(brown alps) or have to be paper modded which when I did it really affected the feel of the switches.

Cup rubber seems to be the true end game for tactile switches, so I’ll keep looking for a deal on a realforce.

I’ve been looking for a topre board but I cannot for the life of me justify the crazy price tag for an ANSI realforce. It doesn’t help that I’m steadfast in my “only TKL” layout choice, but I’ve spent way too much money to find out that I just prefer TKL’s. So despite trying a HHKB at a meetup I’ll never own one because of the layout. I know that buying a realforce from Japan is an option, but ISO-style return is just bleh, I’m too used to hitting return with my pinky. Pretty much all of the boards I’ve seen on mercari and yahoo auctions JP are ISO-style return.

It just seems fun to mod something that isn’t a MX platform, and I don’t really open my alps switches unless I have to. But with topre you can just take it all apart and change the sliders and domes and such, so you could really dial in the board to exactly how you want it. Plus the good feeling of oneness with cup rubber crowd is definitely on the rise as more and more custom groupbuy boards have EC support.

I just wish the cost for an ANSI realforce was so high, otherwise topre would probably be my daily. But I know how it entitled it is to complain about prices when I have 2 alps custom keyboards.

On my F77 I put a light coat of 205g0 inside the barrel stabilizer insert and it helps at least a little bit. I wouldn’t go too hard with the coating though.

I have multiple keyboards because one just isn’t enough when there is so much out there. But really it’s more of I want to using something that lines up with my preferences, and since I’m human my preferences change over time. I used to be a vehement clicky hater until I tried alps clickes which are just sublime. It’s fun to customize anything to your liking, and that thing happens to be keyboards for me.

The process of finding a really cool keyboard project and planning out a whole build is still fun after the 5 years I’ve been into mech keyboards. And there is no shortage of cool keyboards projects even if the hobby has slowed down from the COVID boom.

For the Zoom TKL I know it isn’t compatible with standard h87 pcbs as the USB port is in the center of the board. The h87nu might work but I’m not sure if it would physically conform to the case dimensions. Plus you would need the daughter-board for the 87nu which also might not have a spot in the case. Best case would be to ask in their discord and see if someone knows or can do a test fit.

Or just wait for round 2 of the Zoom TKL, Wuque usually comes out with more PCBs on product updates like with the ikki68.

What a great find! I love those keycaps, reminds me a lot of the keycaps on old Fujitsu keyboards that were also ridiculously thick. Even the brown color of the caps is really similar.

Stuff like this makes me want to start looking for old keyboards again, but I sold off all my vintage boards to slim down my collection into a few custom tkls, most of which use alps switches. I just don’t have any justification to hoard vintage keyboards anymore when my custom boards hit both the modern look and amazing vintage feel.

I’ve tried both and while there are some differences between the two. But both follow the same formula for a strong tactile MX switch. Just gotta lube + film them, and they’re fine switches. It’s worth reading the ThereminGoat reviews on both if you’re set on only these 2 switches. But both Drop and Glorious have acted like total scumbags multiple times before so I’m not too keen on giving either one my money.

Drop has had issues with previous batches being pre-lubed inconsistently. I remember that they said that they were going to stop having them pre-lubed, and new batches were still coming out with the same bad lube job from the factory. They also had a dispute with Input Club over the original Halo switch.

Glorious has stolen keycap designs, and also attempted to trademark the name “Holy Panda.”

Boba u4t’s are a well-reviewed alternative to both and are much cheaper than the Drop pandas, and are available in most regions. Plus the housings are super tight so you don’t even have to film them.

My only experience with them is trying them out at meetups. The switches feel super nice to use though, they felt about medium weight and were incredibly smooth, even when stock. Honestly the feel gives those price-gouged “premium” pre-lubed switches a run for their money. Although there are a couple downsides, mainly the limited spring selection for spring swaps and as far as I know your only choice of plate is a steel one.

Lack of choice is a downside if you are looking to go a more custom route, but if you aren’t then it’s one of the best stock keyboards I’ve tried out!