Here’s the shortest description possible for this project: I went through a lot of effort to mod my keyboard so that I wouldn’t have to see red switches showing through my resin keycaps. 🥴 And my takeaway is that, although I really enjoy the end result, I don’t think I’m going to make a hobby out of modding keyboards. 😂 I do wonder if my opinion would be different if I hadn’t ended up unsoldering the switches multiple times..
My biggest mistake was that I got so excited about successfully unsoldering all of the red switches, I immediately began soldering in the lavender switches – without putting the stabilizers in first. This meant that I had to unsolder all of those new switches so that I could remove the metal plate, to then attach the stabilizers. 🥲
After removing the newly installed lavender switches, I decided on a new plan for this project. Originally I was going to skip lubing the switches and stabilizers, mainly because I figured that I wouldn’t be able to appreciate the difference (having never used custom switches before). But after two rounds of clumsy desolderings and some almost-destroyed contacts, I knew this keyboard wouldn’t be able to handle another mod. So it was at this point that I decided to go all out on the customization, and ordered the supplies I needed to properly prepare the switches for installation.
Parts:
- Ducky X Akko Taro Purple TKL from NewEgg (no longer available)
- Lavender Linear Switches from Cannon Keys
- Asceny Plate Mount Stabilizers
- Astrolokeys by Sailorhg and Cassidoo
- 2x3x4 White Square LED Diode Lights (3V 20mA)
- Mini Lubing Station Set from Amazon (I feel really guilty about ordering through here, but I was so frustrated after the multiple desolderings that I caved and went for speed over ethics..)
And finally, here’s the video that showed me it was possible to mod/unsolder an Akko keyboard, and inspired me to finally start this project (but instead of using a fancy desoldering gun like they have, I used a solder sucker like this one 🥲):
